Modern Art

2) post-modernism, post-fordism, post-colonialism, post-structuralism, postfeminism, post-human, post-historical, post-9/11

3) The first modernist signs arguably appear during the enlightenment (18th century). The period was defined by rebellion and skepticism for authority and the institution, thus promoting individual awareness. The history of modern art starts with a fundamental question, what is art? Perhaps the answer was officially settled in London, 1878 with the adjudication of Nocturne in Black and Gold. John Ruskin accused James McNeill Whistler of artistic swindling, claiming the image contained no semblance of life and thus no value. Concurrent traces of modernism were found in Paris as well, most notably with Manet's Olympia of 1863, or Gustave Courbet's A Burial at Ornans 1850, and Haussmann's renovation.
The modern period was also marked by an economic shift that favored mercantilism, factory assemblage, and urban concentration. International trade propelled industry and encouraged a diverse interest in exotic culture. With the academia and Salon in decline, artists worked with little concern for received tradition.

The modern era has not ended.

The modern period is generally characterized by a shifting value structure that elevated the individual and innovation ahead of tradition. Reinvention and the avant-garde define the twentieth century as a period of continual change. As a result, the artist was now free to explore the ocean between his ears. The aesthetic developments direct our attention toward the flatness of the picture plane and the nature of materials. This is a period focused on idealistic aspirations, essentialist thought, and universal language.

Guillaume Apollinaire was one of the most influential critics to champion cubism and coin surrealism. He was a poet and artistic member of the bohemian crowd in Montparnasse.

Clement Greenberg is another critical figure in the modern era. He most recognizably supported Jackson Pollock and championed New York as the new cultural center of the world.

Andre Breton led the Surrealist movement in Europe.


Vincent Van Gogh, Cypresses, 1889Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907
Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel, 1913

Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912

Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images, 1928-29
Alberto Giacommeti, Diego, 1953Jackson Pollock, Number 1 (lavender Mist), 1950
Phillip Guston, Painting, 1954
Jean Dubuffet, Soul of the Underground, 1959
Frank Stella, Die Fahne Hoch!, 1959
Brice Marden, The Dylan Painting, 1966

Postmodernism doubts the absolute truths ensconced in modernism. The postmodern period begins with architecture. The sterility of modernist architecture is supplanted by a deconstructionist aesthetic of formal elaboration and design, i.e. Hadid, Gehry. These buildings embrace asymmetry and encourage a reading that evolves with time and exploration as opposed to the paralytic perfection sought by modernism. The modern movement came to be an idea of exclusivity, hegemony and essence while the postmodern dictum is characteristically inclusive. Beyond architecture, postmodernism gains broad recognition through the 70's and 80's within conceptual and activist art. The model artist of the century shifts from Picasso to Duchamp. Marcel focused much of his work on arbitrary values as expressed through aleatory methods. His paradoxical engagement with absolute measures provides the necessary template for postmodern analysis. Feminism seeks to negate the previous assumptions about eurocentric male art. The aesthetic seeks to undermine the past, illuminating injustices through blatant appropriation and irony. And in so doing opens the door for other previously excluded groups. Above all else, postmodernism occupies a contingent space between the world and art. With purity and ideology in doubt, Art for art's sake falls out of favor. Having said that, the period is still considered part of the modern era. During the 90's postmodernism expands to include globalization and an even broader concept of art, one consisting of almost innumerable possibility and variety. As Eleanor Heartney claims, the art of today is a pluralism.

One of the leading critics of the period was Lucy Lippard. She focused her support on conceptual and feminist art.

Peter Halley, Prison with Conduit, 1981
Philip Taaffe, We Are Not Afraid, 1985.
George Baselitz, Clown, 1981
Gerhard Richter, Abstract Painting, Courbet, 1986
Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent II Diptychon, 2001
Zaha Hadid, Vitra Fire Station, 1993
Robert Longo, Untitled (Men in the Cities series), 1981
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled Skull, 1981
Terry Winters, Morula III, 1983-4
Jeff Koons, Rabbit in Naples, Italy, 2003
Martin Puryear, Bower, 1980

The art of today is defined by the internet. Information has never been so cheap and available. Fiber optic cables span the globe like a root structure, establishing contact. Consistent contact in the form of video, images and live feeds. We live in a period of information saturation, now more than ever the objective eye is needed. Establishing discernible value has never been more important. Value as calculated in terms of relative worth defines an age of choice. Value acts as a personal compass. The internet not only functions as a space of information, entertainment and connectivity, but of aesthetic experience. The democratizing process, enhanced by technology has led to a pluralistic age of incoherence (note current political climate) as defined by possibility and mobility, both physical and intellectual. We are also living in an age of limitation as defined by the simultaneous commodity boom and market crash of 2008. A paradoxical period of intellectual abundance paired with natural decline.

We are currently testing the limitations of our political ideology in Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. This is also a communal period, favoring the group over the individual. Notice the recent financial crisis, the people bore the burden. The same can be said for health care.