Women in Modernism vs. Postmodernism

Women in Modernism Vs. Postmodernism

Tarsila do Amaral, "A Negra", 1923

As history takes its course, art is in constant motion. It is ever changing based on the ideas and issues facing that present-day society. Modernism begins by rejecting the traditional norms of the Victorian era that valued men more than women, like most periods of art history, and valued beauty as exactly as was seen. Traditional art was pretty but predictable. Modernism in the 19th century begins to expand the art world into many categories and beliefs and the main goal in Modernism was to get rid of old conventional ideas to make room for new ones. Some characteristics of modernism include art as being an intellectual concept with a focus on universal ideas and the necessities of life. Modernism leaned more towards the ideas revolving around being optimistic and thinking of the world as a place for opportunities and new progressive thinking. “The emergence of a self-conscious set of practices and characteristics through which the modern in art is understood developed gradually and coincided with the appearance of the first generation of women artists with more or less equal access to artistic training” (Chadwick 279). Below is an example of the new currents that hit modernism in the early 20th century is called “A Negra” by Tarsila do Amaral. Tarsila was a Brazilian painter who brought her culture in other works by discussing racism and sexism through the lens of her multicultural and highly segregated society. “Tarsila do Amaral’s, A Negra, shows a black woman with prominent, exaggerated breasts and lips, seated against an abstract background of earth tones. This is a maternal figure; perhaps it suggests that the African elements of Brazilian culture birthed the modern nation. Whatever it means, the painting plays off old stereotypes of African culture, giving it an earthy and exotic character but presenting this as an essential, positive part of the national identity” (Brown University Library).

Seraphine Louis, L'arbre de vie ("The tree of life"), 1928

Not completely put on the same pedestal as most male artists, but women modernists painters see themselves able to excel in artistic schooling, which leaves men with very little reasoning to exclude women out of the grand art realm. This is a big step to the equality of men and women in not just being objectified as the art, but being able to know the same techniques as their male counterparts allows women to break through the chains of sexism. One female modernist of the 20th Century was Séraphine Louis. “Louis became known for painting tightly woven thickets of vegetation, but in 1932, after the collapse of her market, she had a mental breakdown and was admitted into a psychiatric institution” (National Gallery of Art). Her psyche was an important topic for people discussing her artistic abilities. The hallucinations and perspective she had were clearly unique and allowed her to position light and shadow in her works very profoundly. Her art spoke volumes about her religious views and was also breathtakingly beautiful. Louis painted manic visions of fruit, flowers, and foliage against monochromatic or horizontally divided fields of color realized in oil or Ripolin, a household enamel paint (National Gallery of Art).

This is very interesting to understand how the ways of modernism and the modernist movement influenced her works. She must have had a lot of trouble in her own mind, but to create gorgeous works of nature regardless of the havoc that took over her mind. It really demonstrates the optimistic foundations of the movement. “In later works, figure and ground merge into a dense weave, uniting the entire canvas in a pulsing, twisting rhythm. Records of Louis’s hallucinations and fixation on apocalyptic times, documented during her institutionalization, offer clues to the meaning of her paradisiacal florae and representations of the tree of life” (Nation Gallery of Art). Through all of her struggle, Stephanie Louis was able to notice divine purpose in her world through her time period and the modernist movement.

Carolee Schneemann, "Interior Scroll", 1975

Modernism claimed to be a very “woke” type of art, but in reality, the whole art business was still run by rich white men filling up galleries and not enough female art was being displayed or encouraged. Though Modernism did offer many ways for change, Postmodernism is what really paved the way for new boundaries in the art world by no longer focussing on beauty and perfection, but on reality and the truth of things. The realness of post-modernism is what makes it so appealing. It was nothing like the world has ever seen before. Art was no longer on paper but it was 3D and real right in front of you. Performance pieces and film pieces gained great popularity because of its rawness. Women in Postmodernism expanded art off of canvases and into the bodies and minds of real women. This more than ever rose awareness of the growth of women in the art world and gave women a platform for new expression. The image above is a performance piece named ‘Interior scroll’ Carolee Schneemann, 1975. The piece may shock you at first, but that is exactly what is it meant to do. Schneemann’s work describes the unedited female body while she reads a scroll filled with worked that are slowly taken out of her vagina. This was an attempt for female and all women to claim their body as they please and to reclaim the value of their worth already instilled by men. Most Postmodern works involve women reclaiming their sexuality and giving it new meaning.

Mary Beth Edelson, "Some Living Women Artists/ Last Supper", 1972

Another performance piece was done by Mary Beth Edelson in 1972 called “Some LIving Women Artists/ Last Supper”, brings women out into another medium where men might feel uncomfortable.

With the use of the image of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting as the foundation of this collection of photos, Edelson tampered with the heads of notable female artists in a place where there were once very notable men. Jesus Christ was hidden with a photo of Georgia O'Keeffe. Not only did she challenge the old figures of men from the original painting, but she also confronted the segregation of women often found in religion. The piece quickly became one of those most iconic images of Feminist Art and reinforced the movement's desire to negate women's absence from much historical documentation (Feminist Art; The Art Story). By taking a religious painting from biblical works and putting faces of women, it redefines the meaning of the religious text and also gives power to the faces of these women who might otherwise be forgotten.

Yayoi Kusama, "My Eternal Soul", 2009

Last but not least, postmodernism was more than just redefining old values, but it was also about creating new styles and techniques that have never been showcased before. A prime example of innovative and unique art was Yayoi Kusama. She is one of the most popular contemporary female artists alive in the world today. When she made her mark in the United States through the 1960s her works of hallucinatory art were tough to beat by the abstract dominated world of men. She uses a variety of polka-dots in her works, but she says that one polka dot can only do so much. Many things have to be represented in the paintings for her structure to flow with cosmic energy. Kusama compares her paintings to the flow of the universe and how there is a force that must work with many concepts to create peace in nature.

Works Cited and Links

• Historia do modernismo (informational booklet). São Paulo: Caixa Modernista, EDUSP/Editora UFMG/Imprensa Oficial, 2003.
• https://library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-5/modern-art-week-and-the-rise-of-brazilian-modernism/
• The Guerilla Girls, The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. Penguin Books, 2006.
• Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. Langara College, 2016
• https://www.theartstory.org/movement-feminist-art.htm
• https://www.cnn.com/style/article/yayoi-kusama-artist/index.html