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Arts & Crafts Movement

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The birth of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain in the late 19th century marked the beginning of a change in the value society placed on how things were made. This was a reaction to not only the damaging effects of industrialisation but also the relatively low status of the decorative arts. Arts and Crafts reformed the design and manufacture of everything from buildings to jewellery.

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

In Britain the damaging effects of machine-dominated production on both social conditions and the quality of manufactured goods had been recognised since around 1840. But it was not until the 1860s and '70s that new approaches in architecture and design were championed in an attempt to correct the problem. The Arts and Crafts movement in Britain was born out of an increasing understanding that society needed to adopt a different set of priorities in relation to the manufacture of objects. Its leaders wanted to develop products that not only had more integrity but which were also made in a less dehumanising way.

Structured more by a set of ideals than a prescriptive style, the Movement took its name from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, a group founded in London in 1887 that had as its first president the artist and book illustrator Walter Crane. The Society's chief aim was to assert a new public relevance for the work of decorative artists (historically they had been given far less exposure than the work of painters and sculptors). The Great Exhibition of 1851 and a few spaces such as the Refreshment Rooms of the South Kensington Museum (later known as the V&A) in the 1860s had given decorative artists the chance to show their work publicly, but without a regular showcase they were struggling to exert influence and to reach potential customers.

The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society mounted its first annual exhibition in 1888, showing examples of work it hoped would help raise both the social and intellectual status of crafts including ceramics, textiles, metalwork and furniture. Its members publicly rejected the excessive ornamentation and ignorance of materials, which many objects in the Great Exhibition of 1851 had been criticised for. For many years in Britain exhibitions mounted by the Society were the only public platform for the decorative arts, and were critical in changing the way people looked at manufactured objects.

Although it was known by a single name (one that wasn't in fact used widely until the early 20th century), the Arts and Crafts movement was in fact comprised of a number of different artistic societies, such as the Exhibition Society, the Arts Workers Guild (set up in 1884), and other craftspeople in both small workshops and large manufacturing companies.

Many of the people who became involved in the Movement were influenced by the work of the designer William Morris, who by the 1880s had become an internationally renowned and commercially successful designer and manufacturer.

Morris only became actively involved with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society a number of years after it was set up (between 1891 and his death in 1896), but his ideas were hugely influential to the generation of decorative artists whose work it helped publicise. Morris believed passionately in the importance of creating beautiful, well-made objects that could be used in everyday life, and that were produced in a way that allowed their makers to remain connected both with their product and with other people. Looking to the past, particularly the medieval period, for simpler and better models for both living and production, Morris argued for the return to a system of manufacture based on small-scale workshops.

Morris was not entirely against the use of machines, but felt that the division of labour - a system designed to increase efficiency, in which the manufacture of an object was broken into small, separate tasks, meaning individuals had a very weak relationship with the results of their labour - was a move in the wrong direction.

Like many idealistic, educated men of his era, he was shocked by the social and environmental impact of the factory-based system of production that Victorian Britain had so energetically embraced. He wanted to free the working classes from the frustration of a working day focused solely on repetitive tasks, and allow them the pleasure of craft-based production in which they would engage directly with the creative process from beginning to end.

Morris was himself inspired by the ideas of the Victorian era's leading art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), whose work had suggested a link between a nation's social health and the way in which its goods were produced. Ruskin argued that separating the act of designing from the act of making was both socially and aesthetically damaging. The Arts and Crafts movement was also influenced by the work of Augustus Pugin (1812-1852). An interior designer and architect, Pugin was a Gothic revivalist and a member of the Design Reform Movement. He had helped challenge the mid-Victorian fashion for ornamentation, and, like Morris, focused on the medieval period as an ideal template for both good design and good living.

In the final decade of the 19th century and into the 20th, the Arts and Crafts movement flourished in large cities throughout the UK, including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. These urban centres had the infrastructure, organisations and wealthy patrons it needed to gather pace. Exhibition societies inspired by the original one in London helped establish the Movement's public identity and gave it a forum for discussion. Members of the Arts and Crafts community felt driven to spread their message, convinced that a better system of design of manufacture could actively change people's lives. Between 1895 and 1905 this strong sense of social purpose drove the creation of over a hundred organisations and guilds that centred on Arts and Crafts principles in Britain.

Progressive new art schools and technical colleges in London, Glasgow and Birmingham encouraged the development of both workshops and individual makers, as well as the revival of techniques, including enamelling, embroidery and calligraphy. Arts and Crafts designers also forged new relationships with manufacturers that enabled them to sell their goods through shops in London such as Morris & Co. (William Morris's 'all under one roof' store on Oxford Street), Heal's and Liberty. This commercial distribution helped the Movement's ideas reach a much wider audience.

A particular feature of the Arts and Crafts movement was that a large proportion of its leading figures had trained as architects. This common culture helped develop a collective belief in the importance of designing objects for a 'total' interior: a space in which architecture, furniture, wall decoration, etc. blended in a harmonious whole. As a result, most Arts and Crafts designers worked across an unusually wide range of different disciplines. In a single career someone could apply craft-based principles to the design of things as varied as armchairs and glassware. Arts and Crafts also had a significant impact on architecture. Figures including Philip Webb, Edwin Lutyens, Charles Voysey and William Lethaby quietly revolutionised domestic space in buildings that referenced both regional and historical traditions.

Although the Arts and Crafts movement evolved in the city, at its heart was nostalgia for rural traditions and 'the simple life', which meant that living and working in the countryside was the ideal to which many of its artists aspired. Increasingly, many left the city to establish new ways of living and working, with workshops set up across Britain in locations including the Cotswolds, the Lake District, Sussex and Cornwall. All these places offered picturesque landscapes, an existing culture of craft skills and, importantly, rail links for access to patrons and the London market.

Arts and Crafts makers based in rural communities both revived craft traditions and created employment for local people. This kind of development meant that the Movement endured longer in the countryside than in the city, and had a more significant impact on the rural than the urban economy. Significantly, the Arts and Crafts community was open to the efforts of non-professionals, encouraging the involvement of amateurs and students through organisations such as the Home Arts and Industries Association. And it also created an environment in which, for the first time, women as well as men could begin to take an active role in developing new forms of design, both as makers and consumers.

In Europe the honesty of expression in Arts and Crafts work was a catalyst for the radical forms of Modernism, whereas in Britain the progressive impetus of the Movement began to lose momentum after the First World War. Under the control of older artists it had begun to withdraw from productive relationships with industry and into a purist celebration of the handmade. Some organisations sympathetic to Arts and Crafts ideals did survive, particularly in the countryside, and the original Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society mounted regular shows up to and beyond its 50th anniversary in 1938. In 1960, t he Society merged with the Cambridgeshire Guild of Craftsmen to form the Society of Designer Craftsmen, which is still active today.

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Discover the origins of the Arts and Crafts movement and how its reformist principles helped changed the way society looked at manufactured objects

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Art Nouveau

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Decorative, sensual, and uncompromising, Art Nouveau ('New Art') emerged as a dynamic and expressive style in the visual arts from the early 1890s to the First World War. Taking its inspiration from the natural world, its characteristic motifs include delicate tendrils, organic forms, swooping, swirling lines, eccentric geometry and exotic bodies.

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Vienna Secession

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The ideas that defined the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain soon spread abroad - first to central Europe, then to America, and finally to Japan in the mid-1920s, helping shape the country's Mingei (Folk Art) Movement. During a period of huge political upheaval, Arts and Crafts thinking fed into the work of designers all over the world who were using the decorative arts to explore national identity and the impact of industrialisation. Our collections hold many striking examples of Arts and Crafts-influenced design from Europe, America and Japan, including items of furniture, homewares, pattern design, clothing and jewellery.

In April 1897 a group of Vienna-based painters, sculptors and architects (led by painter Gustav Klimt) broke with the city's arts establishment, and formed an art movement called the Vienna Secession. Rejecting popular backwards-looking styles, the Secessionists made a point of connecting with the latest artistic movements abroad, including British Arts and Crafts. Inspired by the ideas of William Morris, the Secessionists wanted to reunite the fine and applied arts, and to use handmade goods to help rescue Austrian society from what they saw as the 'moral decay' of industrialisation. In 1900 the Vienna Secession invited artists from England, Scotland and France to take part in the group's 8th Exhibition, providing British Arts and Crafts with its first international platform.

In 1902 two Secession members, architect Josef Hoffmann and artist Koloman Moser, formed the 'Wiener Werkstätte' (Vienna's Workshops) with the principal goal of 'bringing art into the home' via well-designed domestic products. Their model for this new venture was English designer Charles Robert Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft, which Hoffman had visited on a trip to London. Blending an Arts and Crafts-style commitment to traditional, high-quality production methods with a belief in forward-looking aesthetics, the Wiener Werkstätte produced benchmark designs in metalwork, furniture, glass, ceramics and textiles. Other important Vienna-based designers creating products for the home at this time include Josef Niedermoser and architects Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos.

A number of German artists' colonies modelled themselves on British Arts and Crafts groups such as the Guild of Handicraft, the most well known being one at Darmstadt. Led by Austrian-born architect and designer Joseph Maria Olbrich, between 1901 and 1914 the project produced numerous examples of 'modern living culture' in the form of fully furnished private villas, apartments and workers' homes in Darmstadt's Mathildenhöhe district. The influence of British Arts and Crafts ideas about the importance of craft can also be seen in the work of designers such as Henry van de Velde, a Belgian-born architect, painter and interior designer whose work had a significant impact on German visual culture at the beginning of the 20th century.

In Germany, the model of production endorsed by British Arts and Crafts was generally thought to be too anti-industrial. The country's designers often saw technology as a legitimate means of achieving efficient production, as long as quality was maintained. For example, Richard Riemerschmid was influenced by Arts and Crafts ideas but at his United Workshops in Dresden, he developed designs for 'art furniture' that relied on production by machine. And in 1907 a group of influential designers set up an organisation based on a very pragmatic application of Arts and Crafts principles. The 'Deutscher Werkbund' (German Association of Craftsmen) aimed to improve the design of everyday domestic objects in collaboration with established large-scale producers - an idea realised by designs such as Peter Behrens' electric kettle for AEG (1908).

In the Scandinavian countries during this period, greater political independence sparked nationalist feeling and debate about the need for new cultural identities. Even in more physically remote countries such as Finland and Norway, designers were able to follow developments in Britain and other parts of Europe. The Arts and Crafts model of craft and tradition combined with innovation, provided a framework in which individuals and the members of small workshops could create new and distinctive work. This revival of traditional handicrafts, however, still relied on the patronage of the upper-middle classes.

Silverware was particularly well supported, with Georg Jensen, a Dane, producing the most celebrated designs of the early 20th-century period. Similarly, Evald Nielsen, another Danish silversmith, upheld the principles of craft and quality in the production of his striking jewellery designs. In Finland, a new awareness of national identity (the country's territory remained part of the Russian Empire until 1917) found expression in the growth of design and the arts in general. A number of workshops produced radically modern designs, including the workshops in Porvoo, whose founder invited influential Brussels-educated English ceramicist Alfred William Finch to work there.

In Russia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, severe social and economic deprivation co-existed with a desire to preserve the country's numerous and diverse local cultures. This led to the rediscovery of local vernacular (domestic and functional) architecture and design, and the assertion of national pride. Where British Arts and Crafts practitioners found the ideal style in designs from the medieval period, in central Europe the historical peasant village was the chief source of inspiration.

At the Abramtsevo Colony north of Moscow, artists worked to revive the high-quality traditions of the Russian decorative arts. Designers such as Viktor Hartman, Vasily Polenov, Viktor Vasnetsov and Yelena Polenova produced handmade furniture and tiles decorated with Russian imagery. This began a focus on regional themes that later expanded to include the production of drama and opera (with visits made by influential figures that included Konstantin Stanislavski and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov).

Arts and Crafts societies and experimental communities, modelled on British examples, were first established in and around Massachusetts and New York in the early 1890s. American designers looked to their native heritage, landscape and climate, and their practice was generally more commercial than that of their European counterparts. Among the most notable of the East Coast designers to champion Arts and Crafts ideals was Gustav Stickley. Produced in his workshops in Syracuse, New York state, Stickley's designs reflected his belief in 'honesty, simplicity and usefulness', and the importance of creating reasonably priced pieces to furnish the homes of working people. This unadorned aesthetic became known as the 'Craftsman style', a look disseminated by The Craftsman, an influential magazine published by Stickley between 1901 and 1916.

Arts and Crafts design was particularly influential in Chicago, which became a base for architects and designers of the 'Prairie School'. The flat landscape of the Midwest inspired Frank Lloyd Wright and his contemporaries to produce 'earth-hugging' domestic architecture that offered a radical alternative to the glass-and-steel aesthetic of Chicago's new skyscrapers. Lloyd Wright and his associates introduced revolutionary changes in domestic design. They opened up interiors, removed applied ornament and brought native plants into their design via abstract motifs. On the West Coast brothers Charles and Henry Greene, California's foremost Arts and Crafts architects and designers, treated the house as a 'total work of art'. Their furniture, notable for its exquisite joinery and use of sumptuous redwoods, was designed specifically to fit each room.

Japan: 1926 - end World War II
Led by the philosopher and critic Yanagi Sōetsu, the Mingei ('Folk Crafts') Movement in Japan was officially established in 1926. Equivalent to, and largely inspired by, the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain, John Ruskin and William Morris were major influences. Mingei philosophy introduced the idea of 'direct perception', the intuitive ability to discover beauty that was 'born' rather than 'made'. Centred on the belief that humble goods could express fine aesthetic qualities, the movement advocated the use of historical folk crafts as a template for the production of domestic objects, assembling extensive collections of indigenous pieces. As well as collecting 'template' pieces, Mingei designers also created model rooms in an attempt to persuade the middle classes to adopt a new hybrid lifestyle that reflected Japan's rapidly modernising society by combining Japanese and western features.

The Mingei Movement championed the work of named artist-craftsmen who, by example, helped to preserve and raise the standards of the kind of traditional artisanal craft production that was threatened by industrialisation. Four key figures in the development of the Movement were potters: the Englishman Bernard Leach, who lived in Japan from 1909 to 1920, Hamada Shōji (who set up the Leach Studio in St Ives, Cornwall with Bernard Leach in 1920), Kawai Kanjirō and Tomimoto Kenkichi; other notable designers include the textile artist Serizawa Keisuke, the woodwork and lacquer artist Kuroda Tatsuaki, and the painter and woodblock-print artist Munakata Shikō.

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The ideas that defined the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain soon spread abroad - first to central Europe, then to America, and finally to Japan in the mid-1920s, helping shape the country's Mingei (Folk Art) Movement.

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Deutscher Werbund

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Founded by Hermann Muthesius in 1907, the aim of the Deutscher Werkbund was to foster links between artists and German industrialists to develop a German identity through design and architecture. By 1914 there were 1,870 members in 6 countries.[1]

The Werkbund expanded on the English Arts and Crafts movement, adopting concerns that craft and design influenced people's lives and propagating a rejection of historicism in favour of vernacular architecture suited to the modern age. The major difference between the Arts and Crafts movement and the Deutscher Werkbund was that the Werkbund sought to combine promotion of craft with industry, as opposed to a rejection of machine production. The Werkbund embraced technology to design objects and buildings that fulfilled the changing needs of society.

'Between 1894 and 1904 the value of Germany's foreign trade doubled, and by 1913 Germany overtook Great Britain in percentage of world production.'[2] Industry was vital to the German economy, and as they had no access to cheap materials, the focus was directed towards high quality craft production. In contrast to British Arts and Crafts ideals, architects in Germany started to see mechanisation as necessary, and therefore needed expression through architecture and design. Muthesius was interested in exploring nationality, and seeking to 'express architectonically the dignity and calm endeavour of a new, confident national German spirit.'[3] Some Werkbund architects including Walter Gropius were involved in plans for social housing, developing notions of standardisation and prefabrication. For the most part however, the focus was on industrial production.

Peter Behrens epitomises the Werkbund's preoccupations with representing industry as both noble and part of German identity. Behrens successfully formed a corporate identity for the electrical company 'Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft' (AEG), through graphic design, advertising, products and also architecture. The AEG Turbine Hall (1908-09) [Fig.1] was built as a factory and needed a central hall without interruption facilitating the movement of large turbines within the space. A steel frame was therefore used, and is exposed on the exterior combined with heavy masonry massing. However, in details Behrens exposes the masonry as structurally unnecessary; the corners are huge but the horizontal bands and the overhanging roof proves that they have no load-bearing function. He is reversing our expectations of lightness and mass. Similarly on the sides of the building, stanchions taper and finish resting on giant hinges. [Fig.2] This is an exercise in embracing the possibilities of new technology.

The building is also concerned with endowing industry with gravity through monumentality.[4] As industrialisation was seen as vital to the future of Germany, this building is giving form to the new German culture. The influence of classical language is seen echoing trabeated architecture, using stanchions instead of columns. Behrens' evocation of nobility through abstracted classical form has led numerous scholars to describe the Turbine Hall as a temple dedicated to industry.

The 1914 Werkbund Exhibition in Cologne showed the split between Expressionistic forms and ideas of rationalism within the group, see also Glass. Debates between Henry van der Velde and Muthesius about the future of the movement led to the weakening of the Werkbund, and after World War One the group lost influence.

The Deutscher Werkbund was an incredibly important and influential movement; the idea that architects and designers could be part of mass production and industrial design continued to develop in Germany with the Bauhaus movement and Werkbund architect Walter Gropius.

- GM

[1]Erik Ghenoiu, 'Post Industrial Spaces of production: The New Brooklyn Economy and the Deutsche Werkbund,' in The Architecture of Industry, ed. Mathew Aitchison (Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT, USA : Ashgate, 2014), 19.

[2] Frank Ching, Mark M. Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash, A Global History of Architecture (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley,2007), 703.

[3] William Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900 (Oxford: Phaidon, 1982), 100.

[4] Ghenoiu, 'Post Industrial Spaces', 26.

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Founded by Hermann Muthesius in 1907, the aim of the Deutscher Werkbund was to foster links between artists and German industrialists to develop a German identity through design and architecture.

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Futurism

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Futurism definition: what is Futurism?

Futurism was an Italian art movement of the early 20th century, which aimed to capture the dynamism and energy of the modern world in art. Futurists were well versed in the latest developments in science and philosophy and particularly fascinated with aviation and cinematography. Futurist artists denounced the past, as they felt the weight of past cultures was extremely oppressive - particularly in Italy - and instead proposed an art celebrating modernity and its industry and technology.

Learn more with our video below and read on to dive into the origins of Futurism and the most famous futurist artists and works.

Key period: 1908 - 1944
Key regions: Italy
Key words: movement, dynamism, modernity, industry, technology, speed
Key artists: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Luigi Russolo, Benedetta Cappa, Antonio Sant'Elia

Origins of Futurism

In 1908, the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti swerved to miss a cyclist and crashed his car in a ditch. The experience of the old bicycle versus the modern car inspired him to write his manifesto of Futurism, a movement that would conquer nostalgia and tradition. By 1910, the young artists Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà and Luigi Russolo had joined Marinetti's movement. They suggested Futurism could reach beyond just literature and poetry, and the three artists wrote the Manifesto of Futurist Painters. They sent this to their colleagues Gino Severini and Giacomo Balla, who signed the manifesto. Together, these artists formed the core group of Futurist artists.

Key ideas behind Futurism

The Futurists sought to sweep away what they believed were outdated, traditional notions about art. Instead, they wanted to replace these with an energetic celebration of the machine age. The key focus was to represent a dynamic vision of the future. As such, they often portrayed urban landscapes and new technologies including trains, cars and aeroplanes. They glorified speed, violence and the working classes, believing they would advance change.

In order to achieve movement and dynamism in their art, the Futurists developed techniques in order to express speed and motion. These techniques included blurring and repetition. They also made use of lines of force - a method which they had adopted from the Cubists. The Futurists worked across a wide range of art forms including painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, theatre and music.

Famous Futurist artists

Major players associated with Futurism in visual arts were Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà, and Gino Severini.

Famous Futurist Artworks

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913)

Arguably the most iconic Futurist artwork ever made, Umberto Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space is a "Cubo-Futurist" figure striding in forward motion. The figure's powerful legs seem to be marching ahead, carved by forces such as wind and speed. This modern-man machine can be read as an allegory for Italy's quest to define itself as a modern nation.

Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912)

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash is Balla's best-known work, and shows a dachshund on a leash and the feet of the lady walking it in rapid motion. Balla achieved this motion by blurring and multiplication of their legs and feet.

Carlo Carrà, The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1910-11)

The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli is one of Carrà's most famous works. Angelo Galli was an anarchist and labour organiser in Milan who was killed by the police during a strike in 1904. Since they feared that Galli's funeral would turn into a political demonstration, the state sent police to obstruct anarchists from entering the cemetery. When they resisted, police responded with force and a fight broke out. Carrà witnessed the event and captured the intensity and chaos of the scene, as well as the rapid movement, in this painting.

Gino Severini, Dancer at Pigalle (1912)

Gino Severini's dancer is depicted in the centre of the painting and is composed of dynamic intersecting lines and swirling fabric. Concentric circles lead outwards to the edges of the painting, and each circular layer contains fragmentary images of musicians, instruments and audience members. This is meant to capture the essence and dynamism of the performance.

Futurist architecture

Italian architect Antonio Sant'Elia embraced the twin ideals of mechanisation and motion, proposing a vision of a modern city in the form of a gigantic machine; he named it Città Nuova ("New City"), a name quite contextually appropriate. This utopian futurist city, designed between 1912 and 1914, was a vast, multi-level, interconnected urban conurbation where massive skyscrapers were integrated by elevators, bridges, and elevated walkways in a constantly evolving artificial landscape.
Paradoxically, Sant'Elia, like many other Futurists, saw warfare as the means to destroy the old world and build the much sought after future. However, it was the entropy of war itself that would shatter their illusions, destroying not only the socio-economic conditions necessary to facilitate such grandiose plans but also its main protagonists - Sant'Elia was himself killed in a battle at the age of twenty-eight with almost no completed works of architecture left behind.

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Art Movement: Futurism - Celebration of Movement

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Learn about Futurism, a movement that celebrated movement, technology and aimed to capture the energy of the modern art world.

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Dada

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Dada was a philosophical and artistic movement of the early 20th century, practiced by a group of European writers, artists, and intellectuals in protest against what they saw as a senseless war- World War I. The Dadaists used absurdity as an offensive weapon against the ruling elite, whom they saw as contributing to the war.

But to its practitioners, Dada was not a movement, its artists not artists, and its art not art.

Key Takeaways: Dada

The Birth of Dada

Dada was born in Europe at a time when the horror of World War I was being played out in what amounted to citizens' front yards. Forced out of the cities of Paris, Munich, and St. Petersburg, a number of artists, writers, and intellectuals found themselves congregating in the refuge that Zurich (in neutral Switzerland) offered.

By mid-1917, Geneva and Zurich were awash in the heads of the avant-garde movement, including Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, Stefan Zweig, Tristan Tzara, Else Lasker-Schuler, and Emil Ludwig. They were inventing what Dada would become, according to writer and journalist Claire Goll, out of literary and artistic discussions of expressionism, cubism, and futurism that took place in Swiss coffeehouses. The name they settled on for their movement, "Dada," may mean "hobby horse" in French or perhaps is simply nonsense syllables, an appropriate name for an explicitly nonsensical art.

Banding together in a loosely knit group, these writers and artists used any public forum they could find to challenge nationalism, rationalism, materialism, and any other -ism that they felt had contributed to a senseless war. If society was going in this direction, they said, we'll have no part of it or its traditions, most particularly artistic traditions. We, who are non-artists, will create non-art since art (and everything else in the world) has no meaning anyway.

The Ideas of Dadaism

Three ideas were basic to the Dada movement-spontaneity, negation, and absurdity-and those three ideas were expressed in a vast array of creative chaos.

Spontaneity was an appeal to individuality and a violent cry against the system. Even the best art is an imitation; even the best artists are dependent on others, they said. Romanian poet and performance artist Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) wrote that literature is never beautiful because beauty is dead; it should be a private affair between the writer and himself. Only when art is spontaneous can it be worthwhile, and then only to the artist.

To a Dadaist, negation meant sweeping and cleaning away the art establishment by spreading demoralization. Morality, they said, has given us charity and pity; morality is an injection of chocolate into the veins of all. Good is no better than bad; a cigarette butt and an umbrella are as exalted as God. Everything has illusory importance; man is nothing, everything is of equal unimportance; everything is irrelevant, nothing is relevant.

And in the end, everything is absurd. Everything is paradoxical; everything opposes harmony. Tzara's "Dada Manifesto 1918" was a resounding expression of that.

"I write a manifesto and I want nothing, yet I say certain things and in principle I am against manifestos, as I am against principles. I write this manifesto to show that people can perform contrary actions together while taking one fresh gulp of air; I am against action: for continuous contradiction, for affirmation too, I am neither for nor against and I do not explain because I hate common sense. Like everything else, Dada is useless."

Dada Artists

Important Dada artists include Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968, whose "ready-mades" included a bottle rack and a cheap reproduction of the Mona Lisa with a mustache and goatee); Jean or Hans Arp (1886-1966; Shirt Front and Fork); Hugo Ball (1886-1947, Karawane, the "Dada Manifesto," and practitioner of "sound poetry"); Emmy Hennings (1885-1948, itinerant poet and cabaret chanteuse); Tzara (poet, painter, performance artist); Marcel Janco (1895-1984, the bishop dress theatrical costume); Sophie Taeuber (1889-1943, Oval Composition with Abstract Motifs); and Francis Picabia (1879-1952, Ici, c'est ici Stieglitz, foi et amour).

Dada artists are hard to classify in a genre because many of them did many things: music, literature, sculpture, painting, puppetry, photography, body art, and performance art. For example, Alexander Sacharoff (1886-1963) was a dancer, painter, and choreographer; Emmy Hennings was a cabaret performer and poet; Sophie Taeuber was a dancer, choreographer, furniture and textile designer, and puppeteer. Marcel Duchamp made paintings, sculptures, and films and was a performance artist who played with the concepts of sexuality. Francis Picabia (1879-1963) was a musician, poet, and artist who played with his name (as "not Picasso"), producing images of his name, art titled with his name, signed by his name.

Art Styles of the Dada Artists

Ready-mades (found objects re-objectified as art), photo-montages, art collages assembled from a huge variety of materials: all of these were new forms of art developed by Dadaists as a way to explore and explode older forms while emphasizing found-art aspects. The Dadaists thrust mild obscenities, scatological humor, visual puns, and everyday objects (renamed as "art") into the public eye. Marcel Duchamp performed the most notable outrages by painting a mustache on a copy of the Mona Lisa (and scribbling an obscenity beneath), and promoting The Fountain, a urinal signed R. Mutt, which may not have been his work at all.

The public and art critics were revolted-which the Dadaists found wildly encouraging. Enthusiasm was contagious, so the (non)movement spread from Zurich to other parts of Europe and New York City. And just as mainstream artists were giving it serious consideration, in the early 1920s, Dada (true to form) dissolved itself.

In an interesting twist, this art of protest-based on a serious underlying principle-is delightful. The nonsense factor rings true. Dada art is whimsical, colorful, wittily sarcastic, and at times, downright silly. If one wasn't aware that there was, indeed, a rationale behind Dadaism, it would be fun to speculate as to just what these gentlemen were up to when they created these pieces.

Kristiansen, Donna M. "What Is Dada?" Educational Theatre Journal 20.3 (1968): 457-62. Print.

McBride, Patrizia C. "Weimar-Era Montage Perception, Expression, Storytelling." In "The Chatter of the Visible: Montage and Narrative in Weimar, Germany." Ed. Patrizia C. McBride. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016. 14-40. Print.

Verdier, Aurélie, and Claude Kincaid. "Picabia's Quasi-Name." RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 63/64 (2013): 215-28. Print.

Wünsche, Isabel. "Exile, the Avant-Garde, and Dada Women Artists Active in Switzerland During the First World War." In "Marianne Werefkin and the Women Artists in Her Circle." Brill, 2017. 48-68. Print.

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Dadaism as a movement and Dada art itself were amusing and absurd, but grew out of fear and anger over the senseless loss of life of World War I.

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Constructivism

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By Shira Wolfe

"WE DECLARE UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON ART!"
- Aleksei Gan

In 1913, the Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin paid a visit to Picasso's studio. What he saw there were Picasso's experiments with collaged objects ( papiers collés). This encounter profoundly influenced Tatlin, who embarked on an exploration of his own in the collage medium, creating abstract, three-dimensional collages made of metal and wood. He exhibited these alongside Kasimir Malevich's Suprematist paintings at the "Last Futurist Exhibition" that year. This marked the beginning of Constructivism, an art movement in which the artists were interested in construction. Art was to be built.

What is Constructivism?

In Constructivism, the role of the artist was re-imagined - the artist became an engineer wielding tools, instead of a painter holding a brush. For the Constructivists, artworks were part of a greater visual program meant to awaken the masses and lead them towards awareness of class divisions, social inequalities, and revolution. The Constructivists believed that art had no place in the hermetic space of the artist's studio. Rather, they thought that art should reflect the industrial world and that it should be used as a tool in the Communist revolution.

Key dates: 1915-1940
Key regions: Soviet Union, Germany
Key words: Abstraction, geometric forms, social purpose, Communism, revolution
Key artists: Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Vladimir Tatlin, Gustav Klutsis, El Lissitzky, Katarzyna Kobro, Liubov Popova

Constructivist Style

Constructivist art focused on industrial production. Constructivists used stripped down, geometric forms and modest materials. Their visual language existed of forms that they could draw with practical instruments like compasses and rulers. Materials like wood, glass and metal were analysed and judged on the basis of how suitable they were for use in mass-produced objects and images.

Constructivism in the Soviet Union

The Russian Revolution had taken place in 1917, and the country was freeing itself from the grips of the ruling elite. The desire was to revolutionise all aspects of Russia, including its cultural life. Art was to be in service of the new, Communist society.

The Soviet Union was formed in 1922, the same year in which Russian artist Aleksei Gan wrote a manifesto that began with the following words: "WE DECLARE UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON ART!" Aleksei Gan, Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko are considered the founding members of Constructivism. They were soon joined by artists including Varvara Stepanova, Liubov Popova and El Lissitzky. These artists were interested in creating art that would serve the masses. They attempted to find the Communist expression of material construction. Building and science were emphasised over artistic expression, and Constructivism reached as far and wide as architecture, design, fashion, and mass-produced objects. Construction ruled over, for example, classic painterly concerns such as composition.

Famous Constructivist Artworks

Vladimir Tatlin's Tatlin's Tower (1919)

Tatlin's Tower, also known as the Monument to the Third International, was Tatlin's design for a monumental building that was to be erected in St. Petersburg as the headquarters and monument of the Comintern (Third International). It was envisioned as a towering symbol of modernity, built from industrial materials like glass, steel, and iron. Though the tower was never realised, it has become one of the symbols of Constructivism.

El Lissitzky's Proun Room (1923)

Proun Room is an installation of dynamic abstract forms that appear to be floating, and which are meant to activate the viewer, propelling them around the space.

Alexander Rodchenko's Books (Please)! In All Branches of Knowledge (1924)

This iconic Constructivist artwork depicts a woman shouting the words in the title of the piece in sharp, linear forms. This gives the artwork a sonic dimension.

Constructivism in Germany

Constructivism was taken up by many artists in Germany. One of the most important artists influenced by Constructivism in Germany was László Moholy-Nagy, who had come from Hungary to Germany where he taught at the Bauhaus. El Lissitzky, who became the Russian cultural ambassador to Weimar Germay, and Naum Gabo, who spent time in Berlin and was affiliated with the Bauhaus, also contributed a great deal to spreading Constructivism in Germany.

The Impact of Constructivism

Constructivism may have originated in Russia, but it soon spread out across the continent, for example through the many Constructivists who taught at the Bauhaus in Germany. By the mid 1920s, the movement was in decline due to the increasing hostility of the Bolshevik regime towards avant-garde art. Still, the movement continued to flourish throughout the West until the 1940s. In England, for example, a version of Constructivism was established in the 1930s and 1940s.

Joaquín Torres García and Manuel Rendón helped disseminate Constructivism throughout Europe and Latin America. In Latin America, artists including Carlos Mérida, Enrique Tábara, Aníbal Villacís and Oscar Niemeyer were greatly influenced by the movement. Its influence can also be seen on Minimalist artists, who were occupied with reducing form down to its most essential elements.

Constructivism FAQ

What is Constructivism in art

Rather than emerging from an expressive impulse or an academic tradition, the art is to be built. Constructivist art focused on industrial production. Constructivists used stripped down, geometric forms and modest materials. Their visual language existed of forms that they could draw with practical instruments like compasses and rulers. Materials like wood, glass and metal were analysed and judged on the basis of how suitable they were for use in mass-produced objects and images.

Who was the founder of Constructivism Art

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural theory that originated in Russia at the beginning of 1913 by Vladimir Tatlin. This was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art by constructing it. The movement supported art as a practice for social objectives.

What influenced Constructivism?

Constructivism was first influenced by both Cubism and Futurism and is generally considered to have been initiated in 1913 with the "painting reliefs" - abstract geometric constructions of Vladimir Tatlin. Lissitzky's combination of Constructivism and Suprematism later influenced the de Stijl artists and architects whom he met in Berlin, as well as the Hungarian László Moholy-Nagy.

Relevant sources to learn more

Learn about Minimalism
Read about constructivist sculptor Katarzyna Kobro

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Art Movement: Constructivism - Artland Magazine

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By Shira Wolfe "WE DECLARE UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON ART!" - Aleksei Gan In 1913, the Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin paid a visit to Picasso's studio. What he saw there were Picasso's experiments with collaged objects ( papiers collés).

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De Stijl

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Originally a publication, De Stijl was founded in 1917 by two pioneers of abstract art, Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. De Stijl means style in Dutch. The magazine De Stijl became a vehicle for Mondrian's ideas on art, and in a series of articles in the first year's issues he defined his aims and used, perhaps for the first time, the term neo-plasticism. This became the name for the type of abstract art he and the De Stijl circle practised.

Other members of the group included Bart van der Leck, Vantongerloo and Vordemberge-Gildewart, as well as the architects Gerrit Rietveld and JJP Oud. Mondrian withdrew from De Stijl in 1923 following Van Doesburg's adoption of diagonal elements in his work. Van Doesburg continued the publication until 1931.

De Stijl had a profound influence on the development both of abstract art and modern architecture and design.

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Tate glossary definition for De Stijl: Circle of Dutch abstract artists who promoted a style of art based on a strict geometry of horizontals and verticals

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Bauhaus

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Throughout the 20th century, several styles of avant-garde art helped shape modern art. While many of these genres-including subconscious-based surrealism and energetic abstract expressionism -predominantly favored paintings, the Bauhaus movement encompassed a wide array of mediums, materials, and disciplines.

Ranging from paintings and graphics to architecture and interiors, Bauhaus art dominated many outlets of experimental European art throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Though it is most closely associated with Germany, it attracted and inspired artists of all backgrounds. Today, its influence can be found in art and design all over the world, whether within the walls of a museum or on a suburban street.

What is Bauhaus?

Bauhaus-literally translated to "construction house"-originated as a German school of the arts in the early 20th century. Founded by Walter Gropius, the school eventually morphed into its own modern art movement characterized by its unique approach to architecture and design. Today, Bauhaus is renowned for both its unique aesthetic that inventively combines the fine arts with arts and crafts as well as its enduring influence on modern and contemporary art.

History

In 1919, German architect Walter Gropius established Staatliches Bauhaus, a school dedicated to uniting all branches of the arts under one roof. The school acted as a hub for Europe's most experimental creatives, with well-known artists like Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee offering their expertise as instructors.

Bauhaus as an educational institution existed in three cities -Weimar (1919 to 1925), Dessau (1925 to 1932), and Berlin (1932 to 1933).

Weimar, aka State Bauhaus in Weimar, was where Gropius laid the groundwork for Bauhaus to come; it's where he established ideals that would be considered visionary for the time. Art, according to his manifesto and the program, should serve a social role and there should no longer be a division of craft-based disciplines.

At Weimar, the "stage workshop" was an important part of the education. It was directed by Lothar Schreyer from 1921 to 1923 and then by Oskar Schlemmer from 1923 to 1925. It brought together visual and performing arts and stressed an interdisciplinary approach.

Dessau was considered the hotspot in the heyday of Bauhaus. It arose after the politically motivated close of Weimar. During this time, it set forth on the path of designing new industrial products for mass consumption. (Most of the products and designs that are well known today came from Dessau.) It was also here that the famous Bauhaus Building was planned and built by Gropius. This iteration of Bauhaus was dissolved on September 30, 1932.

Berlin was the last phase of Bauhaus. Due to mounting pressures from the Nazis and cutbacks in funding, there was limited work done during this time. The move to Berlin happened after the closure of Dessau, and Bauhaus masters and students reconvened in October 1932 out of an abandoned telephone factory. By April 11, 1933, however, the premises were searched and closed by the police and SA.

The teaching staff dissolved the Bauhaus in July 1933. But even after facing permanent closure, the influence and aesthetic of the school persisted, culminating in the Bauhaus movement.

Style of Bauhaus

The style of Bauhaus is commonly characterized as a combination of the Arts and Crafts movement with modernism, as evident in its emphasis on function and, according to the Tate, its "aim to bring art back into contact with everyday life." Thus, typical Bauhaus designs-whether evident in painting, architecture, or interior design-feature little ornamentation and a focus on balanced forms and abstract shapes.

Bauhaus Art

In art, this emphasis on function is apparent in the balanced compositions of abstract paintings by Bauhaus artists like Wassily Kandinsky and . Undoubtedly inspired by architecture, the paintings typically pair flat planes with overlapping shapes to suggest dimensionality.

In addition to paintings, artists often produced abstract sculptures, avant-garde , and modernist posters featuring bold typography and blocks of color.

Bauhaus Architecture

Similar to Bauhaus art, architecture in this style is characterized by harmoniously balanced geometric shapes and an emphasis on function.

Featuring open plans and lots of glass, it is inspired by the simple yet polished look of the American Arts and Crafts movement-a genre popularized by master architect and Prairie School pioneer Frank Lloyd Wright.

Furthermore, this modern architecture movement heavily inspired the look of mid-century modern homes, which borrow the clean lines and functional design of Bauhaus buildings.

Bauhaus Interior Design

Bauhaus interiors are renowned for their simplicity and openness. The iconic furniture that did adorn these spaces was always highly intentional. Chairs, for instance, were reimagined by Marcel Breuer, who was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at the Bauhaus in Dessau. He wanted to create minimalistic and mass-producible pieces that were made mostly of metal. This resulted in the foldable, lightweight Wassily Chair -named after the painter Wassily Kandinsky.

Although subtle, textiles also played a role in Bauhaus interior design. In fact, students studied color theory as well as weaving in the textile workshop. Their pieces, as well as the occasional wall painting, provided some levity to the otherwise industrial rooms.

Legacy

Today, Bauhaus is often credited as the catalyst for modern architecture and furniture and as an important influence on mid-20th century painting and sculpture. Some buildings-including Bauhaus Dessau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site-have been turned into tourist destinations and house museums, while many major modern art museums incorporate the works of art into their permanent displays and popular exhibitions.

Related Articles:
Delightful Birdhouses Modeled After Historic Architecture Top 6 Sites for Interior Design Inspiration This Virtual Library Card Grants Free Access to 2,000+ Architecture Books Expansive Catalog of Paintings by Hilma af Klint Is a Tribute To the Pioneering Artist

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Bauhaus: How the Avant-Garde Movement Transformed Modern Art

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Throughout the 20th century, several styles of avant-garde art helped shape modern art. While many of these genres-including subconscious-based surrealism and energetic abstract expressionism -predominantly favored paintings, the Bauhaus movement encompassed a wide array of mediums, materials, and disciplines.

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International Style

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Detail of the Barcelona Pavilion designed by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich

By: Tori Campbell

"The design was predicated on an absolute distinction between structure and enclosure-a regular grid of cruciform steel columns interspersed by freely spaced planes"
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

An absolute stand-out in the history of modernist architecture, the Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain, is oft-mentioned in design history. Used for the official opening of the German section of the exhibition, the building is known for its simple form and extravagant materials such as red onyx, marble, and travertine. Blurring the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, the structure seemed to hover above the water basins at it's base, providing an airness still well grounded with its heavy and lavish materials. The building was intended to be temporary, as it was part of the exposition, so the original structure was torn down in early 1930, though a replica was constructed in the 1980s by a group of Catalan architects where it still stands today.

Designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto after winning an architectural competition in 1929, the Paimio Sanatorium opened in 1933. The former tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Southwest Finland received critical acclaim both in Finland and abroad for its architectural approach to healing. Aalto liked to call the building a 'medical instrument' that was thoughtfully designed to benefit the needs of the patients. With features including 'silent washbasins' so as to not disturb the residents, large balconies that could accommodate beds, and a roof terrace for patients to mingle and enjoy fresh air and sun - the communal-style building was a human response to illness. Though owned by the Turku University Hospital the building has functioned as a private rehabilitation center for children since 2014.

The first International Style skyscraper constructed in the United States, the PSFS Building (now known as the Loews Philadelphia Hotel) can be found in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built for the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society in 1932 by architects William Lescaze and George Howe, the structure rejected traditional bank architecture of heavy ornamentation and large domes. The forward-thinking skyscraper was informed by Lescaze's experience with European modernism, and incorporated the most modern technology of the time - such as radio reception devices and air conditioning. Considered the first modern skyscraper in America the PSFS Building featured a base with a marble facade, light-filled rentable space, and was topped with an executive boardroom and other facilities for the board of directors. The skyscraper is topped with a distinctive sign with the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society's initials and is now an icon of Philadelphia.

Completed in 1958 the Seagram Building is one of the most monumental examples of Mies van der Rohe's mastery of the International Style. The skyscraper, standing at 375 Park Avenue in New York City's Midtown Manhattan towers at 157 metres, with 38 stories devoted to the headquarters for the Candian distiller Joseph E Seagram and Sons. Now designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the building was designed with a stone-faced lobby and a bronze-and-glass exterior that lays bare the skyscraper's structural elements. On completion the building was the world's most expensive skyscraper (at $41 million dollars), but the icon still stands today and has inspired a legacy of American architecture in the International Style.

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Concrete & Glass: Buildings that Defined the International Style | Artland Magazine

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By: Tori Campbell "The design was predicated on an absolute distinction between structure and enclosure-a regular grid of cruciform steel columns interspersed by freely spaced planes" Ludwig Mies van der Rohe An absolute stand-out in the history of modernist architecture, the Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain, is oft-mentioned in design history.

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Art Deco

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Carried on the winds of commerce and capitalism, Art Deco quickly became popular around the world. New modes of communication, media and transport helped transmit the aesthetic to a wide audience. The V&A holds a number of objects testament to this global impact.

Art Deco readily embraced folk art traditions, therefore designers around the world could adapt their native decorative forms, to help create a modernised national identity. In Sweden, for instance, the influence of native art is vivid in Edward Hald's delicately engraved glasswork, depicting scenes of contemporary city life while making a clear nod towards the Swedish engraved glass tradition.

In many parts of the world, Art Deco stood for escape. It offered an accessible image of modern life, more fun than it's functional sibling, Modernism. The expansion of the travel industry played a key role in enlivening Art Deco's associations with escape and glamour. As the wealthy elite travelled the world in luxury Art Deco ocean liners, advertising posters sold the ideal to the masses.

Posters such as 'Marseille Porte de l'Afrique du Nord', designed for the French Railway Company, the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM), used Art Deco's simplified lines and bold colours to promote tourist destinations. An image of a busy harbour, with shiny black ships floating side by side, their flags hoisted high, not only glamourises travel, but also the modern machinery that made mass tourism possible.

Across the globe, in the rapidly developing country of Japan, travel posters had a similarly powerful influence. Private companies and state railways competed to build ever faster and more comfortable trains, triggering a proliferation of striking marketing material. Art Deco, with its readiness to combine elements of tradition and modernity, was a popular stylistic choice. Munetsugu Satomi's poster encapsulates the mood in Japan at the time, with its traditional signifiers of Japanese identity, such as the cherry tree, side by side with icons of industrial modernity, such as the railway and telephone masts.

In the 1930s, Shanghai was the most fashionable city in China - and also the most technologically advanced. The steel and wood Art Deco clock in our China collections captures this dynamic spirit. The market for this type of goods would have been either a Chinese person eager to adopt a western lifestyle, or a Westerner living in China.

As Europeans emigrated to the US and American designers travelled to Europe, the profound and extensive American Art Deco scene emerged. European idiosyncrasies were quickly superseded, as US designers strove to 'Americanise' the aesthetic, adapting it with cheaper materials, machine production and American social habits. The most enduring of these adaptations was streamlining. Originally inspired by the speed and efficiency of machine-age travel, aerodynamic curves and economic lines weren't just applied to transportation, but to architecture and consumer goods, such as the Ronson cigarette lighter.

Streamlined forms, which often involved encasing products with contoured shells, lent themselves to mechanised mass-production and new materials such as plastics. The Patriot radio is a typical example, showcasing plastic's exciting design possibilities.

Plastics allowed the decorative appearance of radios to be enhanced through trim. Tuning knobs, dial parts and handles were often cast separately in a contrasting colour. The Patriot shows this brilliantly with its dial and speaker grills picked out in white and red, and the tuning knobs a different shade of blue. This design was produced in varying combinations paying homage to the American flag. Read more about Art Deco in the home

For all its optimism, streamlining marked the last phase of Art Deco's rich story. Its unfettered consumerism culminated in the New York World Fair of 1939. The Fair's streamlined and geometric buildings celebrated the American dream in the face of totalitarianism and war in Europe.

Six years later, when the Second World War finally ended, the world was very different. Ornament came to be regarded as unnecessary and the splendour and flamboyance of Art Deco gave way to austerity, rationalism and functionalism. Its global legacy still stands out, however, in the buildings and artifacts it embodied.

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Carried on the winds of commerce and capitalism, Art Deco quickly became popular around the world. New modes of communication, media and transport helped transmit the aesthetic to a wide audience. The V&A holds a number of objects testament to this global impact.

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Contemporary

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How would you define contemporary art? Contemporary art is, in most cases, defined as art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetime. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, if this was the case, how can we explain that no other artistic definition, no other artistic category of -isms is as confusing, and at the same time straightforward as Contemporary Art? The term demands respect from the beginning and its first word, contemporary, it almost seems to suggest that you must know what it is without having to ask. God forbid you did, because maybe then you will not be considered as someone who's in touch with what is going on. Well, Widewalls is not afraid to ask, what is Contemporary Art and how can we define it today?

Lutz Bacher - Shadow Horse 2. Image via contemporaryartdaily.com

The Difference Between the Modern and Contemporary Art

In the English language, 'modern' and 'contemporary' are synonyms. Unfortunately, in the art world, these two terms describe two different times of creation and two different approaches to art making and the functionality of art, and more often than not they create the biggest confusion. For the understanding of the Contemporary Art category, we must first understand the difference between the two.

The term Modern Art is usually associated with art made during the period extending roughly between the 1860s and 1970s. The art made during this period celebrated experimentation and placed traditions of the past aside. Experimenting with different materials and ways of seeing art, the functionality of art developed with the move away from the narrative, characteristic of the traditional arts, towards abstraction. This newfound freedom and revolutionary way of relying on the inner visions and expression of such visions marks the biggest influence of Modern Art. This reflected not only the move towards non-figuration but also influenced the approach to real life, social issues and images of modern life.

Jeff Koons - Lady Gaga, Gazing Ball. Image via thedailybeast.com

The Cut-Off

For many, the cut-off period, or the end of Modern Art is marked in the year of 1970's and with the birth of the term Postmodern. Towards the end of the 20th century, with the development of technology, we see the rise of the Video Art and Performance Art, alongside the experimentation and appropriation from multiple disciplines and sources. At the same time, we also see the rise of the theory and philosophy research into the term Postmodern and the dominance of the present, where the focus is on what we have in front of us, and that's what demands the knowledge into the latest trends. Now, this is the time when everything starts to build up and form this eclectic and diverse Contemporary art.

Influenced by the postmodern ideas that everything is fragmented and at the same time an entity on its own accord, questioning every definition, creates the governing spirit behind the Contemporary Art category. With its diversity and the challenging nature, Contemporary Art offers works with a dynamic combination of materials, methods, concepts and subjects that challenge the traditional and defy easy definition. Contemporary artists explore ideas, concepts, questions and practices of the past with the aim to understand the present and envision the future. It is due to the diversity of these approaches that Contemporary Art is often viewed as lacking a uniform organized principle, ideology or label and at times so straight forward that the public is left wondering if they are missing something, and often questioning the contemporary art meaning .

Banksy - Apeman. Image via wikipedia.com

A Word or Two About Contemporary Artwork - What is a Contemporary Art Subject?

Long gone is the idea that the Artist is the sole author of the work. With the development of Contemporary Art, the audience became an integral piece in the creation of the meaning and reflections of the created works. The process becomes important and the variety of different approaches helps create different categories within a category. This escape from the dominant definition of contemporary art only strengthens the postmodern spirit. In comparison to one of the dominant and influential movements of Modern Art, Abstract Expressionism, Contemporary Art seems to lack that shared idea and expression, since the time that the Contemporary art is created is the time of constant questions, re-evaluations, and experimentation. This experimentation is leaving nothing sacred. For contemporary artists, everything is up for grabs and everything can be Art. Due to all of this, the subjects of the contemporary artwork, followed by the trend of the moment, creates the trend of the moment itself and always attempts to expand the ideas of what is considered to be Art in the first place. Topics of such works, more often than not, reflect the heated issues of the contemporary society with the aim to re-define the world and accepted values.

Yayoi Kusama - I pray with all of my love for tulips, installation view at National Museum of Art, Osaka. Image via wikipedia

In The End

What are we to do now? What is contemporary art in the end? If there is a certain feeling that the dominant definition of contemporary art is missing, and the variety of approaches to Art is endless, how are we to understand the difference between Contemporary and Modern Art? What seems to be one of the biggest differences between the two categories is in this - Modern Art referenced the past and with this reference and appropriation, it attempted to understand the present time. Contemporary art also aims to understand the present, but the present itself is now more fragmented and shape-shifting. In this setting, the works produced can only reference the vastness of the variety on offer and since the category demands one be aware of the world around them, the issues questioned are just like the wind. They are there and they influence how we see and relate to the world but the next minute, something new comes up and the focus shifts. With this, some new and redefined contemporary artwork awakes.

Editors' Tip: After Modern Art 1945 - 2000

With this book, David Hopkins, discusses and tries to provide a concise interpretation to the baffling and at the same time beautiful nature of Contemporary Art. Focusing on looking at this art category as a whole, the book concentrates on the correlation between American and European Art from the end of Second World War to the beginning of the new millennium. Focusing along a concise time line, the book highlights the key movements as well as the key figures and contemporary artists that are the fuel for the art of this period.
Featured image in slider: Future Returns: Contemporary Art from China, installation view at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, 2014. Image via broadmuseum.msu.edu. Images used for illustrative purposes only.

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What is Contemporary Art and How Can We Define it Today? | Widewalls

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How would you define contemporary art? Contemporary art is, in most cases, defined as art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetime. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, if this was the case, how can we explain that no other artistic definition, no other artistic category of -isms is as confusing, and at the same time straightforward as Contemporary Art?

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Pop

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Since making its colorful debut in the 1950s, Pop Art has remained a prominent artistic movement. Thanks to the innovations of well-known masters like Andy Warhol, David Hockey, and Keith Haring, the one-of-a-kind genre marked the end of modernism and celebrated the onset of contemporary art.

Key pieces of Pop Art helped to facilitate this significant shift in artistic sensibilities. From Richard Hamilton's unconventional collage that sparked the movement to Roy Lichtenstein's most iconic comic book adaptation, these experimental masterpieces prove that popular culture is more than meets the eye.

What is Pop Art?

Pop Art is a distinctive genre of art that first "popped" up in post-war Britain and America. Primarily characterized by an interest in popular culture and imaginative interpretations of commercial products, the movement ushered in a new and accessible approach to art. Ranging from quirky to critical, the pieces produced by Pop artists in the 1950s and 1960s commented on contemporaneous life and events.

In addition to the unique iconography itself, the artists' treatment of the subject matter helps to define the genre. Renowned for its bold imagery, bright color palette, and repetitive approach inspired by mass production, the movement is celebrated for its unique and recognizable style.

Key Works

Richard Hamilton, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? (1956)

Created in 1956, this collage is considered the catalyst for Pop Art's proliferation in the United Kingdom. British artist Richard Hamilton crafted it for This is Tomorrow, a special exhibition at London's Whitechapel Art Gallery that presented contemporary artists' interpretations of modernity and their predictions for the future.

Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? incorporates several communication-related themes preemptively brainstormed by Hamilton. These include: "Man, Woman, Food, History, Newspapers, Cinema, Domestic Appliances, Cars, Space, Comics, TV, Telephone, Information." Using clippings from American magazines, he created a scene based on these motifs, literally crafting a work of art from pieces of popular culture and commenting on "the various influences that were beginning to shape post-war Britain."

Andy Warhol, 32 Soup Cans (1962)

In 1962, American artist Andy Warhol first explored his well-known "soup can" motif. 32 Soup Cans is composed of 32 hand-painted and hand-stamped canvases, each depicting a different flavor of Campbell's Soup. Warhol, a pioneering pop artist, chose this subject matter because it captured Pop Art's focus on mass production and his own artistic interest in repetition. "I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years, I guess, the same thing over and over again."

Soon after painting this collection of canvases, Warhol would continue to experiment with the soup can motif and with the idea of multiples. However, with these later works, he shifted his process from painting to silk-screening, a method of printmaking fittingly used in the commercial production of advertisements.

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam! (1963)

Known for his colorful, comic-book-inspired paintings, artist Roy Lichtenstein put an animated and energetic spin on Pop Art. Whaam!, one of his most well-known compositions, adapts a scene from All American Men of War, a popular series published by DC comics from 1956 to 1966.

Reminiscent of an open comic book, Whaam! is rendered on 2 panels. On the left side of the diptych, an aircraft shoots another plane, which-along with the exclamation "WHAAM!"-takes up the entire right side of the piece. While the composition is strikingly similar to the original depiction, Lichtenstein changed several details: he altered the aircrafts' designs, omitted a speech bubble, and changed the color scheme.

These small changes speak to Lichtenstein's larger objective, which was to personalize these mass-produced works of art. "I don't draw a picture in order to reproduce it-I do it in order to recompose it," he explained. "I go all the way from having my drawing almost like the original to making it up altogether."

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7 Colorful Masterpieces That Define the Pop Art Movement

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Since making its colorful debut in the 1950s, Pop Art has remained a prominent artistic movement. Thanks to the innovations of well-known masters like Andy Warhol, David Hockey, and Keith Haring, the one-of-a-kind genre marked the end of modernism and celebrated the onset of contemporary art.

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Post Modern Design

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This elusive design style is notoriously difficult to define. So we asked some of Postmodernism's leading practitioners, including Charles Jencks, Robert A.M. Stern and Sir Terry Farrell - what does it mean to be Postmodern?

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Postmodernism is one of the most controversial movements in art and design history. Over two decades, from about 1970 to 1990, Postmodernism shattered established ideas about art and design, bringing a new self-awareness about style itself. An unstable mix of the theatrical and theoretical, Postmoderism ranges from the ludicrous to the luxurious - a visually thrilling, multifaceted style.

Postmodernism was a drastic departure from the utopian visions of Modernism, which had been based on clarity and simplicity. The Modernists wanted to open a window onto a new world; Postmodernism's key principles were complexity and contradiction. If Modernist objects suggested utopia, progress and machine-like perfection, then the Postmodern object seemed to come from a dystopian and far-from-perfect future. Postmodern designers salvaged and distressed materials to produce an aesthetic of urban apocalypse.

Postmodernism had begun as a radical fringe movement in the 1970s, but became the dominant look of the 1980s, the 'designer decade'. Vivid colour, theatricality and exaggeration: everything was a style statement. Whether surfaces were glossy, faked or deliberately distressed, they reflected the desire to combine subversive statements with commercial appeal. Magazines and music were important mediums for disseminating this new phase of Postmodernism. The work of Italian designers - especially the groups Studio Alchymia and Memphis - was promoted across the world through publications like Domus. Meanwhile, the energy of post-punk subculture was broadcast far and wide through music videos and cutting-edge graphics. This was the moment of the New Wave: a few thrilling years when image was everything.

The excitement and complexity of Postmodernism were enormously influential in the 1980s. As the 'designer decade' wore on and the world economy boomed, Postmodernism became the preferred style of consumerism and corporate culture. Ultimately this was the undoing of the movement. Postmodernism collapsed under the weight of its own success, along with the self-regard that came with it. Yet in the 21st century we are still feeling its affects. It gave us a new way of looking at the world that holds today, and a style that is resurgent.

This video was produced for the exhibition Postmodernism: Style & Subversion 1970 - 1990, which ran at the V&A South Kensington from 24 September 2011 to 15 January 2012.

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This elusive design style is notoriously difficult to define. So we asked some of Postmodernism's leading practitioners, including Charles Jencks, Robert A.M. Stern and Sir Terry Farrell - what does it mean to be Postmodern? We use third-party platforms (including Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube) to share some content on this website.