I've been learning a little about the history of Modernism, and have been trying to wrap my head around it. Generally, this blog has been soly a place for photos. However, I'm going to try to say more.
First of all, a few statements. They will hopefully serve as a foundation for my theory for where we are now and possibly where we're going in the art world.
-Art movements are basically fads. Sometimes for the intellectuals, other times for the emotionally sensitive and expressive.
-Fads are generally short lived.
-Art movements are different than styles.
-Art movements are often characterized and organized according to style, though not always.
-Art movements often contain various styles.
-Styles are are not found in principles of art, but art principles can be found in styles, though not always.
-True creativity is never truely original. Everything is a reference to something previous. Originality is only as obscure as its sources.
-There is an ebb and flow, a push and pull between expressiveness and rigid rule-based art. This dicotomy can be seen in the differences between classical painting and fauvism; swiss modernism and american postmodernism.
Our tendancy is to push something to it's limits which seems to happen just before an art movement dies out. In the case of Dada, this seems to be the very cause of it's death as a movement. After attacking anything and everything, art attacked itself. Eating oneself is a sure way to limit ones progress. Dada has since been adopted as a style in subsequent movements.
The interesting thing is how much in common the art movements have had in the past century. All have been consumed with the idea that there must be an end to the previous "movement" and a new one must be defined. All have gone to great lengths to express how very unlike past movements such-and-such movement is and how it is the newest and most modern. Clement Greenberg, a prestigious art critique of the 20th century observes this same phenomenon when he states "the same demands as before are made on artist and spectator.... Art is, among many other things, continuity. Without the past of art, and without the need and compulsion to maintain past standards of excellence, such a thing as Modernist art would be impossible. (greenberg, Art in Theory 1900-2000, p. 779)"
It seems, in the postmodernist's statement that "we are not modern, for we denounce structure" a break with modernism was not created but a new appendage of the great Modernist culture was formed only perpetuating the reign of the mighty Modernist. Daniel Bell, an american sociologist, gave a critique on modernism in which he says the difficulty in defining Modernism is three fold. First, modernists hold a "rage against order," which means no modernist is content to be defined. By the very nature of modernism, an artist must rebel against the previous definition and prove by art how the previous definition is false or incomplete. Second, the eclipse of aesthetic distance creates a senario where it is impossible to contemplate and define because of the involvement necessary to a modernism piece. Think of a dancer who can't appreciate a dance because she is in the midst of the dance. Traditionally art was contemplative; you had psychic distance. Now the goal is to put the viewer in the midst of the action to experience. Third, there is a great "preocupation with the medium.(bell, Art in Theory 1900-2000, p. 1118)" The great thing in common is experiment. Which is also a common thing in Man's history, period.
It is my conclusion that where we are now, is merely a modernist lull. Modernism seems obsessed with the new and the novel, always seeking the newest thrill. If we go at the rate we are now, only academia will be the keeper of the flame of past art styles and movements. That is, academia and Google. Commercial art, Fine art, Documentary, Journalism, Hollywood... all forms of art seem to be blending; taking a piece of what "he" did and mimicking what "she" did, and referencing "their" movie or song and creating a "new" piece of art. Styles seem to be loyally guarded by cult followings, tribes. The art of the future will be influenced and remembered because of the Hipter scene, the gamers fantasy world, and manga. Kitche.
