Modernism Essay Easyread

7/31/2019 Modernism Essay Easyread

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Focusing on specic examples, describe the way that Modernist art & design was aresponse to the forces of modernity?

The changes in life were drastic during the time of modernity. This started around 1750 when

people started to ock to the big cities. Industrialization began, which was the transition from ruralfarm life to mass factories. The invention of trains and the telephone meant that people could

become connected. Life began to work in a more ordered and structured manner, but this alsocaused life to become much more stressful. The 1850s brought a new Paris with the introductionof the Hausmanisation, getting rid of the old city and replacing it with a new improved version.Modernism released us from the constraints of everything that had gone before with a euphoricsense of freedom. (Arthur Erickson). As a response to this monumental movement, there wasobviously an equally big reection in the art and design that falls under the category ofmodernism. Industrialization was seen by many as a way to give everybody an equal chanceand pushing things forward. It was a real transition from old to new and is arguably the era withthe most impact on the world as we see it today. Baudelaire wrote, By modernity, I mean the

ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and theimmutable. (Baudelaire, 1863, Page 13). He recognized that to make signicant, potentiallytimeless art, it was necessary to start from the present. Early in the 20th century, design was seento be an important part of the mechanism that would transform society and help to build a utopia.Industrialization was seen as creating the context in which liberty for all could be realized.(Newark, 2002, Page 42)

Focusing more on the Hausmanisation period, you can begin to see where some of the moreobvious changes took place. A new Paris was created as the old architecture was ripped out and

re-designed by a man called Georges-Eugene Haussmann. As a form of social control, largeboulevards were created in favor of narrow streets, which made them much easier to police. Theintroduction of this new city gave us Paris as we know it today with the long, wide boulevards,shops and cafes which created a much more urban scenario, inuencing the local peopleseveryday life. This again proved to have an effect on the art being produced at this time and also along time after this.

In response to this was one of the biggest changes in modernist art. As Newark says, Likeeverything in the broader culture, design is shaped by forces that pull and push it into new forms.(Newark, 2002, Page 34). Before this, many artists would paint mythical scenes of ction andfantasy but a change began to show in a current trend. The city started to become a subject for

art as more and more artists started to paint their experience of being there. It is clear that theincreased density of population started to bring an equal increase in loneliness throughout Parisas well as other major cities. We have all heard of the phrase Lost in the big city. People beginto feel less individual and this also brought a change in fashion, making it become a key way ofidentifying yourself when amongst the public, which has turned out to become even more so in the21st century.As Frederick Engels said Condensation of population is unhealthful and unaesthetic, and leads toan increase in social conicts over resources and space (Engels, 1845). This is reected in someof the art that painters were creating around this time that contained images of people looking overthe city, showing their physical experience of being there. Later, paintings were created showingthe publics miserable expressions and lonely lifestyle. One of the more famous paintings from

around this time was Labsinthe by Edgar Degas, 1876 (g.1). This demonstrates a woman in abar looking miserable, drowning her sorrows and loneliness of life in the big city by drinkingabsinthe. This suggests that life living in the city isnt all that its cracked up to be, which is whatmany people thought at that time.

Sam Lane, Level 4, BAGD


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In a way the invention of the camera, which happened around the same time, made it moredifcult for painters to make a living from just using real life scenes as their subject. The camerawas a faster, more accurate way of documenting this and therefore made this style of paintingobsolete. Painters tried to nd new, more inventive ways of painting that are out of the ordinary,which started a whole new wave of art all together.

Other changes happening at this time, both in Paris and other major European cities such asLondon proved to be a productive inspiration for both artists and writers. For example, theinvention of the Kaiserpanorama in 1883, which is one of the most interesting changes in theentertainment side of modernist life. The Kaiserpanorama was a large circular structure, with seatsaround it where you could pay to view images of nice scenery and landmarks across the worldinstead of visiting them in real life. This in my eyes has got to be the start of a world run bytechnology. Just the fact that people were willing to pay to look at these places rather than visitthem in real life shows that technology was beginning to become a fetish; a barrier between usand the world. This appears to be even more so in this present day and age with the saddening

truth that we now spend a large proportion of our lives sat alone soaking in information from theInternet or TV.

The Paris Exposition in 1855 was a retaliation of Paris trying to strive to become the better city.This was after The Great Exhibition in London in 1851. The Paris Exposition was an artexhibition that appeared to surpass any previous exhibitions, putting Paris at the Top of the rankfor the most superior modern city. This was a big achievement at the time for Paris, remaining atthe top was probably their biggest concern. It was important to stay one step ahead all the time.It is precisely the openness, the interpenetrability, and the exchangeability of modernrepresentations that make them modern, not their particular formal or iconological characteristics.

Or even the values that underlie them. (Bretell, 1999, Page 217)

Looking at modernism subjectively makes it easier to notice the changes and experience whatthe people were going through at this time. A whole new world was created with the evolution of

technology. This helps us better our knowledge of the effects showing through into the art world.Modernism is a direct effect of the artists and designers subjective responses to the forces of Mo-dernity.

From the crowded boulevards and cafes of Paris, a peculiarly ironic and detached view of life wasemerging, based on the sense of dandyist display seeming rather than being

disposable and rapidly changing style, eeting social encounters, Impersonal transaction. It foundits painter in Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) (Hughes, 2003, Page 283). Henri de Toulouse-Lautrecwas a French painter and illustrator creating work in Paris at the same time as theHausmanisation period. He was drawn to Paris because of the bohemian lifestyle and forbeing the haunt of artists and spent most of his short life here. He is most known for his strikingposter design and it was said that Toulouse-Lautrec captured the spirit of Paris around this time.He painted the beauty of the popular cabaret show of Montmartre, Moulin Rouge and seemed tofocus on the theatrical side of vibrant Paris, not so much on the depression. (g. 2). In many waysToulouse-Lautrec was a connoisseur of low-life, and this representation of the famous Parisiandance hall and beer garden can be seen as a work made in direct aesthetic decent from the earlierpaintings of degas. (Bretell, 1999, Page 89)

Another artist who was part of the same style and movement as Toulouse-Lautrec was JulesCheret. He was trained in Lithography in London in the 1850s and 60s and this is where hepicked up the strong inuence in British poster design, which he carried into Paris. The careers of



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other modern artists such as Toulous-Lautrec, Bonnard, Mucha and others would be inconceivablewithout Lithography (Brettel, 1999, Page 76). Cheret would paint elegant, free-spirited women ofthat time, helping to put Paris on the map for the more decadent movement.

Cherets poster designs are a brilliant source to look at due to the obvious elements of graphicdesign that he includes within his work. Whether this was purely due to his British inuences or

not, it is quite obvious that the art world was changing into something new; pushing the boundariesof what art used to be and creating a new genre. In Exposition Universelle, Le Pays des Fees (g3) we are introduced to a new style of hand-rendered decadent type which for me automaticallymakes this a piece of graphic design. When looking at the way the type is presented in this piece,the bold colours and the illustration of a giant woman looking over the cityscape, I can clearly seehow the colours and passion of the modernist movement have had great impact on the city and

therefore inuenced this design. As Charles Baudelaire once said, To say the word Romanticismis to say modern art - that is, intimacy, spirituality, color, aspiration towards the innite, expressedby every means available to the arts. (Baudelaire). This brings me to the conclusion that Cheret

was looking at the world in a different way which is what modernism is all about; the rise of a newkind of a visibility, the passion and commitment to push the boundaries of the art world and seekout modernism as a lifestyle.

In conclusion, it is apparent that modernity had a massive cultural and social change on the world.The term modern is not neutral. It suggests to improve something and that is what the wholemovement was trying to do, from the haussmanisation of Paris through to the descendant period,Modernism was the range of art that sprang from modernity . It either forced or inuenced andencouraged artists and designers to try new forms of art and we wouldnt be where we are today ifit wasnt for modernism.

Bibliography

What is Graphic Design? // Quentin Newark // Rotovision // 2002

Modern Art 1851-1951 // Richard R. Bretell // Oxford University Press // 1999

The Shock Of The New // Robert Hughes // Thames & Hudson // 1991

History Of Modern Design // David Reizman // Laurence King Publishing // 2003

Graphic Design : A New History // Stephen Elkinson // Laurence King Publishing // 2007

Painter Of Modern Life // Charles Baudelaire // Phaiden Press // 1863

Graphic Design As Communication // Malcolm Barnard // Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9w7QltqGHT0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Malcolm+Barnard%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GLodT92ZIdPT4QSQ2r3BDQ&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=inau-thor%3A%22Malcolm%20Barnard%22&f=false

Quote // The Great Towns // Frederick Engels // 1845 // [Online] Available at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/ch04.htm [accessed 20th April 2012]

Quote // Charles Baudelaire // [Online] Available at: http://quote.robertgenn.com/auth_search.



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Quote // Charles Baudelaire // [Online] Available at: http://quote.robertgenn.com/auth_search.php?authid=106 [accessed 23rd April 2012]

Quote // Arthur Erickson // [Online] Available at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/modernism.html [accessed 23rd April 2012]

Henri Toulouse Lautrec // http://www.questia.com/library/art-and-architecture/artists/henri-de-tou-louse-lautrec.jsp // Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning // 2012

Henri Toulouse Lautrec // http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/toulouse_lautrec_henri_de.jsp // Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning // 2012

Haussmanisation As Anti-Modernity // Journal Of Urban History http://juh.sagepub.com/con-tent/27/6/723.extract // SAGE Publications // 2001

Haussmanisation // Fact Monster // http://www.factmonster.com/dictionary/brewers/haussmanniza-tion.html // Pearcing Edication Publishing // 2000 2012


g.1 Labsythne Ed-gar Degas, 1872

g 2 At The MoulinRouge: The Dance Hen-ri de Toulousee-Lautrec,1890.

Fig 3 - ExpositionUniverselle. Le Paysdes Fes, 1989, JulesCheret, 1896.

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Modernism Essay Easyread