Post Two

   

Introduction to Modernism by Sadia Khalid

     Modernism is a period of art history lasting from approximately the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. During this time gender and sexuality were central to a lot of the work being done. In the late 1800s Baudelaire proclaimed that fashion was the focal point of this new art known as modernism. Fashion was complicated and conflicting. To Baudelaire, fashion encompassed the essence of humanity and it was this essence that was present in modern art. An artist must represent fashion in his or her art because fashion is key to humanity and represents it perfectly. (Chadwick, 252-25). Women were not treated with much more respect as artists. Men were still seen as the main breadwinners when it came to artistry. Nonetheless female artists continued to work away and produce art work throughout modernism. Criticism, sexism, patriarchy, and discrimination have been and continue to be major themes in the lives of female artists. (Guerrilla Girls, 59).

Vanessa Bell Cracow 1913

     A female voice that strongly influenced abstraction was that of Vanessa Bell. Bell painted a lot of oil paintings. Cracow, one of her most famous works, was derived from nature. She meshed abstraction and simplicity to create her artwork. It was created with wool and linen, showcasing the ability women have in the world of art. Like most successful female artists, Bell was worn into an upper class family and had a man help her gain some success as an artist. Though she is mostly forgotten by the world, even when she was alive, her work is considered on of the most influential of its time. Textiles had a big impact on her art and was used more often than not, which created a different vision than that of oil paintings. She fused pictorial language with ideas from Post-Impressionism. (Chadwick, 256-258).

Sonia Delaunay Prismes Isotiques 1914

     Dadaism was an art movement was at a point seen as unable to portray the modern world, dull, and materialistic. Sonia Delaunay changed that with her variant and liberal behavior towards her art. She combined art and craft and this combination attracted a new wave of dada artistry. The electric prisms painted in the painting above show how her vision turned her into one of the most influential artists of her time. (Chadwick, 272). Delaunay had her first art exhibit thanks to her husband. They discovered a theory of color, but her ended up taking the credit for the discovery. Once again we see the pattern of a young girl raised by a well off family finding her way to art, a life not possible for those of a lower class. A lot of art encompassed the the ideas connecting art and life. (Guerrilla Girls, 60-61). 

Louise Bourgeois Femme-Maison 1946-47

     Surrealism was a new an usual movement that occurred in the 20th century within art and literature. Its focal point was to express the ideas within the unconscious mind by any means necessary. There was a strong belief in repression and the need to unlock that repression through means of artistic motivation. Louise Bourgeois was strongly influenced by the surrealist movement during the 1900s. By allowing her work to become surrealists she happened across a new technique. She began to draw a lot of figures with the head of a house and the body of a female. These drawings depict how women are defined and how they are silenced. The domestic wife is one of the major ways to describe this type of work. The politics of gender is clearly seen in her work and the way her work is regarded by critics in a negative way. (Chadwick, 324).

Kate Kollwitz Self-Portrait, Hand at the Forehead 1910

     German expressionism is a form of expressionism that originated in Germany during the 1920s. It is associated with a huge peak in creativity before World War I. The female artists of the time were well aware of the gendered differences within the art world. The issue of "women can't paint" was faced head on by artists. The pressure between ideology and sex became very apparent within art made by both men and women. There was a lot on interest placed in the modern urban life. Women in this period did a lot of good work trying to break gender barriers within the art world through expressionism. (Chadwick, 279). Kollwitz was originally a painter, but eventually became a print maker a show of social activism. Most of her painting are all black and white. Due to the challenging circumstances in Europe around the time of World War I, she created art that showed directness and urgency. Kate made a huge impact as a German expressionist artist. She began to simplify her work as her time as an artist went on. She was the first female brought onto the Prussian Academy of Arts. Her work is very dark and suggestive of the major issues that went on during her lifetime. ("German Expressionism," n.d.)

Links:

German Expressionism

http://www.moma.org/collection_ge/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:E:3201|A:AR:E:1&role=1

Surrealism
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm

Works Cited:

Chadwick, W. (2012). Women, Art, and Society (5th ed.). New York, NY: Thames and Hudson.

"German Expressionism." MoMA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Guerrilla Girls (1998). The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York, NY: Penguin Books.