An Understanding of Modernity - Case Study Example

Comparing Modern Approaches to Art Comparing Modern Approaches to Art At the beginning of the 19th century, technology was growing exponentially, transforming the way the world worked. The differences that were introduced in this era meant that the younger generations were living lives vastly different from what their parents and grandparents had known. The rise of the factories as a result of these advances in technology provided support for the rising middle class to acquire a greater share of the nation’s income but also introduced other changes. For example, there was suddenly a clear distinction made between time to work and time to play, now re-named ‘leisure time’ which placed new demands on productivity and the individual’s ability to order their own days. Other technologies, such as the camera, made it possible for even non-artists to quickly capture the scenes occurring around them or portraits of their loved ones. While this was also considered an improvement as it became possible for many people to capture images that were dear to them even if they didn’t have the funds or the time available to hire a professional artist, it also represented a significant blow to the artists who were no longer needed to such great extent. It had to be admitted that even the most realistic painting could not capture the same immediacy and accuracy possible in the photograph. In response to this threat, many painters began working out new concepts of aesthetics for their work that was based more upon the emotional content of the image rather than the simple realistic mimicry of it. As might be expected, these new definitions took a variety of directions, most of which focused on a particular means of distortion as a means of expressing an idea underlying the image presented. An understanding of modernity makes it possible to explore how it is expressed by Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet and Eduoard Manet. The backbone philosophy of modernism is seen as an exploration of the intimate relationships that are shared between the constructed image and its audience. In other words, modernism is all about finding and legitimizing the connections between human emotions and physical conceptions as these conceptions are identified and expressed (Massey 2000, p.49). Scholars define modernity as “a condition of living imposed upon individuals by the socioeconomic process of modernisation” (Heynen 1999, p.4). Thus, modernity can be understood as a conceptual framework of individual expression at the same time that it can be considered a reflection of society as a whole. This suggests that it is comprised of intellectual ideas as well as by the development of new processes, techniques and materials. Modernity has been described as the “dialectical relationship ... which modernism consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, positively or negatively reflects the effects of capitalist development” (Heynen 1999, p. 4). The modernist ideology is thus revealed to have a number of different contexts bound together and interacting with our social understandings contributing to our intuitive and overt sense and understanding of the world around us. The primary influences of Modernism as a movement occurred during the early to mid-1900s. This movement started because of the excitement brought on by industrialization and the introduction of new materials. This inspired new directions in design and aesthetic philosophy. The rationale behind modernism is complex. It exists on a fundamental as well as aesthetic level, involving ethics, progress, knowledge and techniques, all defined by man’s requirement for social interaction and a desire to incorporate the wonders of the machine age within the expressions of the new age. The movement incited a response in just about every artistic endeavor, from architecture to sculpture to fine art. According to Marshall Berman, modernity can be thought of as “a mode of vital experience—experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life’s possibilities and perils—that is shared by men and women all over the world today. I will call this body of experience ‘modernity’” (Berman, 1982). One of the leaders of philosophical thought regarding the Modern movement, Berman describes the contradictions of modernity as an irresistible tendency to bring logical order to space and time at the same time that current events and ideas of progress function to bring about the failure of this established order. “To be modern is to live a life of paradox and contradiction. It is to be overpowered by the immense bureaucratic organizations that have the power to control and often to destroy all communities, values, lives; and yet to be undeterred in our determination to face these forces, to fight to change their world and make it our own. It is to be both revolutionary and conservative: alive to new possibilities for experience and adventure, frightened by the nihilistic depths to which so many modern adventures lead” (Berman, 1982). Thus, modernity is focused on expressing the rapidly changing elements of the real as it was seen and understood by the artist, allowing for wide individual variances based on that individual’s emotional connections or disconnections from the subject and society. These concepts of modernism were present even from a very early stage of industrialism as is clearly seen in the arts produced and as they developed. Early modernism focused mostly upon new expressions of the real in a movement now largely referred to as Realism. Realism was based on a concept that the true nature of art should be to reflect life as it really was, in all its common activities and free of the idealisms and judgments of previous movements. True to the modernist spirit, the goal was to strip the expression down to its clearest expression to concentrate on the ‘normal’ or ‘everyday’ elements of modern life. In attempting to ‘accurately’ reflect life in all its objective detail, artists taking a Realist approach often worked to find the most ‘common’ people of the fields and villages and depicted them in their most humble and menial tasks as the artists understood them. Courbet wrote, “painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist in the representation of real and existing things” (cited in Finocchio, 2004). To achieve this effect, the modern artist was expected to abandon, at least to some extent, the ‘rules’ of art and to pursue instead a more natural flow of line and form. In his Realist Manifesto, Courbet states Realist art aims “to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my epoch according to my own estimation” (cited in Finnochio, 2004). These ideals led naturally to impressionism which focused on attempting to capture an impression of the artist’s emotional reaction to the scene rather than being concerned with providing a photographic-ish representation. This type of change in modern art can be seen when comparing artwork by artists such as the realist Gustave Courbet, Auguste Renoir who helped to bridge the path to impressionism and the impressionist Claude Monet. Like other artists of his time, Courbet (1819-1877) was making decisions regarding what to paint based upon his own conceptions of what was ‘common’ and unrepresented and thereby making up his own definition of modern society based upon what he chose to represent. This approach can be seen in all of his artwork as he concentrated on the ‘common’ man and woman of his time. One such example is his painting Young Women from the Village (1852). In this painting, Courbet paints the image of three young ladies from the village standing within a rural setting. The young ladies are offering a poor farm girl something from a basket that one of them carries. This is generally understood to represent a graceful act of charity as the young ladies attempt to provide the country girl with something nice that she might not otherwise have. However, this act is nearly lost in the tremendous spaciousness of the landscape around them. This landscape takes up the majority of the picture plane, depicting a few cattle and a small dog close to the four girls. Within the painting, there is no attempt to make the girls prettier, their clothes more fashionable or their situation more idyllic. This suggests that the girls from town are members of the newly rising middle class, still conscious of the hardships of country living, while the setting is a deliberate rejection of the industrialized cityscapes. The majority of the canvas is dominated by brilliant green rolling hills. This approach defied traditional approaches to the art of the period because of its apparent lack of balance and lack of close up focus on the subjects of the painting – the four girls Courbet’s decision to frame the scene in this way was another deliberate rejection – this time of traditional rules of composition in favor of depicting the sense of smallness people were feeling as the factories and cities grew. The disproportionate balance of subject and scenery was intended to suggest the reduction of the role of the individual within this newly modernized society. While there is a great deal of realism involved in the depiction of the girls, the cows in the mid-ground are given a more vague treatment, losing much of the detail that would have been included in more traditional approaches. This change in style also helped to paving the way for less photographic treatment of pictorial subjects as the distortion of the less important remained a part of the definition of realism. This type of approach is what influenced Renior (1841-1919) as he began moving toward impressionism together with his friend Monet. An example of his early work is Diana (1867), which demonstrates his transition from the realist approach introduced by Courbet into the more impressionist scenes of his later years. In this painting, a nude woman sits on some mossy rocks with an animal hide covering her vaginal area. She leans almost casually on a tall bow and is looking down on the slain carcass of a deer. The deer is obviously dead because its head is twisted around backward and blood is visible coming from its head region. The painting reflects a more traditional approach to art because it depicts the ancient Roman goddess of the hunt, but there are hints that this symbolism was more of an overlay attached to the painting as something of an afterthought. The importance of this painting lies in how it reveals the artist’s earlier work just before he launched into his impressionist ideals. Thus, it reveals a great deal about the transition from realism to impressionism as a natural progression of modernist thought in art. His attention to detail and technique are reminiscent of Courbet while his softening of detail in the scenery, particularly the rocks the woman sits on, suggests the introspection of the subject. These rocks do not appear to be hard and uncomfortable but instead seem soft and supporting as the goddess considers her kill. The subject is a throw-back to traditional subjects because of this overlay, but Renoir’s decision to resurrect the goddess at this point seems to more directly address the feelings of submission under the mob that is a part of the modernist condition. The piece seems more an attempt to reclaim some sense of autonomy and self-control lost in the spirit of the factory. The colors blend into each other to create the necessary softening effect of the landscape, giving the scene something of a romantic light and beginning to explore the ideas Renoir would later develop while working with Monet. In the later years of the 1860’s, Renoir and Monet began working together while painting outdoors. The two artists were working to understand more about light and water and thus were often seen in Montemarte, a popular place for artists at the time and where Renoir was able to acquire free lodgings at the home of his friend Jules Le Coeur (Wadley, 1989). While working together in this way, the artists discovered that shadows actually were comprised of the reflected color of the objects that caused them as can be seen in Renoir’s painting “Le Moulin de la Galette” (1876). This is a painting that deviates further from the real in that it is actually a compilation of several informal portraits of Renoir’s friends rather than a scene that was discovered in actuality (Vilium, 2010). The images flutter around an outdoor courtyard and converse at crowded tables. Concepts of photographic realism are abandoned as colors are applied in simple strokes, allowing the paint to suggest rather than depict the images involved. This breakthrough discovery regarding color was what gave birth to the Impressionist style. Although he often worked with Renoir, Monet’s (1840-1928) introduction to plein-air painting was through Eugène Boudin (Auricchio, 2004). His painting Impression: Sunrise (1873) first appeared in an independent show Monet organized with several of his artist friends including Renoir. This painting features a predominantly blue scene dominated by an orange vertical streak extending from the bottom of the canvas up to the horizon line just to the right of center. What can be discerned in the image are a couple of small dark boats apparently floating on a light blue watery surface under a blue and orange sky. Some tall trees appear to be standing in the distance on a raised shoreline and a tiny red-orange sun dangling just over the horizon line. However, the image appears very watery, as if the entire scene is seen through a water-drenched lens. This painting drew particularly biting criticism at the show because of its ‘unfinished’ appearance. Critics complained “of its loose handling and indistinct forms” (Auricchio, 2004). However, this was the entire focus of the impressionist approach so the impressionist artists saw the criticism as a badge of honor, and subsequently called themselves “Impressionists” after the paintings title, even though the name was first used derisively (Auricchio, 2004). As can be seen in this painting, Monet adopted and extended earlier artists’ commitment to close observation and naturalistic representation. His primary focus was to capture this scene of nature more accurately in terms of light, color and his personal emotional reaction to the vision. This practice prompted him to reject European conventions governing composition, color, and perspective. He also shocked the art world by bringing a vibrant brightness to his palette by using unmediated colors, adding a range of tones to his shadows, and preparing the canvas with light-colored primers. This was significant because most traditional landscape paintings used dark grounds. The transition from realism to impressionism at the beginning of the modern period did not occur overnight. It was instead a gradual progression of ideas as artists increasingly demonstrated a willingness to break the traditional rules of art and drift from the strict photographic representation of the subject while still focused on defining the real. Courbet made this move by breaking away from the traditional subjects of formal art and more clearly delineating what he felt was an important new way to think about art in the modern period. These ideas are complex and relate to the realization that there are as many truths as there are eyes to see them. Renoir, working under Courbet’s influence, remained true to the traditional forms, particularly at first, but he also began softening his realistic visual portrayal. This softening of the visual elements was intended to capture a more realistic portrayal of the emotions of the piece. Monet took this concept to farther reaches as he allowed his emotional reaction to the scene to color his representation of it. Like his friend Renoir, Monet didn’t worry as much about capturing a detailed, factual likeness of the scene but concentrated more energy into allowing the flow of the paint to express his feelings. This helped to pave the way for the next movement, post-impressionism perhaps represented best by another famous modern artist, Van Gogh. References Auricchio, Laura. (2004). “Claude Monet (1840-1926).” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Berman, Marshall. (1982). All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New York: Penguin Books. Courbet, Gustave. Young Women from the Village. (1852). Oil on canvas. Finocchio, Ross. (2004). “Nineteenth-Century French Realism.” Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–2004. Heynen, H. (1999). Architecture and Modernity: A Critique. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts/ London, England. Massey, D. (2000). "Space-time and the politics of location" Architecturally Speaking: Practices of Art, Architecture, and the Everyday. Alan Read ed. Routledge: London. Monet, Claude. Impression: Sunrise. (1873). Oil on Canvas. Renoir, Auguste. Diana. (1867). Oil on Canvas. Renoir, Auguste. Le Moulin de la Galette. (1876). Oil on Canvas. Vilium, Al. (2010). “Le Moulin de la Galette.” Auguste Renoir Gallery. Wadley, Nicholas. (1989). Renoir: A Retrospective. New York: Park Lane. Read More