Post 2: MODERNISM

                                                          Modernism

Modernism is the response to the social and cultural changes that was occurring during Europe of the 19^th century with the greatest event of the industrial revolution, the introduction of the machine, wealth and mass production, women’s social position have changed drastically compared to the middle ages, at the dawn of the 20^th century women gained more rights in terms of work and academia and no longer completely dependent or confined to maternity, the Guerrilla Girls state “But there was also more opportunity than ever before for a woman to live her life and make art on her own terms.”(59). This change affected every aspect of life, and naturally it transformed the art world and the artist, because prior to this, the artist was either confined to deal with a biblical subject if commissioned by the church or follow the rules and the taste of the patronage, which were mostly wealthy families interested in self-portraits, women artist were acknowledging the male gaze and that was the dominant theme of their work. With the introduction of art as a product, the cultural and social transformations, artists ventured to experiment with ideas outside the traditional boundaries and a new perception was emerging in relation between the artist and the work and in the process new forms of art were introduced during the 19^th and 20^th. Chadwick explains “During these same years, artists in England and France were also abandoning naturalism in favor of stylized abstractions.”(256), abstraction is a composition of colors, geometric designs and shapes in which the depiction or the art work is not necessarily recognizable but the infusion is rather intended to conveys a sense, or portray a political situation as Chadwick points out “its course, inextricably bound up with the formal developments of Post-Impressionism and Cubism, and with a desire to break with nature and infuse the resulting art with a profound spiritual content.”(252) during this period women artist given the better circumstances of the time were at the heart of abstraction both as creators and representatives of the new visual culture, traditional appearance and the woman dress became one of the central issues for debate in the feminists movements in particular and intellectuals in general. The redesign of the old dress into one that is more practical and flexible led to a new realm in fashion design, a marriage between art and craft. Some of the prominent figures of this movement were Margaretha von Brauchitsch, Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Munter, Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Sonia Delaunay. According to Chadwick Delaunay made her “first completely abstract” debut after the birth of her child in 1911, the work was named Couverture it was influenced by Russian peasant design and Cubism.  

                                 

                                               

                                                       Sonia Delaunay    
                                                       Couverture    1911

                                                  

                                       Wassily Kandinsky
                                        First Abstract watercolor    1910

                                   
                                     

After world war 1 with the strong presence of industrialization and materialism the Dada movement assumed popularity in Paris, influenced by the prior movements like Expressionism and Cubism. Dada as explained by the Guerrilla Girls is " an art movement that challenged every convention (except male supremacy) and scandalized bourgeois society"(66) essentially the movement was a reaction and an attack on the nationalistic and materialistic tendencies of the middle class. Artists like Jean Arp and his wife, Sophie Taeber-Arp and Hannah Hoch were pioneers of the movement.

The relative advancement of women rights in terms of employment and education overshadowed the polemic subject of the female body, Chadwick points out "Marginalized in the aesthetic and political debates swirling around modern art movements in the early decades of the twentieth century, many woman turned to the female body as the primary subject of a woman's experience."(282) Suzanne Valadon was deeply interested and experimenting with the nude female body, her work is considered a critique to the pervasive concepts of women as controlled by emotions and biology, it was also an attack on the presentation of the female body as "lush surface isolated and controlled by the male gaze"(Chadwick 285) which distinguished her from contemporaries.

                                               
                                    Suzanne Valadon
                                    Grandmother and Young Girl Stepping into the Bath   1908                    

                               

Valadon's work was characterized by domesticity and community and the figures are wholly absorbed in their own action, also she emphasizes the natural gestures during physical execution.

From the Dada movement came Surrealism, which at the begging attracted many women artist, surrealism was similar to dadaism in that it rejected the middle-class condition and highly influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud on the unconscious,  Chadwick explains"During the 1930's women artist came to surrealism in large numbers, attracted by the movement's anti-academic stance and by its sanctioning of an art in which personal reality dominates"(310), nevertheless given the nature of the movement and the established role for women in it, they eventually withdrew from the new school.

                                      Kay Sage
                                      In The Third Sleep

                                      

                                                   Tarsila Do Amaral
                                                   Anthropophagy     1929

                                     

Modernism transformed the structure, colors and subject of the paintings, it became a window for imagination and a medium to express inner most feelings.




Works Cited:

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Fifth Edition. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.

Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print


Links:

1. This a quick less than ten minutes and light video about the development of Modern Art, however it is mostly invested in male artists.
Summary of Modern Art

2. This video is about women artists contributions to surrealism
Women Artist and Surrealism