Modernism in Art History: An Outline Pointing to the Future

Over the last three days, I have been reading and re-reading Christopher L.C.E. Whitcomb's excellent essay on Modernism in the art history timeline. He begins and ends his article with references to Suzi Gablik's Has Modernism Failed? (1984) with her view towards the hypothetical conclusion that "the end of Art is near". In particular, she asserts that if we as an art community and society hold that "anything can be considered art", then Innovation is no longer possible or desireable. I am not sure I see the connection. I have considered it axiomatic for quite some time that "anything created by man is formed for the purpose and use of man." That would even include art as an Occupation, art as a Statement, art as an Aesthetic, or art as a Recreation. Different purposes.

I liked the model of "Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis" propounded in the paper and it appears to be suitable for the dynamic of art's social-political impact throughout history. Does Art only express and reflect current events through the eyes of the artist or can Art Change the World? Action or reaction? How much is this a chicken-and-the-egg syndrome?

The proposed objective of Modernism is the "creation of a better society". There are two alternative Antithetical reactions to the Thesis "society is better": (1) society is actually better or (2) society is not better. To make a judgement on that issue is a matter of opinion, is it not? If society has reached its epitome and reached the ideal of human actualization and full potential, then the influence of art has been accomplished. Perhaps then, Art as Celebration would become a genre. If society still has room for continuous improvement, then Art can still have a potential impact on creating a better world through Art as Statement.

Perhaps the Synthesis is that (1) the world isn't completely better if Artists need to earn a living with Art as Occupation; (2) Perhaps the world isn't better if Artists want to Change the World through Art as Statement; (3) Perhaps for some but not all recreational Artists, Art as Recreation is an escape and avoidance from other less relaxing and more taxing endeavors; or (4) Perhaps Art as Aesthetic allows us to portray Beauty and Truth as noble ideals in a world that isn't quite as Utopian.

So if Art isn't ended, where is Art heading in the future and what Innovation might be on the horizon? If we accept the Thesis that "Art is Original Expression" and contains symbols, icons, and meaning that reflect who the Artist is at a point in time and culture, then Art is Never Done. Rather, it reflects current social-political dynamics for the Artist as Creator.  For instance, mention is made in the article about Earth Art and Performance Art that redefines Art into genre that is difficult to categorize into historical genre. Each of these types is Art that is Fleeting and Momentary. A sign of the times that reflects an Artist's Worldview of Expression.

Perhaps then, I could propose that we would expect to see the (continued) influence of a number of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis dynamics in Art in the future reflecting current social-political influences:

• Western Cultural Imperative on Third World Countries versus Emerging Global Cultures and Diversity
• Individual Imperatives for Freedom versus Rule of Authority and Tyranny
• Bipolar Schisms, Separateness, and Isolation versus Unity and Connectedness
• Haves versus Have-Nots 
• Art for the Elite versus Art for and of the Masses
• Fundamental Religions versus Cultism versus Atheism versus Nihilism
• Big Government versus Big Business versus Big Religion versus Individual Self 
• Centralized Power versus De-centralized Power
• Original Art versus Copy Art (The China Influence)
• Control versus Chaos
• Quality of Life versus Survival
• Found Art with Recycling-Upcycled Materials versus Traditional Media
• Charitable Giving versus Art for Investment Return
• Disenfranchised Extremism Topics versus Mainstream Art Topics
• Great Master Works versus Art as Occupation versus Daily Painting Initiative versus Amateur Art

Concept Attainment: A Model to Understand Abstraction

My Number Three Daughter produced this piece on corrugated stock, I call it, Souvenir of Cezanne (2010), in August of that year when she was three years old. I recently asked her at age five if she recalled doing the work and she did not. Of course, proud Dad's are prone to this sort of collecting, naming, and labeling behavior. For me, it reminds me of Cezanne's splash of color in flat blocks without significant shape modeling or shadows. As I recall, this was one of the first efforts if not the first piece whereby she covered the entire surface with color leaving no gaps. I recognized that as a milestone for her development and retained the piece because of that. So why do I show this today?

Original Art: Souvenir of Cezanne Copyright James E. Martin 2010

There are attributes in Daughter's painting that make me think of Cezanne. There is Conceptual Similarity based on my experience and perception. And yet, her rendition is nothing like Cezanne.

I submit the following model of Hierarchy of Concept Development and Attainment to show some of the cognitive and emotive machinations we go through to identify and learn new concepts and how we differentiate concepts with intention to Explore and Innovate. It has been useful to me in the Realm of Art:

• Sensation  (Sight, Hearing, Taste, Touch, Smell, Proprioceptive)
• Attention (Focus on some things not others)
• Perception (Assigning meaning to what we sense; Patterns; Correlate to memory)
• Imagery (Develop an internal construct image in memory based on the external object)
• Labeling (Assign a name and taxonomy for the internal and external objects)
• Emotional Attribution (Assign emotional meaning to internal and external objects, i.e. like or dislike, trust or distrust, etc.)
• Concept Formation (Develop a higher level complex object with numerous attributes based on exemplars and non-exemplars)
• Concept Differentiation (Distinguish one concept from another based on comparisons of similar and dissimilar attributes)
• Abstraction (Develop a superceding, generalized, simpler model, a de-construction, or partial exemplar of a concept by adding or removing selected rules or attributes)

The reason I mention this Hierarchy today is because I am experimenting with some Formulations and methods generated from Impressionistic methods that appear Abstract in appearance. It is an unintentional and unplanned effect to get into Abstract appearances. This Hierarchy model can help the Reader evaluate what they are looking at when seeing new art or evaluating an Artist with a different look and feel to their Artifacts -What attributes do you see? What do you focus on? What does it mean to you based on your experiences? What other things does it remind you of?  What would you call it?  How do you feel about it? How is it the same or different from other things you have seen or experienced? How far out beyond your own experience is it? This is new territory for me to be delving into Abstract Art but I have an objective in sight and reason for conducting these experiments.  More to follow, Dear Reader.

The Equilibrium of Reasonable Art: The Artistic Endeavor

Oddly and somewhat unexpectedly, I have been drawn by Serendipity from my longstanding preference for the Impressionist era into reading and research about the origins of Modern Art evolving from the Impressionist roots. I have been extremely fortunate to come across a copy of Matisse: His art and his public (1951) by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. published by the Museum of Modern Art in NY.

Guillaume Apollinaire, a poet and art critic, interviewed Matisse and wrote up an article in La Phalange in December 15, 1907 and numerous excerpts from the article are noted in Barr's book [underscores below are my editing emphasis]. I am superstruck by those written precepts that resonate with me in these economic times today - more than a century later. This is all about The Artistic Endeavor even though some of the quotes are about Matisse's specific Creative Pursuit leading to the development of his Original Artifacts.

Photo Courtesy Guillaume Apollinaire: Internet Fair Use

• "When I came to you, Matisse, the crowd had looked at you and as it laughed at you, you smiled. They saw a monster there where a wonder was taking shape." [Apollonaire]
• "I have worked to enrich my knowledge by satisfying the diverse curiosities of my mind, striving to ascertain the different thoughts of ancient and modern masters of plastic art. I tried at the same time to understand their technique." [Matisse]
• "...retrace for me the adventures of this perilous voyage to discover your own personality. It proceeds from science to conscience, and leads to complete forgetfulness of everything that is not your own self.....Instinct is no guide; it got lost and we are trying to find it." [Apollonaire]
• "I found myself or my artistic personality by looking over my earliest works. They rarely deceive. There I found something that was always the same and which at first glance I thought to be monotonous repetition. It was the mark of my personality which appeared the same no matter what different states of mind I happened to have passed through." [Matisse]
• "But this took place at its own good time." [Apollonaire]
• "I made an effort to develop this personality by counting above all on my intuition and by returning again and again to fundamentals. When difficulties stopped me in my work I said to myself: 'I have colors, a canvas, and I must express myself with purity, even though I do it in the briefest manner by putting down, for instance, four or five spots of color or by drawing four or five lines which have a plastic expression.' " [Matisse]
• "You have been reproached, my dear Matisse, for this summary expression but you have thereby accomplished one of the most difficult tasks: to give a plastic sense to your pictures without the aid of the object except as it arouses sensations." [Apollonaire]
• "The eloquence of your works comes first of all from the combination of colors and lines. This is what constitutes the artistry of a painter and not - as some superficial spirits still believe - the mere reproduction of the object." [Apollonaire]
• "Henri Matisse makes a scaffolding of his conceptions, he constructs his pictures by means of colors and lines until he gives life to his combinations so that they will be logical and form a closed composition from which one cannot remove a single color or line without reducing the whole to a haphazard meeting of lines and colors." [Apollonaire]
• "To make order out of chaos - that is creation. And if the goal is to create, there must be an order of which instinct is the measure." [Apollonaire]
• "To one who works this way the influence of other personalities can do no harm. He has his inner conviction, which comes from his sincerity; and the doubts which harass him only stimulate his curiousity." [Apollonaire]
• "I have never avoided the influence of others. I would have considered this cowardice and a lack of sincerity toward myself. I believe that the personality of the artist develops and asserts itself through the struggles it has to go through when pitted against other personalities. If the fight is fatal and the personality succumbs, it means that this was bound to be its fate." [Matisse]
• "It is by incessantly comparing his art with other artistic conceptions and by keeping his mind open to other related arts that Matisse has attained the greatness and confident conviction that distinguish him." [Apollonaire]
• "...Know the artistic capacities of all races...[also know] our inheritance.....find here the nourishment that we love....and the spices from other parts of the world can at most serve us as seasoning....in spirit....meditate upon.....standing at this crossroad......look at himself.....find the path which his triumphant intuition shall follow with confidence....." [Apollonaire]
• "We are not in the presence of some extremist adventure....the essence of Matisse's art is to be reasonable....The conscience of this painter is the result of his knowing other artistic consciences. He owes his plastic innovations to his own instinct or self-knowledge." [Apollonaire]
• "Because there is a relationship between ourselves and the rest of the universe, we can discover it and then no longer try to go beyond it." [Apollonaire]

Dear Reader, this is precisely about the Artistic Endeavor...it is precisely about the Creative Pursuit.....it is precisely about the Inner Voice....it is precisely about finding Self in the universe of greater things...it is precisely about creating Order from Chaos....but in my humble opinion, it is not only about Creation or about Art or about Objects, not only about the development of an Original Artifact, and not only about being just an Artist.

It is about the application of one's Life Force and Energy. It's about reaching one's Unique Potential.

The "Equilibrium of Reasonable Art", a phrase that Guillaume Apollinaire instantiated in 1907....is a lot about Changing the World. But in a form and a format that has Informed Reason by the Individual, of the Individual, and for the Individual. It is all about the buying and selling of an Individual's developed Self and Expression in whatever Occupation the Artist endeavors in the Market Realm of Greater Things. This is not a trivial notion.

But what about Resistance, and Impedance, and Controls, and Differences, and Opinions? What about Tyranny and Oppression and Famine and Poverty? What about Selling Out? What about Giving Up? What about just Getting By? What about Respect and Diversity? It's about the Struggle. It's about Supply and Demand. It's about our personal Exchange through multiple Transactions with Others in the grand Marketplace for Things of Value. We each define what Value is for us at a moment in time, do we not? What do we Buy? What do we Sell? What do we Produce? What do we Consume? It's about Freedom of Expression. Are we actually free? And to what degree? It's what we choose to surround ourselves with. It's about  practical matters such as "Is_Anyone_Demanding_What_I_Want_to_Supply"? Or Is_Anyone_Consuming_What_I_Am_Producing? At what Price? At what Cost? It's about Change. It's about resolving Fairness and Equity. It's about the Past, the Present, and the Future.

Art has always been a Lightning Rod serving as a conduit for Potential Energy that Changes the World. Individuals expressing Self. Individuals who wish to criticize and Control Others. Individuals working and laboring to obtain what they Want or Need. It's a grand scheme of Equilibrium. My personal opinion is that it is not just about Art. Thank you Mr. Matisse and Mr. Apollonaire.