TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES

938 AURORA BOULEVARD, CUBAO, QUEZON CITY, 1109 METRO MANILA

MODERN EUROPEAN ART

BERNALES, ELIZABETH N.

ENRIQUEZ, ANDREA NICOLE R.

JIMENEZ, ERICKA MAE G.

LOPEZ, ELLAINE NACARIO N.

SEBASTIAN, REYNA DIANNE

IS21FA1
HISTORY

Modern art, painting, sculpture, architecture, and graphic arts characteristic of the 20th

and 21st centuries and of the later part of the 19th century. Modern art embraces a wide variety of

movements, theories, and attitudes whose modernism resides particularly in a tendency to reject

traditional, historical, or academic forms and conventions in an effort to create an art more in keeping

with changed social, economic, and intellectual conditions. The beginnings of modern painting cannot be

clearly demarcated, but there is general agreement that it started in 19th-century France.

The paintings of Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, and the Impressionists represent a

deepening rejection of the prevailing academic tradition and a quest for a more naturalistic representation

of the visual world. These painters’ Post-Impressionist successors can be viewed as more clearly modern

in their repudiation of traditional techniques and subject matter and their expression of a more subjective

personal vision. From about the 1890s on, a succession of varied movements and styles arose that are the

core of modern art and that represent one of the high points of Western visual culture.

These modern movements include Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism,

Futurism, Expressionism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Metaphysical painting, De Stijl, Dada,

Surrealism, Social Realism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Op art, Minimalism, and Neo-

Expressionism. Despite the enormous variety seen in these movements, most of them are

characteristically modern in their investigation of the potentials inherent within the painting medium itself

for expressing a spiritual response to the changed conditions of life in the 20th century and beyond. These

conditions include accelerated technological change, the expansion of scientific knowledge and

understanding, the seeming irrelevance of some traditional sources of value and belief, and an expanding

awareness of non-Western cultures.

CHARACTERISTICS

What we call “Modern Art” lasted for an entire century and involved dozens of different art

movements, embracing almost everything from pure abstraction to hyperrealism; from anti-art schools

like Dada and Fluxus to classical painting and sculpture; from Art Nouveau to Bauhaus and Pop Art. So

great was the diversity that it is difficult to think any unifying characteristic which defines the era. But if

there is anything that separate modern artist from both the earlier traditionalists and later postmodernists,

it is their belief that art mattered. To them, art had real value. By contrast, their precedessors simply

assumed it had value. After all they had lived in an era governed by Christian value systems and had

simply “followed the rules”. And those who came after the Modern period (1970 onwards), they so called

“postmodernists”, largerly rejected the idea that art (or life) has any intrinsic value. Although there is no

single defining feature of "Modern Art", it was noted for a number of important characteristics, as

follows:

(1) New Types of Art Modern artists were the first to develop collage art, assorted forms of assemblage, a

variety of kinetic art (inc mobiles), several genres of photography, animation (drawing plus photography)

land art or earthworks, and performance art. (2) Use of New Materials Modern painters affixed objects to

their canvases, such as fragments of newspaper and other items. Sculptors used "found objects", like the

"readymades" of Marcel Duchamp, from which they created works of Junk Art. Assemblages were

created out of the most ordinary everyday items, like cars, clocks, suitcases, wooden boxes and other

items. (3) Expressive Use of Colour Movements of modern art like Fauvism, Expressionism and Colour

Field painting were the first to exploit colour in a major way. (4) New Techniques Chromolithography

was invented by the poster artist Jules Cheret, automatic drawing was developed by surrealist painters, as

was Frottage and Decalcomania. Gesturalist painters invented Action Painting. Pop artists introduced

"Benday dots", and silkscreen printing into fine art. Other movements and schools of modern art which
introduced new painting techniques, included: Neo-Impressionism, the Macchiaioli, Synthetism,

Cloisonnism, Gesturalism, Tachisme, Kinetic Art, Neo-Dada and Op-Art.

FUNCTION

What are six functions that art fulfills?

ART FOR DELIGHT

We need delight, enjoyment, pleasure, decoration, amusement, and embellishment in our

lives to” lift us above the steam of life”, as a note art critic wrote. Visual delight in a work of art can take

many forms, including an appreciation of beauty or decoration, or delight in an element of surprise.

ART AS COMMENTARY

 Before the advent of the photography in the nineteenth century, artists and illustrators were

our only source of information about the visual appearance of anything.  by providing a visual account of

an event or a person, or by expressing an opinion, artists has shaped not only the way people understand

their own world but also how their culture is viewed by others. Artists who fulfill our need for

commentary often speak in language easy to understand, they view art`s primary goal as communication

between artists and viewer by means of subject matter.

ART IN WORSHIP AND RITUAL

Another function of art has been to enhance religious contemplation, and most of the

world`s religions have found ways to incorporate artists` creativity into their sacred rituals, place, and

ceremonies.  Thomas Aquinas, one of the most important roman catholic theologian, wrote in the

thirteenth century of the function of art as an aid to religious teaching: “It is benefit-ting holy scripture to

put forward divine and spiritual truths by means of comparisons with material things.  For God provides

for everything according to the capacity of its nature.”  He also wrote, “It is natural for man to be pleased
with representation”, meaning that we human enjoy looking at pictures of things.  Thus an artwork, if

attractively presented, ” raise (viewers) to the knowledge of intelligible truths”.

ART FOR COMMEMORATION

We all have a profound need to remember and show respect for those who have gone before

us.  Some commemoration is personal, as we each hold memories of people important in our lives.   But

commemoration is more often a more public act, perhaps celebrating a significant person or event, or

honoring patriotic actions.  Commemoration of any kind connects us with the chain of humanity that

stretches back for millennia, making human life more significant and valuable.  Visual imagery played a

decisive role in lost types of commemoration.

ART FOR PERSUASION

Many art-forms have a persuasive function.   Splendid government buildings, public

monuments, television commercials, and music videos all harness the power of art to influence action and

opinion.

ART AS SELF-EXPRESSION

For most of human history, self-expression has not been a primary reason for creating art.  

Other social and cultural needs, such as the five we have already considered, more fully engaged the

talents of artists. Art fulfills an expressive function when an artist conveys information about his or her

personality or feelings or worldview, and aside from a social cause, market demand, commissioning ruler,

or aesthetic urge
TECHNIQUE

The study of artists' techniques in general and the study of an individual artist's techniques in

particular are important for several reasons:

(a) Art historians can use detailed knowledge of an artist's technique and its developmental

evolution throughout the artist's career in the authentication process. This information can also aid in the

establishment of a proper chronology for the known works of a given artist.

(b) Artists of various historical periods were able to achieve specific visual effects by the use

of special artists' materials or by methodical application of proven painting techniques. Because detailed

documentation is seldom available today to help artists learn the steps needed to re-create a given visual

effect, artists must rely on the results of systematic art research to learn old master techniques.

(c) Museum conservators, in order to ensure a safe working strategy when planning a

conservation or restoration treatment, rely on specific information about pigments, binding media, and

materials, including those of earlier restorations, as well as detailed knowledge of the structural

arrangements of these materials.

The art historian and art research

The role of the art historian in the realm of art research is critical. It is the art historian who must

set the foundation, into which the information gathered by individual researchers of a painting-technique
research team is organized, for final interpretation. In the study of painting techniques, two tools used by

art historians are very important: connoisseurship and archival research.

Connoisseurship

Beyond establishment of individual and historical chronologies, connoisseurship itself-the expert

knowledge of style and technique that the art historian develops through the course of a career-is of

immense help in the research of artists' techniques. This keen sense of discrimination can be used to

identify idiosyncrasies particular to a given artist's work. When drawn from works of undisputed

provenance, the art historian can use the idiosyncrasies to establish a signature of style, materials, and

techniques for any given artist. This "signature style" is critical for researchers in all the related

disciplines. The signature style for a particular artist establishes the standard of measure against which all

data can be judged.

Archival research

The study of primary documents-such as municipal, guild, or financial records and chronicles in

which artists' names can be directly located-provides crucial information about artists' lives, training,

professional and social standing, and other socio-economic factors that influenced the development of

their working methods and personal painting styles. When an artist's notes, letters, books, diaries, and

travel journals are available, the study of these materials often provides important information leading to

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and

Studio Practice knowledge and understanding of the artist's intent, as well as the rationale behind the use

of a particular material and painting technique.

The study of primary sources-such as books and treatises on painting, old recipes for the

preparation of artist materials, and guild practices and procedures-can contribute to our understanding of

the artists' working environment. The study of such documents can be invaluable, but extreme caution

should be applied when interpreting old manuscripts. A number of misunderstandings have arisen
because of the often confusing nomenclature used in old texts and recipes and the distorted facts found in

old biographies of artists. Even so, the study of secondary documents, such as biographies of painters,

provides important information of the creative, social, and economical environment in which the artist

worked.

FORMS  Fauvism

 Fluxus
Other forms of Modern art (some of which
border on Contemporary art) include:
 Futurism
 Abstract expressionism
 Happening
 Art Deco
 Surrealism
 Art Nouveau
 Lettrisme
 Bauhaus
 Lyrical Abstraction
 Color Field painting
 Land Art
 Conceptual Art

 Constructivism

 Cubism

 Dada
 Minimalism
 Der Blaue Reiter
 Naive art
 De Stijl
 Op art
 Die Brücke
 Performance art
 Body Art
 Photorealism
 Expressionism
 Pop art

 Suprematism

 Video art

 Vorticism