An Essay Introduction

An Essay                                   July 2006


How has Modernism influenced the way we view art today?  
Refer to exhibitions you have seen this year.

Introduction

The early Twentieth century saw a number of new artistic styles which are loosely grouped under the term ‘Modernism’.  These included styles such as Cubism, Bauhaus and Surrealism.  Modernism has influenced all of our Western culture since the First World War.

Picasso has been quoted as saying, The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web. This philosophy would not have been possible prior to the Modernist period as the traditional salon artist was bound to take his or her inspiration from the past not from their present emotion.

Art, Literature, Design and Music have all been influenced by the philosophies of this era.  The deliberate rejection of the traditional and its formal approach opened the way for the avant-garde of the visual arts to experiment with expressing ideas and feelings through abstractions that allow the audience to take an active role as observer.

In this, the early Twenty First century, it is interesting to contemplate current exhibitions with a view to seeing how this Modernist influence continues.

The progression of these influences can be seen and compared in the exhibition Self Portrait, Renaissance to Contemporary held at the Art Gallery of NSW earlier this year.

While artists like Annibale Carracci who in the 1600s used interesting compositions to engage the audience, his style of application is still traditional.

It is not until viewing the works of Camille Pissarro that one begins to see a trend towards experimentation with brush strokes and his work is also a prelude to the every day subject matter of people going about their work as in his Factory near Pontoise (1873).

The art of the Australian Aboriginal people can be appreciated more now than at any time since European settlement.  This has come about due to the influence of Modernism and the use of new materials.  Without the Modernist view the art of the Aboriginal people could well have stagnated and become merely a record of minority culture.  The Modernist view allowed the story telling and patterns to be appreciated and in turn allowed the appreciation of new materials and colours that are seen in the exhibition, Colour Power.

Kevin Connors exhibition of Sketchbooks, drawings and studies may well have been dismissed as scribbling in an earlier age and yet when viewed after the influence of Modernism, the viewer is allowed to appreciate the intensity of his observations of the contemporary human existence.

The variety of styles undertaken by the entrants in this years Wynne Prize highlights the influence that Modernism has had on our contemporary art community.  Certainly the students exhibiting in Two have been free to express themselves in a variety of styles and mediums.

At first glance the artists contributing to Botanica 2006 might seem to be the exception but on further consideration, even here the influence of Modernism can be seen in the choice of modern materials and composition by artists such as David Mackay and Catherine Wardrop.

The viewer of contemporary art can thank those early Modernist artists for their influence.  Without their experimentation and expressive interpretation of ideas we would be left with a very staid and elitist art community.