Artworks with concern to Modernity

Since many decades art critics struggle to identify what is exactly can be called modern. “Realistic, naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; Modernism used art to call attention to art” that what C. Greenberg said about modern art in “Modernist Painting” 1960. This call of attention happens through all art history and will continue. The question is only about a time point in history, from which we are judging modernity.

For instance, at the beginning of the twentieth-century world economies were developing fast. New technology such as the car (1885) the plane (1903), the steam turbine (1904), the cinematograph (1895) were influencing the world society and ideology. In addition, the world stood on the eve of the First World War. At that time originated new social movement which called Futurism.

“…for the futurists, there was a perception of modernity as a great explosion of human energy, an intensification of life, a transformation of sensibility and consciousness. Modernity was a time of crisis and transformation of values, whence were born both the aspiration toward a new faith, a new religion for modern man, and the need for a new national ideology that would be adequate to the problems and challenges of modern life, such as the crisis of the traditional State, the mobilization of the masses, and global competition between national powers. ...the rebellion of a generation—that is, principally, a rebellion of a young new elite against the liberal bourgeois tradition”. (Emilo. 2003. p. 28-29)

This movement impact artists in Russia. Natalia Goncharova finished a work “Cyclist” in 1913. Dynamics and speed of time are visible in the work. Signs flash on the background and the wheels spin at an incredible speed. The position of the cyclist speaks of the unity of this man and time flow. Typical features of Futurism as a continuation of Cubism were broken spots and forms, shifted lines, dynamics in painting style.

© 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Right Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London

Another example of such a concern of modernism and modernity can be Andy Warhol with “his Marilyn Monroe”. A culture of products and consumption was a dominative art theme in the middle of the XX century. In the year of 1962, Marilyn Monroe died, being shocked out of this fact Warhol multiplying her portrait as he did it with Campbell soup cans. At the time of the Hollywood stars and glamour, desire to have part of this life was a tendency of that period. Artist used a silk print technique which makes the process of work fast and close to manufacturing. Modern colours, bright and juicy, together with a symbol of sexuality and fame, mixed with a consumption way of the presentation of a commodity on the shelves.

Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds 2010 Porcelain [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series/unilever-series-ai-weiwei-sunflower-seeds [Accessed 07/07/18]

Juliet Bingham, Curator, Tate Modern: Ai Weiwei's Unilever Series commission, Sunflower Seeds, is a beautiful, poignant and thought-provoking sculpture. The thinking behind the work lies in far more than just the idea of walking on it. The precious nature of the material, the effort of production and the narrative and personal content create a powerful commentary on the human condition. (Bingham, 2010 online) Thinking about Chinese political and social situation in a modern world this work represents the trends in industrialization and human labour in China and concerns about human rights. “Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China’s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geopolitics of cultural and economic exchange today.” (Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds 2010 Porcelain [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series/unilever-series-ai-weiwei-sunflower-seeds [Accessed 07/07/18])

As a conclusion, “Cyclist”, a portrait of Marilyn Monroe and Sunflower Seeds this is the best examples of the art which presents tendencies of a particular time period and place, with new elements and techniques of the modern art movement. After the accumulation of reality artists reflect on the modernity with a new interpretation of it.

Bibliography and references

Gentile, Emilo. 2003. p. 28-29 The Struggle for Modernity: Nationalism, Futurism, and Fascism. Praeger Publishers.

TATE THE UNILEVER SERIES: AI WEIWEI: SUNFLOWER SEEDS [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series/unilever-series-ai-weiwei-sunflower-seeds [Accessed 07/07/18]

Andy Warhol [Documentary film online] Available from: https://youtu.be/UQXpqQO4vaE [Accessed 07/07/18]