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”.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Darby’s technology made possible the huge “engine sheds” of the 19th Century London railway stations – St Pancras and Victoria – as well as Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace of 1851. These were considered as functional engineering works at the time, but are now seen as important architectural works.

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.

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

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”

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.

In Jean-François Millet’s 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.

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

Edouard Manet’s 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.

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.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec’s 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.

Edgar Degas L’Absinthe was shown in London in 1893

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec At the Moulin Rouge. circa 1894-5.

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.

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.

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.

Tom ROBERTSSlumbering sea, Mentone 1887 oil on canvas

51.3cm x 76.5cm

“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.”

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

Tom Roberts’ Shearing the rams 1888–90 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 Patterson’s “Waltzing Matilda”.

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.

Eileen  both 1892 Aboriginal head - Charlie

Turner 

Arthur Streeton Redfern Station 1893Streeton, 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.

Arthur Streeton The Purple Noon's Transparent Might 1896This painting of the Hawkesbury River was probably painted en plein aire in one session. Streeton captures the shimmering heat of the Australian summer.

Arthur Streeton Fire’s 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.

Charles CONDER Departure of the Orient, Circular Quay 1888Conder 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.