Modernism

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Modernism

• Modernism in the Visual Arts refers to a specific
  period and to an attitude or philosophy.
• It refers to a belief that history moves in a
  line
• That each successive step along that line is
  progress
• That progress is good.

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Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 28
July 1830 1830

• Modernism has its origins in the period known as
  the Enlightenment. This was the period from the
  17th and 18th Centuries when Western culture
  moved from belief, obedience and superstition to
  the development of modern science and
  technology, a belief in the power of reason or
  rationalism, a belief in concepts like
  equality, justice and democracy.
• These attitudes underpinned the French Revolution
  of 1789 and the founding of the United States of
  America a decade earlier.

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• Important figures of Modernism include the
  scientists
• Charles Darwin On the Origin of the Species.
  1859, which laid the foundations of modern
  Biology.
• Karl Marx Capital 1867. Marx systematically
  analysed Society and Social Change and made his
  combination of Economics and Sociology the basis
  of Scientific Socialism.
• Sigmund Freud The Interpretation of Dreams
  1900. Freud introduced the concept of
  Psychoanalysis and brought Psychology into the
  scientific foreground.
• Albert Einstein - The Special and General
  Theories of Relativity 1920. Einstein brought
  Physics into the modern world.

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• In the Visual Arts Modernism is a response to the
  modernism that occurred in the wider culture.
• Just as one theory in science replaced another so
  one style, often justified with elaborate theory,
  replaced earlier styles.
• Artists, critics and the public often believed
  that this was progress.

Picasso c. 1912 Jackson Pollock c 1949 Andy
Warhol c. 1960
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• Abraham Darby The Iron Bridge, Shropshire 1779
• This bridge can claim to be the first work of
  modern architecture. It used modern technology
  precast iron sections assembled on site to make
  a structure much lighter and stronger than a
  stone bridge. This allowed a much wider span,
  with one arch covering the entire river.

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Darbys technology made possible the huge engine
sheds of the 19th Century London railway
stations St Pancras and Victoria as well as
Joseph Paxtons Crystal Palace of 1851. These
were considered as functional engineering works
at the time, but are now seen as important
architectural works.
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• While architects like William Henry Barlow and
  George Stevenson were building the modern
  functional structures a more conservative,
  backward looking style was used for the front of
  the station. In this case St Pancras Station is
  fronted by a huge hotel designed by George
  Gilbert Scott and built from 1868-77. This
  building would not have looked out of place 300
  years earlier.

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Realism in the 19th Century

• As Scientists were concerned with exploring the
  real world so artists began to look at what the
  world really looked like, rather than idealising
  it or using it for expression.
• Artists like Daumier,Corot, Millet andCourbet,
  were working in France from about 1840 to
  1870-80.
• They painted ordinary people leading their
  everyday lives. Although other artists had
  depicted similar subjects in earlier times, the
  realists took a fresh and unemotional view.
• It is this group of artists, rather than the
  later Impressionists that influenced the
  Australian artists of the late 19th Century

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Gustave Courbet (1819-77). The Stormy Sea (or
The Wave) 1869 In this painting Courbet is
concerned with capturing the visual reality of a
fleeting scene a stormy sea with wind-blown
clouds. He is capturing the moment
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• In A Burial at Ornans 1849-50 Courbet shows us
  the peasants of a country area (the Jura)
  gathered for the funeral of a member of the
  community. In earlier times such a scene would
  show important people at the funeral of a
  notable, For Courbet in this painting these
  peasants are of equal value to the rich and
  famous. Courbet was a Socialist.

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In Jean-François Millets The Gleaners 1857 the
artist shows a realistic scene of country life
without any attempt at idealism. The realism here
is both Visual and Social.
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Here Daumier shows us passengers in a railway
carriage a great novelty at the time. Until the
railways long distance travel was long, tedious,
uncomfortable and expensive. The passengers are
shown realistically, without sentiment.
Honore Daumier Third-Class Carriage 1863-65
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Edouard Manets Bar at the Folies-Bergeres
1881-82shows us an unsentimental view of a bored
barmaid serving at the famous night spot, serving
the throng that we see reflected in the mirror.
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In Edgar Degas Laundress (Silhouette)c. 1874 the
artist shows us a working class woman hard at
work. The picture is against the light (contre
jour) which emphasises the steamy nature of the
workplace.The picture has the quality of a
photograph in its composition and the loss of
detail in its shadow areas. Degas was a talented
and enthusiastic photographer and used photos as
source material.
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Henri de Toulouse Lautrecs Woman Pulling up her
Stocking 1894 is unsentimental to the point of
brutality in this backstage scene. Lautrec was
an aristocrat who trained as an artist. Crippled
by a childhood incident he never grew to full
height. His scenes of Paris nightlife are at
first sight light hearted, but a closer look
shows them to be very bleak. A confirmed
alcoholic he avoided detox by carrying a hollow
walking stick full of brandy.
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Edgar Degas LAbsinthe was shown in London in
1893
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec At the Moulin Rouge.
circa 1894-5.
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• Toulouse-Lautrec was one of the first artists to
  produce posters, in his case to advertise
  cabarets at various Paris night spots. He used
  the technique of Lithography, which allows both
  free brushwork and large areas of flat colour, to
  produce posters that now have equal value to his
  paintings.
• His use of the family name his signature on
  these posters caused a major rift with his
  father. Remember aristocrats did not work for a
  living the posters were advertising scandalous
  cabarets and were often pasted on the walls of
  the public urinals of Paris.

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Louis Buvelot Waterpool at Coleraine
1871 Buvelot was a Swiss artist, trained in
France and familiar with the plein aire practice
of artists like Corot and Millet. This brought a
new realism to Australian painting, which he
passed on to his students in Melbourne, such as
Tom Roberts.
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• Tom Roberts (Landscape sketch, Hobart) circa 1890
  - 14.8 x 30.5cm
• This small early sketch in paint by Tom Roberts
  is intended to capture the fleeting effects of
  light/weather at either dawn or dusk.

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• Tom ROBERTSSlumbering sea, Mentone 1887 oil on
  canvas51.3cm x 76.5cm

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Tom ROBERTSSlumbering sea, Mentone 1887 oil on
canvas51.3cm x 76.5cm The following is from the
National Gallery of Victorias worksheet

• Slumbering sea, Mentone depicts a relaxing
  summer's day by the bay south of Melbourne. The
  whole layout of the painting is inviting. The
  beach is seen at eye-level, making us feel as if
  we are there, walking along the coarse sandy
  foreshore.
• The sun is at its peak, since the shadows are
  cast directly down and form the darkest tonal
  areas of the painting. The shadowed cliff,
  painted in deep browns, introduces a sense of
  solidity into an otherwise light and shimmering
  scene. Roberts has not concerned himself with
  realistic detail the trees on top of the cliff
  become a single mass of various greens, the
  seated woman's costume lacks any specific
  detailing and her face remains quite featureless.
• Roberts has caught the casual atmosphere in a
  single moment, as in a snapshot. The people and
  even the dog in this painting are no longer in
  awe of, or conquering, nature as in earlier
  colonial art rather they remain at ease with the
  environment and use it solely for leisure.
• The painting celebrates the general
  characteristics of sea, beach and cliffs at
  Mentone as the seated onlooker and the boating
  party partake in the lyricism of this warm
  summer's day.

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Tom Roberts Shearing the rams 188890 is an
example of an Australian painter showing the
everyday work of ordinary people. This happy
scene is not quite true to life, as it was
painted at the time of the Shearers strike, a
time of violent upheaval in rural Australia. This
painting is almost exactly contemporary with
Banjo Pattersons Waltzing Matilda.
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Eileen  both 1892
Aboriginal head - Charlie Turner 

• Tom Roberts was a sensitive and sympathetic
  portraitist and apparently captures an excellent
  likeness in these two portraits. They are simple
  in composition, the first just a study and
  combine loose brushwork with fine detail.

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Arthur Streeton Redfern Station 1893 Streeton,
largely self-taught, is concerned to catch the
moment a rainy day, steam from the trains,
people hurrying to work. This early work is fresh
and inventive, unlike much of his later work.
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Arthur Streeton The Purple Noon's Transparent
Might 1896 This painting of the Hawkesbury River
was probably painted en plein aire in one
session. Streeton captures the shimmering heat of
the Australian summer.
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• Arthur Streeton Fires on, Lapstone 1891
• Here Arthur Streeton shows the building of the
  Railway line from Sydney across the Blue
  Mountains. The subject is the light and the
  scenery. The figures a group of men carrying an
  injured colleague out of the tunnel are
  incidental. The human drama is dwarfed by the
  natural drama.

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Charles CONDER Departure of the Orient, Circular
Quay 1888 Conder painted this at the age of 20
before leaving Australia two years later. He was
probably the most talented of the group sometimes
called the Australian Impressionists. Note how
Conder uses a high viewpoint like the preceding
paintings. This serves to separate the viewer
from the crowd below. Today we would expect to
see the Opera house at the end of the quay and be
looking from the platform of the railway station.