What is Modernism

CRITICS
Greenberg
Fry
ARTISTS
Rothko
Newman
Pollock
DISCOURSE
Problematic
Contested
Autonomous
Independent
Formal
Multi-valent
Painting
Mediatated
Sculpture
Flat
Essentialist
Medium-specific
Self contained
Dehumanizing
Ambiguous
Uncertain
Paradoxical
Self critical
Juxsatapostioning
Montage
Self sufficient
Rational
Pure
Complex
Broad
Self-conscious
Self-reflective

Duchamp and DaDa is...

Duchamp is…

Scandalous / provocative / ironic / sexual / subversive / alternative / inversion / enigmatic / confrontational / cryptic / diffident / perverse / innovative / problematic / puzzling / revolutionary / scandalous / subversive / questioning /


DaDa is….

Chance / Non-art / negative / anarchic / NOW / nihilistic / disruptive / mocking / oppositional / rejection / agitator / counter-aesthetic / satirical / grotesque / irrational / left-wing / skillless / anti-military / anti-national / anti-colonial / antagonistic / spontaneous / formless / chaos / performative / anti-modernity / HERE

Cracked 20th Century Art – it’s the frame and form!

I’d just completed (15 February, 10:34 ) reading of Frameworks for Modern Art which has helped me understand what is going on in Modern Art. Made me think would I have become interested in Art if I had needed an introduction to Botticelli or Michelangelo in order to understand them? Neither artists' work required (for me ) any mediation at all they stood for what they were /are lovely things to look at and enjoy. Yes, having studied them and their work I know there’s so much more going on nevertheless their paintings stood for themselves no critic, no curator just nice things to look at.

That 'something' was found in the forms - the shapes and colours which creatd the compostions. Both artists used line and colour to great effect.
I was solely concerned within inside the frame, outside came with OU Art History study which helped understand the inside. But the OU’s A216 , AA315 et al were not the basis of my Art appreciation....
Modernist art attacks, condemns the frame questions its usefulness in fact often doesn’t want one at all, see Newman or Stella for example. For the MODERNIST the frame was/is a constraint .For the Renaissance art it was essential it was what defined the window their painting was viewed through – without the frame it lacked a vital support.
BTW….Renaissance frames look great so good Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has designed a great Renaissance framed mirror for MATALAN at great price £90 it looks extraordinary and makes its reflections look great. It’s silver carved wood with shells, scalloping, braiding all the features of a Renaissance Frame.

Clement Greenberg VERSUES Peter Bürger

These two Twentieth Century critics Clement Greenberg and Peter Bürger took what seems to be diametrically opposing views which once you understand their arcane, academic languages and references (I was greatly assisted by Open University Handbooks in my translation), they can be distilled down to the following:

What they stand for…

Capitalism VERSUES Marxism
Bourgeois elite VERSUES proletariat
Art for art’s sake VERSUES Art for the people by the people
Modernism VERSUES Historical Avant-Garde
Cubism, Abstract Expressionism VERSUES Dada, Surrealism, Constructivism
Picasso, Braque, Mondrian VERSUES Rodchenko, Heartfield, Popocva
Picasso’s Glass and Bottle of Suze
VERSUES
Heratfield’s The Meaning of the Hitler Salute


What they said….

Greenberg : The artist is totally autonomous
Bürger : The avant-garde intend the abolition of autonomous art
Greenberg : The artist must be insulated from ideological confusion and violence.
Bürger : Sublation [Reintegartion] of art into the praxis of life
Greenberg : Avoids subject matter like the plague

References
Edwards, S. 2004 AA318 Art of the 20th Century, Study Handbook 2 Art of the Avant-Gardes, Milton Keynes, The Open University
Edwards, S ed 1999 Art and Its Histories A Reader, New Haven and London, Yale Press in association with The Open University
Gaiger, J. & Wood, P. 2003 Art of the Twentieth Century A Reader, New Haven and London, Yale Press in association with The Open University
Wood, P. 2001, Art and Its Histories Study Handbook 4 – The Challenge of the Avant-Garde, Milton Keynes, The Open University

Modern Art - Classical or Romantic ?

Alfred H. Barr MOMA's curator whose 1936 Development of Abstract Art cover for his ground breaking catalog set the scene for Modern Art. In his introduction he described two types of abstract art - GEOMETRICAL and NON-GEOMETRICAL and to each he associated a number of attributes, philosophies and artists. I want to build on what he offerred in these two choices creating logical oppisities based on the Apollinan versus the Dionysian...so here goes

Deities
Apollo Dionysus

Ideas
Intellectual Intuitive
Logical Emotional
Structural Organic
Classical Romantic
Reason Emotion
Harmony Discord
Fact Idea

Philosophers
Descartes Rousseau
Pythagoras Polinius
Descartes Rousseau

Other Ideas
Rectilinear Curvilinear
Line Curve
Architectonic Biomorphic
Structural Decorative
Design Colour

Movements
Cubism Expressionism
Modern Post-Modern
Materialism Idealism

Artists
Cezanne Gauguin
Malevich Kandinsky
Mondrian Miro

English Abstraction
Ben Nicholoson Henry Moore