Thoughts on Modernism

Essay by lvngdeadUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, August 2004

download word file, 5 pages 4.7

Thoughts on Modernism

Modernism as a term is defined by the perspective of the observer. In the perspective of the historian, Modernism began with the Renaissance, when a flurry of new philosophical theory and societal changes brought about a way of thinking that varied greatly from the previous Greco-Roman standards of being, thinking and living.

In the perspective of the art historian, however, Modernism is a term which describes a particular movement in the arts which began in the 1860's and extended through the 1970's, in which artists strove for a better understanding and progression from a humanist standpoint through various new artistic strategies.

To observe the results of this new Modernist approach on art in a chronological order is to be able to identify a sort of symbolic dateline of events. Since art is the extract of life and life the extract of art, one can sees similar worldwide artistic movement unlike any seen in any previous generation.

Through the dismissal of geocentric notions of the past, people the world around began to feel the same tremors of humanity. As technology and economics began to take the shape of what they now represent today, life began to get considerably more and more complex and confusing. Cities grew, and with them grew the gradual dislocation of society.

It was at the end of the WWII that perhaps this worldwide sigh of discontent was at its most supreme. It is of this era that I have chosen to explore as a time period in history when the idea of Modernism was perhaps at its pinnacle.

In the late 1940s through the 1950s many artists were exploring new methods of expression about the age and society in which they lived. This was a time of change for America; it was a time...