College of the Albemarle Visual Imagery of Modern & Postmodern Periods

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College of the Albemarle

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In at least 1100 words write your answer to the question "What is real?". Write this in relation to what you see reflected in the visual imagery of the Modern and Postmodern periods and use a visual example from each. Include in your discussion the idea of reflexivity, described in my overview of Modern art. It is a self-conscious element in modern life that really begins to show in the Renaissance.

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Andrea’s Overview of Modern Art PHOTOGRAPHY AND MODERN REALISM IN ART The medium of photography developed not only as a means to record images but also as an art form in the late nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, change was occurring rapidly socially, scientifically and culturally. The Industrial Revolution provided one of the greatest and fastest transformations in which an agrarian lifestyle transformed into a predominantly urban one in less than fifty years both in Europe and in America. The battle between nature and culture foretold by the Romantics of the early to mid-nineteenth century was no longer a battle but a complete immersion in culture by the end of the nineteenth century. Those that profited from the Industrial Revolution became wealthy very quickly and did not give thought to negative consequences. Severe separations between classes occurred that education could not or would not be allowed to bridge. Social divisions became more hardened at this time as groups closed ranks. It is no wonder that Marxism, a social philosophy advocating the destruction of the capitalist system that fed on the mistreatment of those making profits possible, the working class, occurs at this time. A sense of alienation marks Modernism as the men, women and children used in a work force that treated them as cogs in machines had little or no hope of change or advancement in this system. Labor needed to be cheap, unskilled and plentiful to reap the maximum profit. Scientific discoveries such as Maxwell’s theory of the movement of light through space in waves in the form of particles in 1872 and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in 1905 changed the perception of reality as a solid and fixed entity. There was a rupture between, not only an old way of life as a result of the Industrial Revolution, but a complete breakdown of a sense of solidity in the world with new scientific advances. The concept of reality had been shaken at its very foundation. Social mores became the glue that held people of privilege together at the end of the nineteenth century and a disproportionate amount of attention was afforded to minute details of dress and comportment to establish a sense of security. Rather than contemplating the totality of existence that was now becoming unbearably complex and unreal, society began to turn its gaze upon small facets, and rigidly order them and each other into proper positions. This was a time of great self-consciousness as those experiencing rapid changes were attempting to define “Modern Life” and their place within it. Art becomes important as a symbol of success to the newly moneyed middle class referred to as the bourgeois by the French; however, artists increasingly find themselves in the service of this class rather than part of it. Mirroring the severe separations in society, the art world began to create its own reality, as did other disciplines. Rather than the type of interdisciplinary thought and activities that characterized the Renaissance, modern disciplines pulled away from each other and became more and more insular, each developing a language that was impervious to those outside the field. This turn inward that characterizes the end of the nineteenth century is referred to in the art world as reflexivity. Elements of reflexivity have been discussed in the art of the Baroque and again in the art of the Romantics. A reflexive Andrea’s Overview of Modern Art quality is found whenever an art work self-consciously refers in some way to the art or artist’s world, for example, in the painting La Meninas Velasquez includes himself behind a large canvas painting the painting. The Romantic painter Goya refers to the inclusion and to the position of Velasquez in his portrait of the royal family 150 years later as he tucks himself in the same corner of his painting behind an equally large canvas. The inclusion of the artist in the painting with the tools of his trade as in Las Meninas and in the royal portrait by Goya are examples of reflexivity as is Goya’s reference to another work and artist in the history of art. Art begins not only reference its own tools but also its own history. Artists of the late nineteenth century explored the new technology of photography and delighted in the display of their manipulations of this medium. Photography freed artists in at least two ways; they were no longer required to keep a record of reality and they were no longer restricted to traditional methods and notions of creating threedimensional illusions in art. The modern concept of realism in art increasingly develops into the expression of the artist’s subjective vision and the assertion and articulation of the elements of the art world. The artist making his own vision subject matter and/or the elements of art themselves becoming subject matter are reflexive elements and are major characteristics of modern art, reflecting the art world’s self-examination. The simple fact that a canvas is flat is part of the expression of Piet Mondrian. He uses a grid as a structural format in the early twentieth century. Mondrian addresses this in a treatise he writes on “pure” art.1 He explains that the pure elements of are the vertical and horizontal axes of the canvas itself and thus this becomes his imagery. The formal elements of art, those that refer to its form such as the flat surface of a canvas, the fact that the traditional shape of the canvas is rectangular, color or, that art works are often produced in an artificial setting such as a studio, are now considered subject matter for artists. Aspects of the assertion of the flat surface of a canvas exist in art work as early as the Impressionists in the late nineteenth century. Monet’s painting may appear atmospheric in reproductions but in actuality have a very thick application of paint, or impasto. The expression of the qualities of the media used, such as the thickness of paint or the aberrations caused by the imperfections in the chemical processing of the new medium of photography become part of the modern vocabulary of art. By the mid1950’s the brushstroke was the imagery, with Abstract Expressionism and the work of artists like Jackson Pollock.
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Running head: EXPLORATION OF REALISIM IN ART

Exploration of Realism in Art
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EXPLORATION OF REALISIM IN ART

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Exploration of Realism in Art
In art, realism delivers a message that represents the true reflection of situations. Realism
places focus on the characters, particulars, impartially, and there is a clear distinction between
the narrator and the author. Throughout the history of earth, societal problems have been
constant and are present in all nations and cultures. The contentious features of societies are
founded on a wide range of issues, and must be recognized in order to foster change within
society. As such, realism is the depiction of problems experienced in society and are part of daily
human life. Realism gives artists the chance to illustrate and focus on the difficulties experienced
in a society, while permitting the narrators to call for social change.
Realism in Modern Art
In modern art, artists of used montage to create meaning. The individuals had a futureoriented vision, a disdain of past practices, and an attraction for new techniques of the machine
age, and they recognized the changes in the masses' sensory engagement with the world through
the effects of the art. The favored modes included experimentation and formal innovation, and
graphic portrayals. Art in this period intersected to religion, and both are perfectly captured by
Karl Marx's dictum that both are "opiate of the masses" (Masséglia, 2015). The meaning is...


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