Art of Postmodernism - Essay Example

Art Postmodernism In Harvard Style September 7th, 2007 Outline I. Intorduction. II. History of Modernism. III. Arrival of Postmodernism. IV. Marcel Duchamp a pioneer in the ready made art A. Duchamp’s creative work; B. History of ready made art; C. Theory behind the ready made art. V. Painters influenced by Duchamp’s ready made concepts A. Louise Bourgeois; B. Gerhard Richter; C. Rachel Whiteread. VI. Art Today VII. Conclusion Art Postmodernism When the concept of science just appeared it was treated with great suspicion. Humanity itself was terrified to even imagine that the old values it used to rely on could be smashed into pieces by simple scientific explanation. However, as time went on, the thinking of the population changed. The era of enlightenment had brought along a major shift in human thinking, understanding and perception. People started to put more and more confidence in science and it came to the point where a scientific explanation was given to almost everything on earth. At that time the people were driven by a dream - a dream that one day science would solve all of life’s questions. This state of mind led to a strong rejection of once powerful institutions like church and the bourgeois hierarchy of society. It is known that the tendencies that dominate in society reflect in the artwork of the individuals in this era, so it is not supprising that this all of a sudden break from tradition caused a new artistic style to appear. Today we call this style Modernism. It is evident that in the art of this period there was a mass reduction in works that were produced on commission. The works were instead produced for the benefit of the individual artist for him/herself or for some kind of higher purpose. Once modernism arrived, artists started looking for a new kind of truth – the truth that was backed up by science, industry and reality. The artists’ perception of the world had drastically changed. While in the past the purpose and the characteristics of real art were universal and imperturbable. At that time various groups of artists started emerging, each with their own particular vision of art as well as truth. For example, take Cubists such as Braque and Picasso who used the principles of geometry to break down real three-dimensional objects in order to find their true forms. A universally accepted genius Salvador Dali and his counterparts, Surrealists, directed all their efforts and talent to various subconscious experiments that opened a door to truth and real art for them. Matisse used color as his vehicle, while Cezanne was consumed by light and form. Balla and Boccioni got fully absorbed by completing Futurist manifestos. The modernist artists of that time were all eager to bring their own vision of truth and real art to the people, peremptory considering their vision to be the only right one. Although there were many wonderful ideas and innovations surfacing at the time, not everyone shared them. Artists were concerned mainly with developing their own work and ideas. As we know everything in this world has a beginning and an end, so it was meant for the era of modernism to come to an end. The name given to a new arising period was Postmodernism. The postmodernism that I will deal with in my paper is vague as a concept, while modernism was straightforward, detailed and concise. Postmodernism is about indecision, uncertainty, suspicion, and in some aspectts imprecision, whereas Modernism seeks closure in form and is concerned with conclusions (Witcombe, 1997).  However, even though Modernist artists did break away from tradition, they still held onto ties with the past. Historical influences are now widely embraced and accepted in all forms of art. Postmodernists had their eyes open to as much as they possibly could. These innovators believed art was made to be provocative as well as it should not only be judged by professionals but also by those who feel art with their hearts not with diplomas and degrees. One of the most influental postmodernist artists who had a great influence on the contemporaries was Marcel Duchamp. Marcel Duchamp, a painter and sculptor, was born in Blainville, France. Duchamp was a broad painter and he was a famous member of the 20th-century Dada movement that removed the boundaries between painting and sculpture. He has also presented his surrealist masterpiece The Large Glass, composed in oil and wire on glass. Marcel Duchamp was a prominenet figure in art, surprising people with his innovative ideas and ability to break away from the norms and rules. In 1913, Marcel Duchamp took a bicycle wheel into his studio and mounted it on a chair. He enjoyed watching it spin. The next year he took home a bottle rack. Describing his findings in a letter to his sister Suzanne, he said it was a sculpture "already made." For the next few years he collected common, mass-produced objects, treated them as art and called them readymades: a snow shovel (which he named "In Advance of the Broken Arm"), a urinal ("Fountain"), a hat rack, a comb and a dozen or so more. By simply collecting the day to day existence goods he gave life to a new school of ready made art that had and still has its supporters all over the world. The ideas behind this readymade style of art were explained in an article, though said to be anonymous at the time (but almost certainly by Duchamp), in the May 1917 issue of the avant-garde magazine The Blind Man run by Duchamp. It was stated in the article that “no matter whether the artist just takes an object and paints it or he makes it up does not play any role because it is up to a gifted artist to decide what art is and what it is not.” So according to him, taking an ordinary article of life, and placing it so that it’s useful significance disappears under a new title and point of view – creates a new state of object. Treating everyday, usual, plain household as masterpieces of art, according to Duchamp, does not mean to lower yourself or the concept of art. It is actually quite the opposite and means to raise yourself on a higher more spritual level and start being able to see beauty even in common “already made” things (Skinner, 1960). Today looking back at the twentieth century we see that the influence of Duchamps readymades is immeasurable. If Marcel Duchamp and his ready made idea never existed would there be any Conceptual Art at all? Would Andy Warhol have made his Brillo boxes? Without Marcel Duchamp would Jasper Johns have painted flags and targets? Of course, without a ready made concept, a special touch would not exist in the works of such artists as Louise Bourgeois, Gerhard Richter, and Rachel Whiteread. In my essay I would like to to show what role the concept of ready-made proposed first by Marcel Duchamp art played in the work of such famous artists as those mentioned above. In order to show this influence I would like to take a closer look at every artist separetly to get familiar with his/her personal and peculiar style. I would like to start with French-American artist Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois was born on Christmas day in the year of 1911. She is a talented and fecund artist; during her life she created an immense body of work counting prints, paintings, drawings, and sculptures (Herkenhoff, 2003, p. 4). However, it was her sculptures that brought her international notice. It is natural for all artists to practice self-exposure, but it can be said that Louise Bourgeois had perfected this practice. Ms. Bourgeois was virtually ignored for decades, but she was finally recognized in the 1980s and 90s and has influenced many female artists. As she herself stated “My work disturbs people and nobody wants to be disturbed. They are not fully aware of the effect my work has on them, but they know it is disturbing” (Herkenhoff, 2003, pp.5-7). In many of Ms. Bourgeoiss drawings from around 1950, lines repeatedly brushed in black ink create fields resembling hair or other strange ways of drawing landscapes. In a recent work, perfectly sized nested ovals are drawn in scratchy red lines, producing a primitive, mysteriously iconic image, and in a series of works made on music composition paper. The artist uses wavy lines and dots over the staff lines, suggesting some secret language (Herkenhoff, 2003, p. 7). What is outstanding about Louise Bourgeois is that she manages to be allegorically resonant in her drawings even though they are abstract and rather ambigious. All through her work of different periods we can clearly see the Duchamp’s ready made leitmotif. The following pieces of art may be a good example: “Janus Fleury” (1967), “Nature study” (1986), sculptures “Spider” (2003), and “Couple” (2004,) “Topiary” (2005), and “Day and Night” ( 2007). Now I would like to move on to Gerhard Richter who is one of the most well-known German artists together with, for example, Sigmar Polke and Georg Baselitz (Swinson). During his art career Gerhard Richter has worked in many styles, covered a lot of topics, and was part of many artistic groups. However, there is one theme behind all the motifs, beyond different styles and art groups – it is that art is and remains the art of painting itself (IFA). It seems that over the course of his career Richter questions himself whether the mentioned above statement is correct or not and searches for proof of it. That is one of the reasons why the different periods of his work seem so heterogenous and indistinct. It seems that Gerhard Richter is afraid to destroy pure art, and because of that he is not willing to dedicate himself to one particular style and content in art (IFA). Still, no matter what style he was working in or what opinions on the nature of art he was holding at the time, he has always been supported by opposite ends of the critical spectrum. Some esteemed him simply as a great traditional painter; others saw him as a rebel of the house of Modernism who was trying to destroy the norms and rules in art (Richter, 2007, p.123). Richter supported Duchamps’ ready made art ideas and they played a weighty role in his work. Moreover, Gerhard Richter started a new direction in the ready made art by basing works on snapshots, suggesting that making a painting can be almost as mechanical as pressing the button on the camera (Richter, 2007, pp. 124-125). In 1962 he published Atlas, an archive that includes photographs of family and friends, concentration camps he saw during the war times in Germany, pornography, cityscapes, flowers, trees, sketches, and fragments of paintings. Richter once said "In 1962 I found the first outlet; by painting from photos I was relieved from the obligation to choose and construct a subject” (Smith, 2001). Richter’s paintings and photographs were the masterpieces of contemporary postmodern art. They were profoundly touching and remarkably deep, being at the same time staright forward and “already made”. The outstanding ready made examples of Gerhrad Richter are “Two Candles” (1982), “Skull” (1983), “Doors” (1967), “Apples” (1984), “Airplanes” (1964), and “Tubes” (1965). Last but not least the artist that I want to cover in my essay is Rachel Whiteread. Rachel Whiteread was born in London in 1963. Rachel Whitereads art style has always been rebellious and provoking like the works of many painters at that time who were ready to experiment, shock and go against the mainstream (Townsend, Whiteread, 2004, pp12-14). Out of the solidification of space Whiteread creates an archive that compacts and makes legible those intangibles that comprise so much of ordinary life. The influences of Duchamp’s ideas are seen in the way Rachel Whiteread is concerned with spaces. In her ready made sculptures that brought her the world’s recognition and success she portraits the usually inhabited spaces that normal people in the world use. Her most famous work, a sculpture called House is a full-size ready made reproduction of an actually existing house that was built in London in 1993. Her newer work where also the influence of Duchamp’s ideas can be seen is called Embankment. It is a massive installation which deals with both exterior and interior (Turbine Hall). Neverthelss, it would be very wrong to think of Rachel Whiteread as only of a monumental sculptor. Her rebellious ready made creations have impressed and still are impressing with their simplicity and at the same time deep meaning. Rachel Whiteread, as a real follower of Duchamp, ready made trend manages to see splendor in even very simple objects (Townsend, Whiteread, 2004, pp.15). As surprising as it is, many of her most remarkable pieces are private, domestic objects. She found please and inspiration in portrating the underside of a bed, a mattress, a wooden table, or a chair, even the spaces behind a row of books. Some pieces of her art are rather small in size; however she brightens them by using innovative materials such as plaster, resin, rubber, and cement. Rachel Whiteread knows how to look at objects and spaces and to see what needs to be seen while most people when looking under a bed see nothing but dust (Townsend, Whiteread, 2004, pp18). Gerhard Richter once said “Everything since Duchamp has been readymade, even when hand painted”. There are those who agree with this statement and there are those who do not. This is natural because art is always perceived differently by different people, though it is true that art today has changed drastically. Taditionally the elements and principles of art such as line, shape, color, and texture, the very tools used to express yourself in art were universal for all artists. Also artists in the past not only learnt how to paint or carve stone, they learnt how to work with these elements applying principles such as balance, repetition, harmony, and symmetry. Today “contemporary artists” go beyond the principles, norms, and rules of art. They are trying to create meaning in today’s world, they are not afraid to experiment and often use new concepts. Just one of these concepts and approaches is ready-made art. Looking at our rapidly changing, busy, fast paced world where it is common to neglect the past, blame it for closemindedness and unwillingness to experiment, people may wonder if art in its pure, conservative, balanced, and beautiful form still exists. Such thoughts do not only come to those blaming the contemporary ready made and abstract art. Even those who enjoy the changes and support the simplicity of today’s art question whether contemporary art has forced out the real art in its traditional understanding or not. Yes, the understanding or real art has changed, howevere the world has also changed. Even when people first started painting, ideas could be considered innovative and provocative. There is always room for something to grow, change and develop and it is natural. Contemporary, new, postmodernistic art is just an evolution. Without a shadow of doubt, everyone still remembers the beautiful landscapes, portraits, and sculptures of the pre modernistic era and those will definitely continue to influence new artists. The real conservative art is alive, and even if it is not seen on the canvases it is alive in the hearts and minds of people. Work cited 1. Gerhard Richter. Survey. Retrieved from http://cms.ifa.de/en/exhibitions/exhibitions-abroad/bk/gerhard-richter/ 2.  Herkenhoff, P., Storr, R. (2003). Louise Bourgeois. Phaidon press. Pp 4-7. 3. Richter, G. (2007). Gerhard Richter: Atlas. Distributed Art Publishers. Pp. 123-126. 4. Skinner, S. (1960). Interview of Marcel Duchamp on Canadian Radio Television. To Change Names Simply. Retrieved on September 6th, 2007, from http://www.toutfait.com/issues/volume2/issue_4/interviews/md_guy/md_guy.html 5. Swinson, a. Influential artist – Gerhard Richter. Retrieved on September 6th, 2007, from Magazine for Artist and Modern Collector Business. Website: http://cagzine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&itemid=77. 6. The Unilever Series: Rachel Whiteread. (2005). Embankment. Retrieved on September 6th, 2007, from Turbine Hall, Tate Modern. http://review.x-bout.com/art/2005/10/rachel-whiteread.html. 7. Townsend, C., Whiteread, R. (2004). The Art of Rachel Whiteread. Thames & Hudson. Pp12-21. 8. Witcombe, C. (1997). Art & Artists: Modernism and Postmodernism. Retrieved on September 7th, 2007, from http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/modpostmod.html Read More