Modernism And Modern Art

Introduction Modernism derived from the search for a new form of expression, breaking out of the traditional way of art. Traditional subjects were never the main concern as modern artists create works that reveal more about the aesthetics and concerns of art. As modern artists seek to establish new approaches to their artwork, they often question the way of representation and techniques of traditional art. As modern art develops, it is known to be rebellious by nature as they seek for continual desire to shock along with the desire of originality. But overtime, society accepted how modern art is and their desire of originality and continual shock. Soon, it became mainstream. Modern artists experimented with the expressive use of colors,

One example would be photography as it was another way of interpreting the world for the artists. Modern art is a means of personal expressions but our times brought a change that had artists doing “art for art’s sake”. Artists before the 19th century were often commissioned by wealthy patrons, or institutions like the church to make artworks that depict religious or mythological scenes where as modern artists, they have a more unique expression in depicting what they feel rather than what they see and are told to express. During the 19th century, artists started to create art of subjects that interests them or in which they have a direct experience from. For example, the Romanticism movement lasted from 1800 to 1850 in which was an expression of an aesthetic attitude that includes both cultural and literary subjects. Another example would be the Realism movement in which the artists paint scenes or objects as what they appear in reality giving it a more “realistic” approach. In this essay, I would introduce some movements of the modern art and a few works from artists to show how they would be

Avant-garde was also used to describe modern artists. It was another way of saying that as modern artists, they are always trying something new by pushing boundaries. Some avant-garde artists seek an introverted path by reviewing artistic principles and elements and there are some who -in their work, criticize both the political and social ideologies. For example, the Dada movement, Dada began in 1916 in Zuric, Switzerland and it was considered to be an artistic and literary movement. It rose as a reaction to the belief that the causes of World War I are ‘reason’ and ‘logic’. The movement itself was influenced from previous movements such as Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism and Expressionism. Dada was the opposite of what art stood for. The Dadaists rejected traditional culture and aesthetics hoping to destroy it. The Dadaist’s interests are solely in rebelling against what they saw as cultural snobbery and political support for the war. In his Dada Manifesto of 1918, Tristian Tzara is said to have invented the word Dada. It was known that Dadaism’s output ranged from performance art, to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting and collage. Some artist examples would be Hugo Ball and his readings of sound-poems and Hans Arp using abstract compositions by chance, which were expressive. Dada artists also analyzed form and movement by