Modernism and Post Modernism in Arts
Modernity and postmodernity has drawn huge debates in social and art fields. Berman’s is a major critic of modernism and postmodernism. He argues that modernism presented life with possibilities and perils. He asserts that modernity is a process of evolution that involves growth, transformation, adventure, promise and also threaten to destroy everything that it have created. He asserts that modernity is playing a fundamental role to unite humankind in a paradoxical unity of maelstrom. He summarizes that to be modern is to involve in a world that Marx describe as “All that is solid melts into air”[1]. Berman conception of the modern world is negative although he highlights some positive elements. His depiction of the modern world is that the world has abandoned the tradition and the real value of things and instead adopted a capitalistic world where every man wants be his best in his own way. He summarize that modernity concept of life have perpetual forces of self-destruction and disintegration. This paper will present criticism of modernism and postmodernism and show how it is integrated in art.
Modernism is linked to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution between 1770s and 1920s. The period was marked with rapid changes and transformation in the way of life. People became materialistic and abandoned many traditional beliefs. All special of life such religion, social life, political, philosophy and art transformed. Art took a transcendental turn that resulted to commercialization of art. Postmodern period is a broad period that emerged after the late 20th century. It occurred as a shift from the modernity period as was highly seen in art, philosophy and architecture. The postmodernism period was marked with a period of high criticism and skepticism. The period was also marked with tenets of enlightenment rationality that included believe in absolute truth and objectivity reality. The period of modernity is traced from the transformation changes that took place since late 1960s. The period is highly linked to the economic changes that took place and determined by postindustrial capitalism. Literary postmodernism means the current economic changes and the aesthetic waves of the modern era in art, philosophical ideas and art. However, modernism and postmodernism are closely linked with many critics argues that there are no difference and that postmodernism is simply a late modernism.
Berman’s argue is a critic of modernism and postmodernism. He argues that modernism emerged because of constant developed because of major discoveries, transformations, urban expansions, and industrial upheavals. He explains that the development is also marked with upheaval and turbulent economic, cultural and world market. Berman terms this process as shorthand economic modernization. Berman argues that the maelstrom nature of the modern world has made men and women subject and object of modernization. He argues that the central aspect in modernism is not cultural changes but rather the development. Modernism was ushered in by the capitalist market and was marked with the personal development of human society. Berman argues that the quest of human development and capital market are the key aspect that contributed towards modernity. Everything that is contained in the notion of personal development is centered on personal power and widening human experience. Both modernism and postmodernism are marked with constant human development in all spheres of life including art. There has been a constant change in the art because of the introduction of capitalization nature and rationalization of reality in modernism and postmodernism eras. Rationalists’ view of the world is different and is not bound with the tradition and religious beliefs. They assert that meaning of life is personal and unique; therefore, this element should be represented in art. Berman argues that the quest of self-development has led to frustration, despair, insecurity and profound disorientation. He argues that this atmosphere of agitation and turbulence is the center of modern sensibility. There he argued that the current approach of art in modern era is a representation of this confusion. They reject the notion that art should be a representation of religion or other figures and that it must have a historical significance. However, modern art critics are quick to refute these claims because they consider art as unique and have a personal attachment to views. They claim that art should have a personal revelation with the view because of the inherent connection of the piece of art and viewer. One of heavily perceived criticism of modern art by contemporary artist is that modern art is just a representation of present “here and then” and that it will have little relevance in the future. They also argue that it is heavily influenced by capitalistic values and that it is not well placed to create meaningful change in society.
The perspective of modern art resulted as a revolution of art since many artists movement saw the need to develop new ways of explaining the world as it emerges rather than relying the techniques of old art that heavily relied on relating art to past experiences. Modern introduce their style that sharply differed with the idea of the past and emphasized on individual artistic uniqueness and what could be readily observed by people without relating the piece of art with history. Photography was one of the major reasons that led to emergence of modern artist. Classical artist had gained immense fame because of their vivid description of past events in drawings. However, after constant improving of photography, the constantly lose value because images captured through photography explained many aspects than the drawing[2]. Artist felt the need to represent their unique talent in new ways. They introduced modern art to capture the world in new ways without necessarily relating the art with history. Artists in modern and postmodern world focus on introducing an element of interest and unique in their piece of art, they believed that art was not art and it is not simply a relationship of history.
Abstract was used as an important tool to bring rendering of picture and integrate different representation by modern and postmodern artists. It was possible for artistic to use the abstraction to create scenes that relate piece of work with history and modern way of life. Artist of modern art were moving away from the representation of the modern world in as a representation of depiction. Many critics do not relate with modern and postmodern art. They consider modern day art as a way of some artistic to make money by trying to come up with poetic piece of art which could not be understood by many people. They explained that abstraction that is commonly seen in the modern art was not clearly identified to represent significant aspect of modern life or its integration with history. Only, the modern artistic could relate quickly with the impression and depiction of the modern art. Therefore, it was subject of interpretation and criticism and depending on which side of the debate. Because of the ambiguity and seamless interpretation of modern art, many celebrities saw it as a perfect representation because only few people could relate to the real meaning of the modern art. Rich people spends a lot of money on piece of art, and despite their appetite of spending lot money on modern art, they rarely understand the meaning. They hire artistic consultancy to explain the meaning. Critics of modern art such as Dave Hickey, argues that the consultancy misguide reach people and cause inflation of price of modern art even when scholars and artistic does not relate with the piece. He argues that modern art is all about fame, therefore, artistic who are in a position to market their product had better carry the day[3].
However, despite the high criticism of modern art by conservative and the classical artistic who believe that pieces of art should have a historical significance, they are many artists and scholar who try to explain the beauty of the modern art. Modern artistic claim that the world have evolved to be a complex place especially because of the high advancement of technology and it that is too shallow and limited to represent a piece of work in only one dimension. Modern art bring additional challenge because it is hard to explain what differentiate the modern art from the traditional forms of art. For instance, computer mediated environment has usher new forms. It is naïve for classical and conservative artistic to neglect the emergence of new forms even if they cannot capture the artistic element based on the traditional and commonly known artistic styles. Computer mediated environment is proving to provide unique element in the modern world and it is assisting modern artists to represent the world in new ways that could not be captured by the previous form of arts. However, some critics of computer-mediated art argue that the author of such piece are not original and are simply co-authors. Their contribution to the piece of art cannot be given a significant value because they effort in establishing the piece of art can be hardly seen.
The essential technical part of the coming up with the piece can only be understood by scholars and artistic and has no direct relationship with the general audience. The impact that the piece of work create to the audience is the most significant because it show that the audience are able to relate with the piece. Identity is an important concept in explaining the modern art concepts[4]. Therefore, many critics of the modern art are scholars, classical artists and conservatives who have their preconceived aspect that they articulate from work of art. However, the technical dimension is not important to the general audience because only personal appeal with the piece of work is important. This argument support the modern art and highlight that interactivity is the important concept when it comes to explaining piece of art. Some of contemporary artists and scholar argue that it is selfish for the modern critic to base on their perception of the piece of art and try to influence the audience in term of explaining the meaning of the art[5]. They claim that the art itself should have a unique way of communicating with the audience without the interaction of the third party. On this note, even the contribution of the artist is not welcomed when interpreting the piece of art. However, some scholar argues that because of the heavy commercialization of piece of art and the emergence art consultancy, art have become subject of different interpretation. Celebrity and rich people who have huge cash to spend become highly obsessed with art. However, most of them rely on interpretation from artist and expert to value piece of art. This presents aspect of fraud in art, where artists might simply misguide the customers for financial gains. The has led to emergence of many contemporary artists who are highly interested in making money and has little regard with what the audience will see from their work. Such artistic simply produce piece of work and use marketing ploy to entice their clients. The idea of separating interpretation of piece of work from any significance historical meaning is presenting serious problem because modern art has no benchmarks to determine authenticity of art and aspects which increase value to a piece of art. The concept of interactivity as an important aspect of determining value of art has been highly criticized by scholar because it simply assert that if a single person is impressed with a certain piece of art, he/she can create any value from the piece depending only on personal opinion.
Despite the criticism of modern art, they are many artistic who integrate the historical concepts into the modern drawing by integrating aspects of modernity and art. Other artistic use creativity and produce an imaginative world. However, value of the piece of art can only be based by the revelation of the audience.
Modern art tried to reduce the relationship concept and coming up with work that only the viewers relate the location on their situation. The modern art is concerned on how artist use light, space and vision in context to create a theatrical piece that can relate with any kind of view. Viewers in different places can look at a modern piece of art and have different meaning. The modern art are more concerned with reception and creating a situation. Fried argued that the modern art should create a situation that can relate universally with any viewer but the view can give the situation a location and a meaning.
Conclusion
Modernism and postmodernism is hugely linked and it is hard to differentiate the meaning. However, modernism is traced from the late 18th century and postmodernism marked a change from modernism in late 20th century. There are many changes in major spheres of life such as economic changes, developments, both positive and negative. There are also many elements included in this period. Modernism and postmodernism has also been marked with rationality and absolutism, which have caused significant changes in philosophy, literature and art. This study support postmodern and modern artists’ representation of art as a unique element that has a close ration with the viewer. Because of the turbulent nature of the world, people relate with things different. In addition as literature the aspect of individual interaction with the environment is the intriguing aspect. Therefore, for art to make a significant meaning to the hearts and mind of people in modern and postmodern era, it must represent their personal interaction with the world.
[1] Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, Chapters I and II only.
[2] Perry Anderson, “Modernity and Revolution. A response to Marshall Berman”
[3] Marshall Berman, “Modernity – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” in All That is Solid Melts Into Air, pp. 15-37.
Marshall Berman, “Modernity – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” in All That is Solid Melts Into Air, pp. 15-37.
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