WAS MODERNISM A REBELION AGAINST ANCIENT ART?

INTRODUCTION

Since its humble beginnings, art has always been a result of man's intellectual and emotional
connection with the world.

Its primary aim is to produce a message which will either provoke an unexplainable
consciousness within the hearts of its viewers or incite wisdom among the minds of the curious
or the affronted.

Due to its extensive role for man, art has long been studied in a variety of ways,with some
scholars adapting the vantage point of mere aesthetics while some venture into comparative
analyses.

The act of relating ancient art to modern art is not as simple as considering the time both were
made.

Basically speaking, ancient art concerns the types of art created during the ancient societies.

In this case, the term "ancient" refers to the earliest recording of man's history right down to the
Middle Ages.

A common denominator along the works conceived during this period is the reason for their
creation.

ART FORMS OF THE PAST

Contemporary artists are new life into techniques and forms found in centuries-old decorative
arts and design.

This exhibition will explore reinterpretations of stained glass, embroidery, hair work, cut paper,
wall coverings, ceramics, portrait miniatures, and wood-working.

The stained glass works of Judith Schaechter unite traditional technique, luminous beauty, and
decorative pattern with fantastical imagery that introduces a contemporary edge.
How does ancient art compare to modern art, considering such fervor for a supreme being,
an event, or a society?

Taking into deliberation the fact that modern art dates back from the 1860's and beyond, a
different style and philosophy prevails among the majority of works.

Similar to ancient art, the modern ones are also results of experimentation, but not in a phase of
honoring a higher being.

These are more personal works, with nature and human emotion playing an integral part for
artists like Van Gogh, Seurat, and Picasso.

It is also during the modern era when all the various schools of artistic thoughts have emerged to
detach the wholeness of art.

Cubism, realism, Dadaism, surrealism, and many more isms allowed for artistic freedom to take
center stage.

Here, the personal began to turn into a collaborative effort as artists joined forces to take a stand
for their favored style.

Dadaism, for example, is a cultural movement that rejects the standards of art that realism and
impressionism have proposed.

What resulted then are more styles that emerged for eccentricity's sake such as avant-garde and
popular art.
How does ancient art compare to modern art if both of them involve stages of
experimentation?

Perhaps the ideal way of seeing the larger picture is not by the way they differ, but by the way
they match.

Ancient art is seen as a result of man's praise for higher beings, whereas modern art sees a return
to man's search for identity after being subjugated by social forces for a long time.

In the end, only one has to consider the amount of works each era presented in an opportune light
that is as indiscriminate as possible.

MODERNISM

The beginning of the 20th century is an extremely convenient starting point for the great art
movement i.e. modernism.

It saw the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, marking a symbolic break from the preceding century.

It is important to remember, however, that while 1890 is an entirely appropriate starting date, it
is also an artificial one.

It includes many art movements like:-

1. SURREALISM

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual
artworks and writings.

The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality".

Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures
from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to
express itself.

THE LOVERS
The Lovers I (1928), is one of a small group of pictures painted by Magritte in Paris in 1927-28,
in which the identity of the figures is mysteriously shrouded in white cloth.

Magritte was fascinated by 'Fantomas', the shadowy hero of the thriller series . The identity of
'Fantomas' is never revealed;and he appears in the films disguised with a cloth or stocking over
his head.

Another source for the shrouded heads in Magritte's paintings has been suggested in the memory
of his mother's apparent suicide by drowning. Her wet nightgown wrapped around her face. This
trauma inspired a series of works in which Magritte obscured his subjects’ faces.

2. DADAISM

Dada was an artistic and literary movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland.

It arose as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that many thought had led to the war.

It was the first conceptual art movement where the focus of the artists was not on crafting
aesthetically pleasing objects but on making works that often upended bourgeois sensibilities and
that generated difficult questions about society, the role of the artist, and the purpose of art.

THE FOUNTAIN
Fountain is one of Marcel Duchamp’s most famous works.

The piece was a urinal, and titled Fountain. It is submitted for the exhibition of the Society of
Independent Artists, in 1917, at The Grand Central Palace in New York,

Fountain was rejected by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be
accepted from artists who paid the fee.

Fountain was displayed and photographed at Alfred Stieglitz's studio. The work is regarded by
art historians and theorists as a major landmark in 20th-century art.

3. SUPREMATISM

Suprematism is an art movement, focused on basic geometric forms, such as circles, squares,
lines, and rectangles, painted in a limited range of colors.

It was founded by Kazimir Malevich in Russia, around 1913, and announced in Malevich's 1915
exhibition, The term suprematism refers to an abstract art based upon "the supremacy of pure
artistic feeling" rather than on visual depiction of objects.

4. FUTURISM

It emphasized mainly on speed, technology, youth, and violence, and objects such as the car, the
aeroplane, and the industrial city.
The Futurists practiced in every medium of art including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic
design, industrial design, interior design, urban design, theatre, film, fashion, textiles, literature,
music, architecture, and even Futurist meals.

SIMULTANEOUS VISION

It is painted by Umberto Boccioni.

Umberto Boccioni incorporates dynamic lines, geometric and abstract forms, and a riot of warm
and cool colors to emphasize the Futurist ideology glorifying the city, constant movement, and
progress from multiple perspectives.

The composition is vivid, oil on canvas, representation of a city from the perspective of two
female figures looking down on it.

It overlaps the proportionately smaller street, geometrically shaped trees, and irregularly shaped
buildings lining the background and left corner of the painting while simultaneously seeming to
float and exist on the same plane as them, and as you Move diagonally bottom left to top right,
the color intensity goes from low to its highest point in the center to.