Kazimir Malevich As A Modernist

In Abstract Expressionism - a certain construction of the world we call “individuality” is revealed in its true, that is to say, contingent, vulgarity. And so is painting; or rather, so are paintings like Hofmann’s “The Garden” and Adolph Gottlieb’s “Black, Blue Red” - done as they were under the sign or spell of such a construction, by “individuals” believing utterly (innocently, idiotically) in its power.

Paul Cézanne is often called the first modernist painter, and in his essay, “Cézanne and the Unity of Modern Art” Clement Greenberg, identifies Cézanne as the “most abundant generator of ideas and the most enduring in newness”(Greenberg,83). This, coming from one of the most influential art critics of the twentieth century, is not to be taken lightly. Cézanne was extremely influential to the modernist painters of the early twentieth, including Pablo Picasso and George Braque in their development of Cubism (Orfila,3). At the beginning of his career, Cézanne painted in the impressionist style that was common for the avant guard painters of the time, but he was disinterested in capturing the “transitory

The transition between the 19th and 20th century has brought further development of modernistic ideas, concepts and techniques in art. Inspired by Cezanne’s idea, saying that all nature objects can be illustrated with just three geometrical figures: cube, sphere and cone, Pablo Picasso created his first paintings, which became the icons of modern art and cubism movement in

This essay analyses the aesthetic and ideological underpinnings of the Modernist artwork, Impression, Sunrise of Claude Monet. The artwork and Impressionism is considered to be a visual articulation of the avant-garde and the latter statement is explained. References to the writings of Charles Harrison, Clement Greenberg and Wilhelm Worringer is used to theorise the aesthetics of modernity.

The engulfing size of the painting (250.5 x 159.5 cm) drives the audiences mind into a hypnotic frenzy as they are overwhelmed by bright and sensual colours, which, have the ability to evoke deep emotions and realisations. Kandinsky has portrayed this through the disorientation of his own personal visions of society during the industrial revolution. The rough yet expressive outline of buildings, a rainbow and the sun gives reference to realism as it allows viewers to connect and understand underlying motifs and shapes yet is painted abstractly to move away from the oppressive and consumerist society. Thus, Kandinsky breaks boundaries through his innovative approach to his art-making practise concluded from his personal belief of ‘art for arts sake’. He believed that art should mainly convey the artist’s personal views and self-expressionism that translated a constant individuality throughout his work from an inner intentional emotive drive. This broke traditional boundaries as art in the renaissance period was meant to be a ‘narration’ or an artwork where an audience could learn and benefit from. This is evidently shown in Composition IV as it exemplifies Kandinsky’s inner feelings towards the industrialised society

Overall, the ideologies discussed within the articles Written In Blood: 20th Century Art by Stephanie Dudek and Estrangement As A Motif In Modern Painting by John Adkins Richardson address similarities and differences from various standpoints. Modernistic ideologies towards social, cultural and technological changes of the 20th century are demonstrated in both articles. The article by Stephanie Dudek emphasizes on the employment of radical and transgressive values by modern artists within their work to target cultural, and artistic principles that have persisted over many generations leading to a transformation within the subject of art (Dudek 105). Furthermore, modern art set out to obtain new visions of reality as witnessed within the Cubist

According to article “Graphic Incognito”, writer Mark Owens says that modernism exported to America through Bauhaus, which was a European movement that came around World War 2. The movement in America took shape in the 1980s with the influence of a new cultural era that was personified in different mediums, especially in music. He argues that certain modernist design tactics were adopted by suburban kids raised during the Reagan era in the early 1980s that were in the post- punk, hardcore, underground music scene. First of all, he begins his essay with a quote from Paul Rand about how “timeless principles” were the only hope to achieve a style of quality in one’s work.

Ed Ruscha has been making work in Los Angeles for the better part of the century. People often talk about Ed Ruscha’s work, his paintings, his books, photos or films as different and non-traditional. Ruscha broke classical tradition of realism, stepped outside of the boundaries and changed art. Ed Ruscha the most iconic artist in the 20th century pioneered the pop art movement inspiring the world to think outside the box with his bold design choices. Ed Ruscha greatly influenced contemporary art, changing the way the world perceived the simple but yet so complicated canvas that Ruscha composed. Ruscha defies easy categorization as an he artist. He is simultaneously known as a pop artist, a conceptual artist, surrealist

In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination”. This statement speaks to all of mankind, in that, art can be traced back to thousands of years ago. For centuries people have put their whole lives into creating art, hoping that they would pass on their views while still creating something different, interesting, and unique. Generating from these ideas was as artist named Ivan Albright. Though his pieces appeared to depict a world of decay and corruption, Albright showed his love for art through his morbid emotional intensity. In this paper I will discuss the history of the artist, compare and contrast the subject matter and technique of two of his paintings, as acknowledge his approach to color, texture, balance, and space.

The mistrust of the world which is at the center of modernism can be attributed to the world wars and the psychological effect that it had on the individual. The horrors and violence altered public perceptions of life, a change that is evident within writers of the time period. The focus of writing shifted from the outward world to inner thoughts and feelings and overall representation of an individual’s stream of consciousness which are themes associated with modern text. In “Impact of Modernism”, focuses on the idea that world needed new outlets for expression and in finding them rejected the tradition that was already there with the quote, “Many modernists believed that by rejecting tradition they could discover radically new ways of making art.” (Impact) .The world no longer had the beauty it once did so a a discovery of new arts were needed. The mind of an individual became that new found inspiration and beauty that modern writers needed and for that reason it was one of the main focuses of modern

The themes of his works deal always on birth, death, love, sex and war which are recurring in all his works, also I tried to combine art, music and fashion, breaking the barriers between these fields.

Russian Avant-Garde was born at the start of the 20th century out of intellectual and cultural turmoil. Through the analysis of artworks by Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky this essay attempts to explore the freedom experienced by artists after the Russian Revolution in 1917. This avant-garde movement was among the boldest and most advanced in Europe. It signified for many artists an end to the past academic conventions as they began to experiment with the notions of space, following the basic elements of colour, shape and line. They strove for a utopian existence for all benefited by and inspired through the art they created. They worked with, for and alongside the politics of the time. The equality for all that they sought would

This essay will compare two artists from different countries, one is a Russian artist called Wassily Kandinsky and the other one is Guan Zhong Wu, he comes from China which is my own country. The two artists lived in different cultural backgrounds during the same period, so they had significant similarities and differences. First, this essay will compare the similar artistic spirit between the two artists. Second, this essay will examine the different drawing tools that the two artists used for their paintings. Third, this essay will discussion the two artists using the similar “point and line to plane” (Kandinsky 1979:1) to paint different style pictures. Finally, this essay will analyses the influences of European and oriental culture on

In a ‘tradition breaking spirit’ [D’Alleva, 2012], that characterised modernist artists, early in the twentieth century, Duchamp abandoned traditional ideas and techniques, to create a new kind of ‘art’, one that the idea behind a work of art is more important that its visual realization, the ‘retinal’. The ready-mades was the product of Duchamp’s questioning what art is.

In the presented essay I will compare the style of work of selected artists in the montage of the film. I will try to point out some general regularities and features of Soviet cinema. At the same time I will try to capture especially what is common in their systems and similar or conversely what differ. For my analysis, I will draw on the feature films of the Soviet avantgarde, namely these are the movies - The Battleship Potemkin (S. Eisenstein, 1925), Mother (V. Pudovkin, 1926) and The Man with a movie camera (D. Vertov, 1929).