Word Count: 2004

Alexander File

LICA100 Modernism in the Arts

Submission date: 28 April 2014

Modernism
yet there are many

was progressive and

avant-garde,

critiques of modernist values and

ideologies. With reference to the work of at least two

visual artists and specific artworks, discuss ONE of the

following critiques of modernist art: attitudes to gender,
nature, technology or popular taste.

(ESSAY QUESTION NUMBER 12)

fig. 1 Balla, G. (1913) Abstract Speed- The Car has Passed / Velocit astratta - l'auto passata, Tate Liverpool

The second half of the nineteenth century was a time of intense social change; mass-industrialisation and
mechanisation heralded in a new epoch. With it, a new set of images and metaphors were generated,
reconfiguring the way in which we view the relationship between artist and viewer, subject and object,
and even mind and matter. Modern mankind found itself in the midst of a great absence and emptiness
of values and yet, concurrently, a remarkable abundance of possibilities. In Beyond Good and Evil (1882)
Nietzsche explored the duality of Modernism and the internal conflicts modern man faced at this culturalcrossroads in time; the modern dares to individuate himself or throws himself into parodies of the
past. (Nietzsche quoted in Berman, 1982, p.21-22)
Before discussing the critiques of modernist values and ideologies, more specifically attitudes towards
technology, I believe it is important, first and foremost, to establish my own personal understanding of the
dualistic and frequently conflicting ideas within Modernism itself. Modernisms key feature is its rejection
of everything perceived to be orthodox; a rhetoric of permanent revolution to innovate rather than
imitate. This inevitable progression into self-conscious interrogation of arts own internal, usually formal,
functions meant that the avant-garde ultimately veered towards self-criticism and continuous evolution.
The constant struggle to sustain some form of critical or oppositional challenge to the status quo means
that many of Modernisms most powerful critiques and conflicts often appear to come from within. It is
for this reason that within this essay I will approach Modernism and the avant-garde as shifts within a
shift; a series of distinct and conflicting movements that are holistically linked within a period of constant
cultural upheaval.

fig. 2 Barr, A. (1936) The Development of Abstract Art, Museum of Modern Art

Modernism as a movement, or at least a loose confederation, is a set of ideas and beliefs about art
produced in the modern period. Modernism as a label for the era is in itself a modern approach to art
history. We break down this chaotic period into a linear chronology of -isms, slotting it into the story of
art (Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.27). Modernism was however, broadly speaking, the cultural
outcome of modernity, the social experience of living in the modern world. (Meecham and Sheldon,
2000, p.2) This in mind, while exploring Modernism it should be considered distinct from the concept of
modernity, rather considered as a cultural impulse pushing away from the constraints of authoritarianism
as Peter Gay (2007) asserts, liberalism is Modernisms fundamental principle.

As Alfred Barrs attempt to map Modernisms development shows (figure 2) it was a non-linear and
messy affair, with modernists marching under many banners, with ideals and ideologies that were at
times completely incompatible with one another. (Gay, 2007, p.334) As Manets La Vie Moderne
demonstrated, modernity is a fleeting and ephemeral experience, as such, Modernism never stood still. It
was a period that aimed for rejection by the orthodox, defined most succinctly in the modernist trinity
authenticity, autonomy, originality. (Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.1) An ethos of spirited opposition
coupled with the conscious aim of breaking boundaries was seen to be the obligation of modernist art.

At the forefront of the movement were the avant-garde; a military metaphor applied to western cultural
practices that differentiates art practice from the late nineteenth century to what had come before. The
term embodies the danger and risk associated with the originality and counter-institutional values which
the avant-garde embodied. Within the avant-garde movements many paradoxes, conflicts and key
critiques become evident. In Peter Brgers second thesis (1984) he develops the idea that avant-garde
movements were a shift into self-criticism Dadaism no longer criticised the schools that preceded it,
but it criticised art as an institution. This in turn took in to criticise the bourgeois society, and ultimately
aestheticism.

The strategies devised by artists, writers and musicians to establish and sustain some form of critical or
oppositional challenge to the dominant order make up some of the most interesting skirmishes of the
nineteenth- and twentieth century art. (Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.16) Fuelling these skirmishes
was an avant-garde culture that contained many paradoxes. One such paradox was the instrumental
effect of art markets on an art that aims to be autonomous and free but at the same time remains in
thrall to the novelty factor of an art world hotfoot in pursuit of the new and unfamiliar. (Meecham and
Sheldon, 2000, p.27)

fig. 3 Duchamp, M. (1917) Fountain. Photograph by Stieglitz, A. 1917

fig. 4 Duchamp, M. (1913) Bicycle Wheel. 3rd Version, 1951.

Marcel Duchamp, and surrealism, can be used to illustrate this paradox. Self-consciously interrogating
arts own internal, usually formal, functions was the imperative that gave the modernist movement a
seemingly undisputed status in identifying the only significant art of its time. Duchamps anti-art , for
example Bicycle Wheel and Fountain (fig. 3 and fig. 4), was the anti-thesis of art, so arguably it cannot
be claimed for art. (Humbles second thesis, 1982) Duchamp sanctioned the role of artist to question,
admonish, critique, and playfully ridicule existing norms in order to transcend the status quo. (Rosenthal,
2000)

Anti-arts embodiment and intention was to create something that does not, and could not, satisfy the
criteria we employ in identifying something as art. Modernists seemed to be embroiled in a crisis about
its objects of desire, which is to say that artists fetishised objects perceived to fall outside of the
traditional remit of art. Thus, identifying these objects as such nullifies their significance. (Humble, 1982)
This cyclic paradox with the avant-garde has been identified by Hal Foster as the ideology of
progress, the presumption of originality, the elitist hermeticism, the historical exclusivity, the appropriation
by the culture industry, and so on. (Foster, 1990, p.5) In other words, the consistent critique of
modernist values, the paradox it faced, is the self-nullification of itself through an inherent contradictory
ideology wherein the counter-institution is institutionalised.

Despite this disjunction, the avant-garde remains an important (if fictional) feature of Modernism,
especially in terms of its inclusions and exclusions. (Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.16) A key inclusion,
and iconic feature of Modernism, is its attitudes towards technology, dynamism, mechanisation and,
predominantly, the machine aesthetic. The machine and technological advancement reconfigured
mankind's philosophical relationship with the world. The Great War substantially engrained the machine
into the consciousness of the period; creating in turn a new set of images and metaphors to interpret the
modern condition.

The machine aesthetic doesnt describe a particular group, more it is a label for common aspects
between affiliated movements in the First Machine Age of the 1910s and 1920s very generally purism
in France; De Stijl in Holland; suprematism and productivism in Russia; constructivism at the Bauhaus;
and precisionism in North America. (Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.113-114) Identified by leitmotifs of
speed, gigantism, repetition, standardisation, efficiency and noise provided both positive metaphors of
harmony and strength and negative metaphors of human alienation in an increasingly mechanised and
artificial world. (Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.110)
Arguably the most famous Modernist movement associated with the machine aesthetic was Futurism. In
Futurisms core was a celebration of technology and the machine, expressed through enthusiasm and
dynamism shown in works such as Ballas (fig.1), forever embedding this idea into Modernisms image
and identity. However, in actuality the Futurists hijacked Modernism, taking it to places it had never
expected to go; making it synonymous with scientific and technological advances. The zeitgeist of
inexorable technological advancement had spawned both utopian and dystopian premonitions within
Modernism; conflicting ideas of the machine as a harbinger of disaster or a means of salvation. From
here spawned two distinct approaches towards the the utilisation of, and place for, technology within the
arts. Here lies the fundamental dichotomy in the Modernist technological mission constructivism vs.
expressionism; umbrella terms used to describe all sorts of European and North American art
movements.
Through the self-consciously utilitarian language of the constructivist avant-garde, the differences
between expressionism and constructivism is evident. In the utilitarian manifesto, New Way of
Life (1918-1919), Vladmir Tatlin renames the artist as technician or inventor; fundamental opposition
to the idea of the artist as a solitary genius expressing himself in the medium of paint or stone.
(Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.117) For constructivists the modern age was the death of the easel,
they believed in mimicking industrial processes. In his pamphlet, Where Artists and Technicians
meet (1925-1926), Walter Gropius laid out the fundamental difference between expressionism and
constructivism a differentiation between the technological product made by a sober mathematical
mind and the work of art created by passion (Leger, quoted in Benton and Benton, 1975, p. 147).
These conflicting legions of thought adopted dissimilar styles and engaged in an artistic duel.

The course of modern art was split in two, Modernism was subsumed by two overarching trends (see
Alfred Barrs map of Modernism,The Development of Abstract Art, figure 2) Non-Geometrical abstract
art, growing out of expressionism; and geometrical abstract art, growing out of constructivism.
Geometrical abstract art was an antidote to expressionism, it revealed a broad disenchantment with the
cult of the solipsistic and self-indulgent artist. Fernand Lger summed up this attitude in 1924: I have
more faith in it [the machine] than in the longhaired gentleman with a floppy cravat intoxicated with his
own personality and his own imagination (quoted in Benton and Benton, 1975, p.98) This is a far cry
from the early modernists heightened sense of self-expression exemplified in Czannes maxim, let us
strive to express ourselves according to our personal temperaments.
As Modernism developed, these two conflicting outlooks appeared irreconcilable. Attempting to reunite,
embody and apply modernist values and ideologies towards technology, was the Bauhaus, where the
conflict played out in microcosm. While maintaining an emphasis on craft, in 1923 Walter Gropius
repositioned the goals of the Bauhaus towards designing for mass production. (Griffith Winton, 2000)
The Bauhaus necessary restructure was a substantiation of the financial impracticability of early
modernist ideals of autonomy from markets; a value largely expunged from Modernism and latterly
hyper-inverted by the easy embrace of commodity culture in Postmodernism.
Bauhaus main critique, and its ultimate failure, was its flaw in recognising the human element of design,
architecture and technology. Peter Schiedahl stated the Bauhaus shortcomings were due to its
projection of a utopia with mechanistic views of human nature; Home hygiene without home
atmosphere. (Schjeldahl, 2009) The influence of the Bauhaus spread into movements around the world,
but it was this utopian vision, lacking in human reality, that would be its iconic downfall.
The day modern architecture died (Jencks, 1984), 3:32pm, 15th July, 1972 the Pruitt-Igoe housing
complex was demolished, and any notions and ideas of Modernism were said to have gone with it.
However through Postmodernism many of the defining characteristics of Modernism remain. The
modernist values and ideologies towards technology as embodied in the Bauhaus, although adapted,
remain a continuation that makes the two designations seem, at times, almost indistinguishable.
((Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.1) In addition, as new technology emerged, and the network society
developed, the modernist aspiration of continuous opposition and premonitions of utopia and dystopia
persist. The avant-garde a standard, normalised and accepted feature of institutionalised art one its
hard to imagine the world without.
In all, Modernism was a movement that shaped and defined the world we live in today. Its many
movements, shifts and struggles set a basis and created the language for approaching the modern world
while also highlighting the many impasses modern man has crossed to get there. It has been
criticised time after time, and is systematically self-antithetic. The avant-gardes constant aim to oppose
and disrupt caused many distinctions and artistic-melees between Modernisms coexisting movements
and subjects. Nonetheless, the technological values and ideologies it embodied however dystopian,
utopian or contested they may have been created a new lens through which to view and interpret the
modern condition, and have continued as an underlying feature of modern art ever since.

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References

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ARS (2014) Bicycle Wheel (1951) third version, after lost original of 1913, digital image, Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York / ADAGP, Paris / Estate of Marcel Duchamp. Source URL:
<http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=81631>

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Balla, G. (1913) Abstract Speed- The Car has Passed / Velocit astratta - l'auto passata, Tate, digital image,
Source URL: <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/balla-abstract-speed-the-car-has-passed-t01222>
Barr, A. (1936) The Development of Abstract Art, Museum of Modern Art, digital image, Source URL:
<http://blogs.artinfo.com/lacmonfire/files/2012/02/Barr.jpg>
Berman, M. (1982) All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity, New York: Simon and Schuster.
Benton, T. and Benton, C., with Sharp, D. (1975) Form and Function: A Source Book for the History of Architecture
and Design 1890-1939, London, Open University Press
Brger, P. (1984) Theory of the Avant-Garde, University of Minnesota Press, 1st Edition
Collins, M. (1987) Towards Post-Modernism, London: British Museum Publications.
de Duve, T. and Krauss, R. (1994) Echoes of the Readymade: Critique of Pure Modernism, Vol. 70, The Duchamp
Effect (Autumn, 1994), pp. 60-97, The MIT Press : Article URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/779054
Foster, H. (ed.) (1990) Postmodern Culture, Pluto Press, London
Gaiger, J. and Wood, P. (2003) Art of the Twentieth Century, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Gay, P. (2007) Modernism, New York: W.W. Norton.
Griffith Winton, A. (2000) The Bauhaus, 19191933. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2000 <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm> (August 2007)
Huhn, T. (2000) A Modern Critique of Modernism: Lukcs, Greenberg, and Ideology, Constellations Volume 7, No. 2,
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Jencks, C. (1984) The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. New York: Rizzoli. ISBN 978-0-8478-0571-6.
Meecham, P. and Sheldon, J. (2000) Modern Art: A Critical Introduction, London: Routledge
Rosenthal, N. (2000) Marcel Duchamp (18871968) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2000 <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/duch/hd_duch.htm> (October 2004)
Schjeldahl, P. (2009) Bauhaus Rules, Newspaper Article, The New Yorker, November 16, 2009
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10.1080/0950236X.2012.721384