What is Modern Art? (1/2)
What is Modern Art? (1/2)
Introduction
Modern art shows off avante-garde, new aesthetics, colors, designs, and celebrates the forward-thinking artists that shaped our society in the 1900's. It was developed over 100 years, which means that MANY art movements and styles are seen in this genre.
To understand what Modern art is, one must understand what genres were put together to compose the overall genre.
History
Modern art is NOT contemporary art. Modern art refers to a specific time period of art genres between 19th and 20th centuries. Artists are showcased during this time period who re-invented, re-imagined, and re-interpreted old aesthetics, and occasionally rejecting old traditions to create new ones.
Movements: Impressionism
Monet is widely considered the catalyst for modern art. Impressionism was a challenge of the rigid technical and realism rules that had previously dominated academic professional painting. In 1872 Monet started blurring brushstrokes, focusing on vivid colors and lights. The painting that kick-started all of it is Impression, Sunrise (below).
Monet, Renoir, and Degas piloted the forefront of this genre of French painting. If you want to hear music that sounds like impressionist paintings, check out Debussy and Ravel. Blurred lines, music written over bar-lines, almost like the undulation of water, it is truly soft and smooth.
Movements: Post-Impressionism
Artistic freedom was introduced to Impressionists, but Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Tolouse-Lautrec becan an even newer unconventional style about two decades after Impressionism. In the 1890's, Post-Impressionism was born as a colorful movement that showcased interest in emotion and subjective interpretation vs more realistic representation. Below is Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night painted as Post Impressionistic.
Movements: Fauvism
Founded by les Fauves, a group of artists specialized in avant-garde art. These artists in clude André Derain and Henri Matisse. Fauvism started in the early 1900's and favored unrealistic colors, new perceptions in their own depictions and featured some recognizable and abstract forms.
Steemians, more to be continued tomorrow. What do you think of this thus far?
Great post. Resteemed.
That distinction between modern and contemporary is very important - good work pointing that out. This may not be the exact beginning of modern art, but it seems to me that everything before Modern did not incorporate exploration into what we now call "art" meaning exploring how art allows the artists to tell a story or explore how to make a thought or opinion apparent through an artistic medium. Artists before this time were usually hired to accurately represent things, mostly royal portraits. I believe it was Goya who first created art where he started to reveal his own opinions about the subjects he was painting. This is just my own thinking about "modern" vs. older art. Modern art as a creative and intellectual representation rather than simply visual realistic representation. Following you now.