Alice Van Brown's Theory Of Modernism

In Alice Walker’s, Nineteen Fifty-Five, a young white singer, Traynor, acquires song rights from an African American rhythm and blues singer, Gracie Mae. The song makes Traynor rich and famous. Obsessed with finding out the song’s meaning, Traynor remains in contact with Gracie Mae through letters, gifts, and visits. The conflict of the story is in Traynor’s inability to ascertain the meaning of the song. Traynor eventually passes away, without ever resolving the conflict.

For the second art encounter I visited the Museum of Art at BYU and viewed the Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso print exhibit.There were several other modernist artist on display in the exhibit, such as Lichtenstein and Kalloeitz, however Warhol and Picasso were the artist that are most talked about in this course. Both of these artist are considered to be modernist, however their works look very different. Andy Warhol’s iconic Marilyn Monroe print was on display showing the industrial, pop side of modernist art. Warhol’s art imitates the negative social norms of the time. His lowd use of neon color and choice of subject add to the growing popularity of veneration of celebrities. He also was one of the first artist to mass produce his art, adding

Though the start of the modernisation may trace back to the beginning of Industrial Revolution. “Modernism in the design world did not exist in a fully developed form, until well after First World War.” (Wilk, 2006) Causing the great loss of lives and other countless damage to the world, it reshaped many people’s way of thinking the world. With the inspiration of early avant-garde movement, the modernism began to emerge advocating an utopian future and shared certain core principles by various styles of modernists: rejecting the past and applied ornament; forms follow function, a preference for

Marshall Berman’s take on modernity is presented in his book All That Is Solid Melts into Air whereby he focuses on its issues and the cultural attitudes and philosophies towards the modern condition. In doing so he shares his experiences of modernity post WWII in New York in the height of an economic boom and then more specifically of his childhood neighbourhood, the Bronx. In addition to expanded austerity, industrial and architectural development, the end of WWII proved to be a key period in world history and by extension the history of art. A talented group of artists emerged in result that had been influenced by an influx of established European artist who had fled to New York to escape fascist regimes in their homelands. More importantly these artists produced art that was at the heart of maelstrom Berman describes in regards to his experience of modernity. I aim to highlight the correlation between Berman’s experience of modernity and the emergence of a new American modernism. Modernity throughout this period was broken into two different compartments, hermetically sealed off from one another: "modernisation" in economics and politics, "modernism" in art, culture and sensibility. It’s through the lens of this dualism in which we recognise that both Berman and these artists try to make sense of the world around them by making their individual expressions that would re-conceptualise what it is to be modern in the twentieth century.

Art history: a useless pondering over sketches that have little significance to life, at least this is the notion held by many. Delving into art history is a slippery slope that requires more than any one person knows. James F. Cooper and Alan Wallach explore the considerations art historians go through to decipher the relevancy of artworks. However, James F. Cooper’s arguments retro and one-track minded, while Alan Wallach’s arguments on which artworks to pick apart, the methods to attack them, and the reasons people spend so long analyzing a piece of paper are far more relevant to today’s emerging standards.

We first listened to a guest speaker, Professor Peter Kwong from Hunter College, give a memorial speech on former LaGuardia Community College professor Bob Fitch. Professor Fitch wasn't really involved with the arts, but, like anti-war artists, Fitch was concerned with challenging the establishment, in order to remedy and prevent any injustices. Unfortunately, unlike much of the art community, academia often does not readily welcome radical ideas, and, as Professor Kwong explained, Fitch ended up alienating many people, which caused his ideas to not really gain much traction.

Doss, E. (2002, April). Oxford History of Art: Twentieth-Century American Art. Cary, NC, USA: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from ebrary, 289

If today modern American and European art are among the most studied topics in the history of art, it is definitely due to the work and life of Alfred Barr, and his exhibition and catalogue of “Cubism and Abstract Art” 1936. His understanding of modernism shown in the chart that accompanied the exhibition as a visual tool for creating a logical understanding of the transcendence of the movements and their developments which helped to create a pure modernist style. This is probably one of the most significant accomplishment of Barr so far in his life, for creating an understanding for a civilization as he gathered all of his

Throughout the short story “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, the new generation tries to enforce modern standards on Miss Emily and her contemporaries. Despite their best efforts, the older generation remains cemented in traditional values. The older generation faces a slow, tragic, rotting death similar to Miss Emily’s if they continue to adhere to tradition in a modern age.

The definition of sociology is the study of society. Social criticism is blah. Alice walker’s work demonstrates this type criticism very well; from The Color Purple to Everyday Use or any of her earlier short stories. Most of her work demonstrates the struggle of African Americans in society especially women. This makes Alice Walker the epitome of sociological criticism.

The book 19th Century American Art, by Barbara Groseclose, can be understood to hold a place within its historiographic context. The book was written in the year 2000. It would seem from the document that one audience which the book was trying was those who study into history of art. If particular those who are looking into the history of American art.

American Modernism:Graphic Design 1920 - 1960 was written by Roger R. Remington Professor of Design at Rochester Institute of Technology. In his book he discusses the American art Modernist movement during the period between World War I and World War II. He discuss how the movement was inspired by historical event but also analyses the elements of Modernism as an art form. Most importantly how these elements reflect common philosophies of the time. Art is used “to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade and perhaps

I will argue that modernist styles including Cubism, Orphism and Futurism did challenge the practices of traditional representational art. While some may argue that that the fact that modern styles were concerned with subject gives doubt to how challenging they really were to representational art I oppose this idea entirely. All art is representational in some way. Rather than a dismissing the concept of representation in art the modernist styles challenged the validity of the external representation, which had previously been the foundation of art, by focussing on conceptual representation.

Modernism, as an artistic movement, was notoriously explicit about depicting sex. Indeed much of the history of Modernist literature involves censorship and legal embargoes against work which was deemed too obscene to be permitted general availability and Modernist novels ranging from Joyce's Ulysses to Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer would have to overcome legal hurdles before they could be read. The importance of Paris as a center for publication activity cannot be understated here: both James Joyce and Henry Miller were able to have their work published in Paris when no-one in an English-speaking country would take the risk. But this was established before Modernism a generation earlier, Oscar Wilde's play Salomé was written in French, but was banned from being staged in London for its religious (rather than sexual) content. It is worth asking, then, what role was played by explicit sexuality in defining Modernist art and Modernist consciousness. An examination of works by Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, and Djuna Barnes may demonstrate that, to a large extent, the description of sexuality served a two-fold purpose: it helped Modernism define itself against the proprieties of earlier literature, but it also represented an inward turn for art. By emphasizing the interiority of consciousness, Modernist novels were making an implicit turn away from dealing with the outer political turmoil of the decades which produced not only Modernism, but the two World Wars.

A hot topic during this time was discussion of work led by Willard Huntington Wright. Wright believed that, “art had principles of form and organization that could be rationally discussed and that it progressed toward a goal of purity” (p.16, Hills). Wright’s work and analysis was known as being a formalist meaning, “ modern art tends toward the elimination of all those accretions so beloved by the general – literature, drama,