Modernism/Postmodernism

     Modernism started in the early 20th century to show the experiences and values of modern industrial life. The modernist movement was driven by social and political agendas, and the movement was associated with the visions of human life and society. Modernism's main goal was to overthrow the conventions and customs of the past artists and how they used to do things. It was based on the concept of history, where art builds upon itself and becomes progressively better as time goes by. Modernism emphasized on the innovation of the artwork and being the first to doing something. They also emphasized on the universe and the essentials of what is important. They structured their art with the concept of high versus low art, which means that the highest art is paintings and that all male artists are intelligent, while all other art mediums and classes are lesser than painting and male artists. Modernism’s core concepts are that art is an intellectual activity for only the elites and that the distinctions in the arts should be clear and conclusive. The Modernism artists hope with optimism for the future.
     During the modernism movement, there were many other movements like abstraction and dadaism. Sonia Delaunay was from the abstraction movement, where it shows the visual language that comes from decorative art textiles. She uses primary colors as her medium like in “Prisms Isotiques, 1914”. Delaunay was interested in the complexion of surface design, so she usually worked with textiles and embroidery. Dadaism was another movement during modernism. According to theartstory.org, Dadaism was an artist and literary movement that mocked materialistic and nationalistic attitudes. A female artist that was part of the dadaism movement was Hannah Hoch. She was one of the first artists to incorporate newspaper and magazines into her artwork like in her artwork “Cut with the Kitchen Through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic, 1919”. Another female artist that was in the modernist movement was Suzanne Valadon. She shows the “natural womanhood” where the female body is not a surface that is isolated and controlled by the male gaze. In her painting, “The Blue Room, 1923”, she emphasizes the awkward gestures of women and how she is in control of her movements.
 

Sonia Delaunay, Prisms Isotiques, 1914

Hannah Hoch, Cut with the Kitchen Through
the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic, 1919

Suzanne Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923

     During the modernist art movement, women’s artwork was constantly being compared to the male’s artwork. Male’s artwork was always seen as better compared to women’s just because it was done by a man. In male’s artwork, they perceived women as weak and inferior to men. For example, “Modern artists from Renoir (‘I paint with my prick’) to Picasso (‘Painting, that is actual lovemaking’) having collaborated with male sexual energy, presenting women as powerless and sexually subjugated” (Chadwick, 279). Renoir and Picasso showed the male gaze and how men treated women as objects. Society treated women as if they are only useful for men’s needs and that they are subordinate to men, which was presented in male artist’s works. Their society did not accept women artists as they do now. Frida Kahlo said, “The world just loves women artists who are sad and dead” (Guerilla Girls’, 79). It shows how society did not like seeing female artists being successful and happy. They wanted them to be miserable and suffer while being inferior to male artists.
     A common art that was done by men was female nudes. “The subject of the nude in art brings together discourses of representation, morality, and female sexuality, but the persistent presentation of the nude female body as a site of male viewing pleasure, a commodified image of exchange, and a fetishized defense against the fear if castration has left little place for explorations of female subjectivity, knowledge, and experience” (Chadwick, 280-281). The female nudes that were a part of the artwork by men degraded a women’s worth and how women were represented. The nude artwork by men would represent the male gaze and how a woman was used to please men. The women that were part of the modernist art movement changed the perception of the female nude to empower women instead of degrading them. Women artists started to have artworks with themselves or other women nude to show how nudes did not have to be sexualized like in Paula Modersohn-Becker painting “Mother and Child Lying Nude, 1907”. Her representation of a nude woman was not sexualizing the female body. It is a pure artwork that shows the relationship between a mother and child. The nude artworks by the women were not to please men, but to empower themselves and other women. The women artists changed that perception of women being weak and inferior to men through their artwork, all they wanted was to be equal to men.

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Mother and Child Lying Nude, 1907

     The term “postmodernism” was first used in 1970 to embrace that there were many different ways of making art. Postmodernism’s main goal was to overthrow the modernist movement. Postmodernism emphasizes pluralism, which is when there are many perspectives and opinions coexisting at the same time, and also on diversity and contradiction. Their structure of art are all art forms and they believe that anyone can make art and art could be made out of anything. Postmodernism's core concepts are that art is playful, ironic, experimental, expressive, and intellectual. Their core concept is also that art is for everyone and that art can change lives. In the future, postmodernism artists are uncertain about what is going to happen next. Cindy Sherman is a popular postmodernism artist that is known for her “Untitled” series. Sherman‘s photography captures the instability of gender and the challenge of female sexuality. She exposes the “real” woman behind the image that society portrays in the media and films.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1979

     Women wanting to be equal to men helped created feminism. Women who were modernists and postmodernist were very vocal about how they felt and expressed it in their artworks. “Feminist artists in many countries shared similar concerns, and feminism developed as an international movement, with local socio-economic and ideological factors shaping its expression in different ways” (Chadwick, 356). Feminism spread throughout the countries as women realized that they were inferior to men. Feminist artists helped shaped feminism by creating artwork that pushed on society’s limits and boundaries of how women should be like. They changed society’s perspective on women and women artists. “It is also important to bear in mind the fact that, although recent critical debates within the mainstream have often focused on deconstructive art practices, many women artists continue their commitment to political activism and to evolving images, materials, and processes that address concerns central to women’s experiences and to their personal, sexual and cultural identities” (Chadwick, 380). Women artists made art that was connected to themselves and to their experiences. Their artwork showed their dedication to politics and feminism, and how strongly they felt about them. “Feminist artists challenged the assumptions and conditions of patriarchy using a variety of strategies and political tactics- from political actions demanding equal representation in schools and exhibitions to setting up alternative exhibition sites, and from celebrations of the power and dignity of women’s sexuality and fertility/creatively to analyses of the ways that class, race, and gender structure women’s lives” (Chadwick, 359). Feminist artists not only created art that showed feminism, but they also tried to make changes in the real world. 

Works Cited

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Thames & Hudson, 2012.

“Dada Movement Overview and Key Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/movement-dada.htm.

Girls, Guerrilla. The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.

Tate. “Modernism – Art Term.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/modernism.

Tate. “Postmodernism – Art Term.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism.