Multimedia 2nd Year
Contextual Studies 2
Minnette Vari
Kylie McKechnie
2008 10917
Modernism Essay
Philosophy is distinguished from the other sciences by its being related far more closely to the aesthetic principle, to art. It synthesizes the everyday experience of the people and something from the other sciences and also something from art without confining itself to any of them.
In philosophy, just as in art, history is of special importance. Philosophy permeates all forms of thought including that of the artist. The work of the artist is most effective when the artist has something to tell people.
Different philosophies affected the content of artists’ work.
Humanism began in the middle ages and shifted the intellectual emphasis off theology to specifically human studies.
Religious Impressionist
Raphaello Sanzio (Raphael) - The Sistine Madonna Pierre-Auguste Renoir- Boating Party, 1881
Cicero combined wisdom and eloquence to be used in service to the public good and the state. Augustine encouraged humans to study “oneself”, to look “within oneself” and “work within oneself” to guarantee one’s salvation. Humanists emphasized that humans needed to convince others that their arguments were true. They rediscovered the classical authors. Humanistic scholars retranslated the Greek New Testament.
Humanists were tolerant of different viewpoints.
They laid the foundations for the ideologies of capitalism, individual rights and democracy.
Positivism developed in the middle of the 19th century and this philosophy holds that the only authentic knowledge is based on actual sense experience and all true-knowledge is scientific. Metaphysical speculation is avoided.
“Train wreck at Montparnasse (1895); Technology cannot exist without the potential for accidents. For example, the invention of the locomotive also entailed the invention of derailment and French philosopoher Paul Virilio sees the accident as a negative growth of social positivism and scientific progress.”
Auguste Comte (1798-1857) says that society undergoes three stages in its quest for truth.
In the theological stage, God reigned supreme over human existence. In the metaphysical phase the universal rights of humanity are most important.
The third stage is the scientific or positive stage. Here individual rights are more important than the rule of any one person. “Some believe Comte’s is circular because humans are constantly discovering new things.” –Giddens.
In the late 19th and early 20th century modernism questioned the principles of previous philosophical ideas. Modernists went against the traditional and were seen as revolutionaries. World events, like the great World Wars turned thinking upside down by making the view that mankind was making slow and steady moral progress ridiculous. “New methods” would produce “new results”. Modernists like Marcel Duchamp shocked the world in 1917 with his “Fountain”.
Marcel Duchamp-“Fountain”, 1917
The world was changing as was art, media and buildings. The period of logic and stability was being overturned. Enlightenment was disregarded.
In the late 1940’s Jackson Pollock moved away from using easel to other methods and materials. He revolutionized painting by actually physically entering his work.
Jackson Pollock- “Lavender Mist”, 1950
In the 1960’s Mondrian used geometric abstraction to show harmony and balance which was the start of the De Stijl period. Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian redefined art using pure colour.
Wassily Kandinsky- “Improvisation no.29”, 1912
Piet Mondrian- “Composition no.10”, 1939-42
The use of photography strongly affected this aspect of modernism. Photography replaced many functions that artists performed; for example, capturing the memory of an event or family portrait. Time was saved with regard to proportion and precision.
Mathew Brady- “Freedom on the Canal Bank at Richmond”, 1865
Modernism in architecture led to rejection of old styles. Le Corbusier thought that buildings should function as “Machines for living in.”
Le Corbusier- “Villa Savoye”, Poissy, France , 1928-29
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s “Seagram Building” in New York was also a modernist building.
Gerrit Rietfield’s building “Schoeder House” shows signs of Cubist influence.
Technological advancements led to an explosion in forms of art and media. Art and technology were joined in certain aspects leading to new ways of communication and expression.
· Film
Spiderman film- 2002
· T.V.
Pat Gorman- Logo for MTV, 1982
· Websites
Discovery Channel Website, 1994-95
· Advertising
Schulz- Neudamm- Poster for Metropolis, 1926
· Computers
Josef Muller-Brockmann- Auto club poster, 1954
· Book covers
Chip Kidd, book cover for “Turn of the Century”, 1998
Philosophers freed artists from spiritual and religious constraints by changing the emphasis to human and natural topics. Further freedom advocated by the enlightenment movement led to the Impressionists and Surrealists being more creative. This paved the way for a complete break with tradition and heralded the dawn of modernism.
Contextual Studies 2
Bibliography
Minnette Vari
Kylie McKechnie
2008 10917
Book References
CUMMING, Robert. Great Artists. Dorling Kindersley (London). 1998
MEGG’S, Philip and A.W Purvis. Megg’s History of Graphic Design (4th Edition). John Wiley and Sons (New Jersey). 2006.
SERULLAZ, Maurice. The Concise Encyclopaedia of Impressionism. Omega (England). 1984.
Internet References
Hines, R.K.”[Wikipedia]”Humanism”www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism[02/05/2009]
Le Cocq, J.”The Relevance of Enlightenment to the Present Day, 2008”www.cis.org.au[02/05/2009]
[Galinsky]”Villa Savoye, Poissy, Le Corbusier, 1929”www.google.co.za[02/05/2009]
[Wikipedia]”Social Posivism, 1895”www.artandpopularculture.com[02/05/2009]
