Post 2: Modern"ism"

            The “isms” in art history started at the end of the 19^th to beginning of the 20^th century when at that point in time everyone was looking for change in some way, shape or form. Women in particular wanted change for themselves such as recognition for their work as artists and eventually later in the 20^th century women won the right to vote. With that freedom they received, more women artists surfaced. These changes also influenced the movements that started to appear one after the other such as, “impressionism, postimpressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dada-ism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, etc." In the Guerrilla Girls book they wrote, "Put them together and what do we get? “Modernism.”(GG59). These movements basically created an abstraction in paintings and sculptures that tried to push the limits through vivid color and often think applications of paint but were still bound to formal developments of postimpressionism. For example, in Gabriele Munter’s Portrait of Marianna von Werefkin portrays “the simplification of the figure into blocks of color, the pyramidal form, and the replacement of the modeling by a heavy black outline" (Chadwick256). Women at that time were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms and distort forms in order to express effect and to use unnatural and arbitrary colors. Munter was still influence from historical art such as Bavarian glass paintings and folk art. 

Gabriele Munter Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin 1909

            Women drove these movements forward by using their previous “jobs” such as weaving and creating textiles to further the approaches to art. They used these pieces of work from the past as guides to create these decorative arts and turn them into their modern day art. Some were recognized for it while other women such as Sonia Delaunay was still trapped in the shadow of her husband, Robert Delaunay. Her and her husband together developed a theory of color that they named simultanism but as always the man got the credit for it. She created “simultaneous fabric, clothing, furniture, environments, and even cars”(GG60). She even wind up transforming their home into the art form itself; she was one of the women who helped ease the movement and use primary color as an expressive medium. 

Sonia Delauncy, costume for Cleopatre, 1918

Women in England, such as her used these kinds of techniques to influence the developments of modernism and the movements of abstraction forward. This was a push towards abstract formal language called the “decoration” of content. Sonia wind up opening her own boutique that included designs on rugs, tapestries, costumes, sets for operas, films, etc. This interest that she created in dynamics of surface design helped influence these movements. Art pieces such as those became basically a decorative style for people and became attractive quickly. In Women, Art, and Society by Whitney Chadwick, she said “Modernity is both linked to the desire for the new fashion expresses so well, and culturally tied to the development of a new visual language for the twentieth century- abstraction” (Chadwick 253). This shows how women used these new freedoms they had in order to aid their ideas of art and presenting it in a different form than the norm, different from what the men were doing at the time. 

Sonia Delaunay Simultaneous Contrasts 1912

Varvara Stepanova Designs for Sports Clothing, 1923

            Believe it or not these new approaches that women were taking helped the progression of mechanization and mechanical reproduction with the industry and media because as they created this abstract art to put on these textiles and rugs etc, there were machines in factories starting to create these things. And from there more talented women kept the movement going. Anni Albers was one who was determined to become a modern artist along with Gunta Stoltzl while each of them made Bauhaus history. Albers “was producing tapestries with the intricacy of paintings and industrial fabrics famous for their structural characteristics, like light reflection and sound absorption. They advanced the Bauhaus idea that form follows function.” (GG68).  Women at this time were starting the idea of fashion designing with the beginning of the creation of these structurally made fabrics included with their artistic ability influenced by the “isms”.

These women artists and many more helped to create something that people still are influenced by today, fashion. The fashion and material world has expanded tremendously and it started with these women just from getting the freedom and recognition that they deserved from their hard work. The boutiques and even the Omega Workshop that Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant started plays a tremendous part on our modern world and fashion today.  Modernism didn't only influence art though, it also impacted other aspects of life like war, technology, church, architecture, etc. Today, we still see those abstract paintings and patterns on tons of things such as clothing, rugs, carpets, tapestries etc.Their techniques and design of craft created these new approaches to art that men weren’t doing at the time that made them appealing and interesting and these isms continue to have an affect on designs by art today. And even today there is a link between art and design in European Exhibitions as said in the Sydney Morning Herald (link above) and even though this idea and movement has been around for centuries there is still controversy about it. It also describes how in Europe theres still plenty of art exhibitions that express the modern and abstract designs. 

A.D.S. Donaldson's carpet pays homage to Mary Webb, an abstract artist. Photo: Richard Stringer, Brisbane. Courtesy the artist and David Pestorius Projects, Brisbane

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/a-bit-close-to-home-when-modernism-entered-the-material-world-20160223-gn10wf.html#ixzz43ejpsWSO 
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Work Cited:

Chadwick, Whitney. 2012. Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson
Guerrilla Girls. 1998. The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. NewYork, NY: Penguin Books