Media Arts History 3 - Modern Art

In our last blog post we talked about early historic arts. In today's blog, we will discuss about 

Modern Art (1863 - A Little After WW2).

Though modern art is mostly thought to have evolved in the late 19th century, it can be dated back earlier. The first year considered to be the birth of modern art is 1863. This year is when Édouard Manet first displayed d his painting Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (The lunch on on the grass). To describe the of modern age, we will go era by era.

Impressionism (1850-1895) was the first era of the modern age. It was the second golden year in art history, as it included some of the greatest artists in history like Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. In this era the style of painting changed; 'artists did not paint with technique, but rather simply smeared paint onto a canvas' and 'created art for art’s sake.' One thing that added to the magic of the paintings was that artists begun painting outside during this era.

The next era, was Symbolism (1890-1920). In this era, artists represented feelings through objects in their painting. The most common themes in this era were sickness and death.

In the middle of the Symbolism era was the Expressionism (1890-1914) era. 

This art was used mostly in Germany. As we know, WW1 begun in 1914, and this type of art highly influenced it. During this era, political ideas were spread through art. Paintings indirectly displayed 'power' and 'social order'.

In the middle of the Symbolism era, there was another era, Cubism (1906-1914), which was occurring in Western Europe excluding Germany. Cubism is notably the best era in modern art history as it featured the founders of Mixed Media Arts, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.Mixed Media Arts gave artists the freedom of art; this era was all about re-arranging geometric shapes to make an organized piece of art. 

The next era, Futurism (1909-1945), was basically a bigger version of the era Expressionism. In this era, painting were mostly for political reasons and the most common themes included hostility, anger, chaos, and aggression.

While the Futurism movement influenced war, another era called Dadaism (1912-1920) formed. This was an anti-war movement and came in a variety of forms including writing, poetry, and performance art. Dadaism's name changed to Surrealism after 1920 to 1930.

The next era was The New Objectivity (1925-1965). As we know, WW2 ended in 1945, and people were trying to recover from the emotions of war. Thus, art in this era were cold and unemotional, and the most used objects in paintings were radio and light bulbs.

The next era, the Abstract Expressionism (1948-1962), was the first era to take place outside of Europe. It took place in North America, and the theme of the paintings were colorful and full of action. Also, the new style of this era was to use fingers to paint instead of paint brushes.

Pop-Art (1955-1969) was the next era. It took place in the U.S and the UK. In this era, literally everything was considered art. For example, toothpaste, toilets, and tin cans were considered art.

The next era, the Neo-Expressionism (1980-1989), marks the last of the Modern Art age. This type of art featured large-format representational and life-affirming paintings. They were painted in big cities and on buildings.

All eras that came afterwards are considered New Media Arts, or Contemporary Arts. In fact, the last 2 eras mentioned in this blog post (Pop-Art and Neo-Expressionism), are considered New Media Arts by many historians. So stay tuned for our blog post on History!

Liebermann, Max, and Tommaso Marinetti's. “Art Periods - A Detailed Look at the Art History Timeline.” Art in Context, 15 September 2021, https://artincontext.org/art-periods/. Accessed 31 January 2022.