FREE ESSAY ON MODERN ART

MODERN ART

The age of Modernism is from 1863- 1963. In modernism the artist rejected the traditional
forms of expression and created a knew one. this meant that they were no longer looking
and using the long standing European ways though. The new work produced in that era was
modern. This new way of thought included streamlined, neat and forward looking design.
Another aspect of the modern way was that some artist made emotional and very expressive
paintings where the brushstrokes were visible and had the same importance in the work as
the subject or people would. This was unheard of wrong in the traditional school of
thought. One final aspect of modernism was that at the moment the artist rejected the
European influences, they embraced non-western traditions and embraced like
native-American, African, Asian and Islam. Modernism became a multifaceted new form of
expression influenced by the non-western.
There are many examples that show the essence of modernism. Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe
designed the Friedrichstrasse Office Building (1921). This is a good example of design
that showcases the basics, it is neat and clean. The office building has no decorations,
or huge columns, it only contains that office building needs in order to be a building.
Constantine Brancusi's Bird in space cast(1928), is another excellent example of reduced
and pure spirit design. We have to notice that the title for this piece is Bird in space
and that the sculpture looks like its going to fly straight up like a bird. It looks
like, at the spot where its thinnest near the base, its going to break and fly off.
Finally, it has a to an extent the narrow, wide, then narrow, aerodynamic shape of a
bird. This observations are possible only because Brancusi created an amazing reduced
representation of a bird in space.
Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is great modernism because it is influenced by
non-western traditions and is also expressive and distorted, the space is not traditional
either. The two young ladies at the right have African masks on. The two ladies in the
center seem to be posing as if asking the view to come forward and approach them, they
are almost selling themselves, and that is a vulgar subject that traditional westerners
would never use. There is no vanishing point in the space, instead Picasso has rejected
the old spatial composition. Now the space is pushing the young ladies further out
towards us. The space is now expressive and is changed accordingly, it is not rigid and
true to life as it used to be traditionally.
Modernism is expressive, sometimes emotional, many time neat and pure spirited, and from
1863 to 1963 many wonderful works were created. But out of these Picasso's paintings,
Mies' architectural design, and Brancusi's sculptures are among the best in illustrating
the essence of modernism.
The Definition of Post-Impressionism written in Bonnard's exhibition at the MOMA states
that it is "..a term applied to different tendencies in painting in the 1880's and
1890's", and that it "retains an interest in light but moves away from the naturalism of
impressionism toward a more subjective treatment of color and pictorial space". Bonnard
does exactly this in his paintings, which are full of unusual spaces, and objects
emphasized or not, using light , to achieve a certain subjective representation. 
This is very apparent in Cafe Au Petit Poucet (1928). As one sees this painting one is
puzzled by the inconsistency in space in the left side of the painting compared to the
right side. The left side of the cafe has the viewer at a higher angle of sight, while
when we look at the right side of the painting, which is partitioned from the left by a
piece of wood, we notice that our angle of sight is straight ahead. Our eyes move back
and force trying to figure out what is actually happening in the painting, and then we
finally realize that what we are looking at is a painting of a reflection. The right
portion of the painting is a reflection. Bonnard has made a conscientious choice to leave
out the logical clues that would immediately tell us that what we where looking at was a
reflection. He gave us a more subjective representation of the cafe he painted.
Another good example of a Post-Impressionist painting made by him was After the meal
(1925). Here he puts most of the light on the woman and the table making them a single
figure, he does this because he wants to emphasize her union with the task she is
performing at the table. By doing this all the other space besides her and the table
becomes a separate flat figure which gets less of our attention. Everything else has less
priority and that is why it takes a while for the viewer to notice that there is someone
else in the painting , the woman in the doorway.
Bonnard is Post-Impressionist because he includes in his painting Post-Impressionist
principles of space and light.