Context of Practise - Modernism

Modern – 1600’s meaning

                -contemporary or as good as the classical works

John Ruskin – 1800’s meaning

                -contemporary, pre Raphaelites

Modern – present meaning

                - up to date

Modern is an important part of what has gone before

Fashion/ consumer culture all rely on what is currently modern

1900 Paris – a city of modernity

After Paris is New York

Competition for being modern

This modernity began 1700’s

Some say modernism ended in 1960’s

We live in post modern era?

Industrialisation, urbanisation, communication, new leisure, vice, electricity, new technology

All caused modernism

All centred in city

caused life to speed up

Modernism

– new way of looking at the world

- gives new perspective

Race/competition for modernism

                England – Great Exhibition 1851

                Paris – Paris Exposition 1855

                And so on every five/ten years or so

‘Process of rationality and reason’

Enlightenment – period in late 18^th century when scientific/ philosophical thinking made leaps and bounds

City begins to develop its own identity

Modernism led to world time for ease of use

e.g. train times

modernism increased loneliness/isolation

fashion became key way of expression

shown in paintings of that time

Haussmanisation

Paris 1850’s – new Paris

Old Paris architecture of narrow streets and random housing bulldozed

Haussman redesigns Paris

Large boulevards in favour of narrow streets – (easier to control people?)

Poor/lower class moved to outskirts of Paris

City centre becomes subject to Modernism, to art

Growth of psychology- last boundary – led to critical thinking of art

Society controls art and view of art not other way around

Fashion becomes a way to show of wealth and importance in society

New art forms and techniques

e.g. pointillism

- pointillism due to studies in optical sciences, of light and colour

Degas Painting

Subject drowns sorrows in free time due to hard life

Photography changes the composition of painting as seen in Degas painting]

The Kaiser panorama 1883

People prepared to pay to see things and places in the Kaiser Panorama rather than going out and seeing it for themselves

Max Nordan 1892 – anti modernist

He begins to think about the subjective experience – the experience of an individual in the modern world

We begin to come close to understanding modern art and modernity

art abandoned realism for expression

Modern design – anti historicism

                - never looks back, always looks forward

                - truth to materials

                - form follows function ( although not always)

                - technology

                - internationalism

Adolf Loos, 1908, Ornament’s Crime essay. ----------Read!

Internationalism

                - language of design that could be understood and recognised on an international basis

Technology

                - new materials

                - mass production

                - cheap materials

Conclusion

Modern is not a neutral term, it suggests novelty and improvement

Modernity (1750 – 1960) – a social and cultural experience

Modernism – a range of ideas and styles due to modernity

Importance of modernism

                - a vocabulary of styles

                - art/design educates

                -idea of form follows function