02/10 THE ORIGINS OF MODERNISM

1. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY BACKGROUND

2. Speaker: Helen Bowman

MMU Student Support Officer

3. Summary Writing 2

RECAPS
Who we are & our venue Times & Protocols Sign in and lateness

STYLE Impressionism
Abst. Expressionism

ARTIST 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Salvador Dali

Leonardo da Vinci

Cubism Brit Art Renaissance

Lord Leighton

Packs, Handouts, Tutorials Annotating your Handouts Get a Box and a File
Unit 3 Schedule, 5 Maxims, CT Rules & Modernism types Three websites for you

Jackson Pollock

Damien Hirst

Classical Trad Surrealism

Pablo Picasso

Claude Monet

A STEPPING STONE TO MODERNISM

1500 1800 1900 2000

IDEALISM The Classical Tradition

REALISM Impressionism

MODERN ART Many styles

CHANGING WORLD - CHANGING ART

Before modern times, society and its art changed quite slowly Most people kept to the rules and were quite satisfied with this

From around 1800 the Industrial Revolution changed all this Everything became uncertain, as in life so in art

THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGE

CHANGES
SCIENCE RULES INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION NEW WORKING PATTERNS URBAN GROWTH MIDDLE CLASS POWER SOCIAL MOBILITY

EFFECTS
It explains the world (religion used to), making world-changing inventions New materials and mass production change every aspect of peoples lives People become slaves of the machine, working all hours in mills and factories Communities migrate to cities that grow without housing, sanitation, etc Factory owners and managers take power from the upper class aristocracy The railway revolution allows travel, new horizons and new experiences

THE EFFECTS ON THE ART WORLD

USE THE SAME METHODS EXAMINE OUR WORLD OLD WAYS ARE DEAD - FIND NEW METHODS A NEW REALITY - ART MUST REFLECT THIS LIFE A NEW LIFE - SHOW THIS NEW, UGLY WORLD IN ART NEW BUYERS, NEW TASTE WANT NEW SUBJECTS SEE THE WORLD - A NEW VARIETY OF SUBJECTS

Images of Change
1

3 6

CHAIN REACTION 1-7

These changes are felt in the centre of the art world, Paris.

The turmoil that is the French Revolution (1789) pushes them even further extreme times and feelings So it is here that the modern approach to art emerges This happened very quickly as a sort of chain reaction that is set out here

1. Propaganda
1800: the Classical Tradition is used by politicians to get over their message: its power and prestige is exploited by the Revolutionaries and then by Napoleon (1805)

Thus the French lose their trust in establishment art of the Salon (it lies) and look for an alternative art that they can believe in

2. The Art Market

1805: the palaces are opened up to all - the first galleries This reveals a huge public interest in art - and this creates the art press, critics and galleries - our modern world The print industry fuels this new craze with print copies and print shops Across Europe, art is bought and sold as never before - and this market makes the artist free.how?

3. Young Art Rebels

This is one choice: 1820s: a young generation of artists emerge who are determined to make art more modern Free from commissions, patrons and art rules, they do their own thing (and try to sell it in the art market) Gericault (& Delacroix) set this pattern by using topics that shock the Salon and the public, and by adopting the romantic rebel pose

4. Genre: a Popular Modern Art

This is the other way: 1830s: many artists see that you could exploit this new scene to become very successful and rich They soothe the new buying public by making art soft realistic but safe, moral and sentimental (soft realism) This is genre, available to all in print - popular and making many artists very rich

5. The Avant-Garde
1840s: by now most young art rebels scorn the soft option and looked for tough, realistic subjects to reflect their modern age

They mostly took their lead from science - recording the harsh new world of cities industry and poverty They organized into small groups when faced with popular scorn against their ugly art - so art now had avant garde groups

6. Realism
1850s: this new modern art (and writing) is christened Realism; be of your time It has endless groupings, all trying different ways to capture our new modern life Despite the publics disdain, Realism is influential: it is the first of our modern crossover styles from theatre to novels and to philosophy Also called Positivism and Materialism, Realism affects all areas of design and art too.

Realism: Nature analysed to inspire Design (Crossover)

7. Impressionism
1860s: one group of realists were determined to take these experiments even further They used the discoveries of optical science to show how our eyes really see the world This involved evolving a new style (not new subjects) Its look was so different that it seemed insulting in 1874: a mere impression said critics.

THE DIFFERENCE OF IMPRESSIONISM

Thus Impressionism is the most extreme version of Realism Harmless looking today, this version of Realism was the one that had the most effect on later styles (and Modern Art) From the 1860s to the1880s, Impressionism became more and more experimental in its methods - and so it is the style that makes it so important

Extreme ?
However the public couldnt take seriously these small and unfinished pictures Worse, their subjects seemed ugly and hard to make out These mere sketches must be a joke of some kind..
But look how these little pictures seem to break all the rules of the Classical Tradition

Experimental Methods?

Many Impressionists were more interested in their method than their subjects They followed science and recorded, on the spot, unmodified sense impressions They made quick, unimproved and un-beautified records of what they saw This produced a flat pattern of dabs or pixels that mixed in your eye (optical mix) Like snapshots, their compositions seem unplanned and odd (see next) But this looked fresh and honest - and achieved a greater realism and honesty

Gallery

Keywords for Impressionism

Asymmetrical Visual brushstrokes Flattened space Optical mixing Cropping Unmixed colours Modern life Portable Aerial perspective (only) Snapshot

Influential
Its the new look of Impressionism, the flat mosaic of bright colours and loose un-disguised brushstrokes, that dazzled and then inspired the next generations of artists But these artists, from 1880 to 1910, used the elements of Impressionism for many different (post-impressionist) effects and styles These are what we now see as the start of modern art.

Some Post-Impressionist Styles

Identify the elements taken further from Impressionism
STYLE Pointillism 1880s Post-Impressionism 1880s Fauvism 1890s ARTIST 1 Seurat 2 Van Gogh 3 Matisse STYLE ELEMENT DEVELOPED Brushstrokes into dots, applying scientific theories Big brushstrokes, bright colour taken further for emotional impact Unreal colour exaggerated to suggest emotional states

Expressionism 1900s
Cubism 1910

4 Heckel
5 Picasso

The unfinished effects exploited to make personal and honest

The examination of how we see taken onto a conceptual approach

Five post-impressionist examples

3

Crossover Images 1900

Architecture, posters, products, typography illustration, craftwork, photography and film - this urge to experiment with style crossed over into all areas of design: luckily you do not have to research this topic for your VRF assignment

FINALLY
Where to see? Try Valette in the City Art Gallery (along with genre)
Next: Cubism, your first assignment style (VRF) Register - have you signed in ? Due in soon - Summary Writing - 6 paragraphs