Modernism started in the eighteen-forties. It was a movement in art that changed the perception and deliverance of art. Modernism is described to strive away from traditional art and focus more on new ways of expressing stories in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Women introduced different types of modern art, with unique sense of style. According to artmovement.co.uk, modernism is defined as “deliberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms of expression that distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the late nineteenth and the twentieth century. Modernism refers to this period’s interest in new types of paints and other materials, in expressing feelings and ideas, in creating abstractions and fantasies, rather than representing what is real.”. This tells us that not only men, but women started to create art that expressed emotions, but was something never seen before. Some women artists who represented modernism include Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr, Marie Laurencin, and Frida Kalho. Modernism was seen as a great human vision of what life was, or could be. Modernism is an era of awakening in art.
Women artists in Europe influenced the techniques and development of modern art because modernism was during and after times of war. Chadwick explains, “painting and sculpture developed simultaneously in a number of European capitals during the first decade of this century. 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 profound spiritual content, has been extensively traced.” (Chadwick 252). The roles of women were changing during this time period, and the awakening of women’s rights began. An article called the “Rise of Modernism” on Lumen Learning courses describes modernism as, “In painting, during the 1920s and the 1930s and the Great Depression, modernism is defined by Surrealism, late Cubism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Dada, German Expressionism, and Modernist and masterful color painters like Henri Matisse as well as the abstractions of artists like Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky, which characterized the European art scene.”. Times such as the Great Depression, and World War I, and II, inspired artists through those heartships. Guerilla girls states, “Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and New York-each had its own stereotypical white male artist. So where were the women? As usual, they didn't fit the stereotypes, but they were there, working away. Often they came up with innovations that their husbands got credit for. Sometimes they submitted their careers so as not to outshine the men in their lives.” (Guerilla Girls 59). Guerilla Girls is showing us the truth behind what went on in that era. Women were talented but often dismissed or put to the side by the men in their lives.
A female artist who was apart of modernism, but was not allowed to shine at the time due to men include Sonia Trek Delauncy. Sonia had her first painting showin 1908, and then another one in 1953, because her husband was also a painter. Sonia along with her husband created the term “simultanism” which was a theory of color they developed together but because her husband is a man, he got the credit for it. Sonia not only supported her husband, but took care of their son. In the meantime, she created simultaneous fabrics, clothes, furniture and even cars. Her house became her artwork, her walls, and floors were a testament. After her husband died, she was able to continue painting and opened museums with her own artwork. But Guerrilla Girls states, “She said, ‘I have led three lives: one for Robert, one for my son, and grandsons, a shorter for myself’.”.(Guerilla Girls 61). Sonia led her life creating art in the modernism era, while creating a theory of color, but was not allowed to pay herself much attention because she had to be mother and a wife, and at that time, that is what being a woman had significance for.
According to thearthistory.org, it states that post-modernism was, “Postmodernism is best understood by defining the modernistethos it replaced - that of the avant-garde who were active from 1860s to the 1950s. The various artists in the modern period were driven by a radical and forward thinking approach, ideas of technological positivity, and grand narratives of Western domination and progress. The arrival of Neo-Dadaand Pop artin post-war America marked the beginning of a reaction against this mindset that came to be known as postmodernism. The reaction took on multiple artistic forms for the next four decades, including Conceptual art, Minimalism, Video art, Performance art, Institutional Critique, and Identity Politics.”. My own definition of postmodernism is art that evolution and now has an ethical meaning to it, and not adding a deeper meaning to the art. Modernism and postmodernism are similar, not only because both eras in art seemed to be awakening and something completely different than tradition, but because both eras focused on social and political conversations that needed to had at that time. Postmodernism has a lot of random words, subtle meanings, and bright colors. For example, an artist in the modernism era, was Frida Kalho. She did self portraits, but told a story on stereotypes in women. She used facial hair, and unibrows which are subjects all women avoid, and began to paint them on herself. Modernism was about making a statement with a deep meaning while including a radical idea. Postmodernism includes videos, pictures, words, that have a meaning, but shout it out.
Both modernism and postmodernism had women artists dominating, and soon they were acknowledged for it. But men are usually the ones who are recognized and given the credit. These eras brought great importance because they changed art, and women had a big influence on it. Women artists were showcasing what they went through, along with social injustices that have been going on throughout centuries. By showcasing these important issues in art, it is giving visual representations to make positive change in societies.
The Two Fridas, 1939 by Frida Kahlo
Sonia Delaunay
 Black Iris III, 1926 by Georgia O'Keeffe Emily Carr, Indian Church, 1929
Works Cited:
The Guerrilla Girls' Beside Companion to the History of Western Art. 1998.
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society: Fourth Edition. Thames & Hudson, 2007.
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