20th Century Contemporary Art: Example Essay By An Expert Writer To Follow

Modernism created Post-Modernism and the emergence of these two influential art movements created a lasting impact on the artists’ perception of iconography. The history concerning modernism dates back in the Renaissance period since the majority of the artists at that time explored various kinds of iconography such as painting mythological creatures, portraiture, and humanism which contrasts the iconography of the Medieval period. But the lasting effects of the modern period were felt in the early 19th century up to the early phase of the 20th century. The concept of Modernism meant an improvisation of the existing artistic trend by allowing the artists to explore various iconographies and rejected the unrealistic portrayals especially of the living things. However, Modernism existed to preserve the relics of the past by painting them using the same traditional mediums. In other words, Modernism preserved the artistic purity of the artworks within its genre despite the fact that it allowed the artists liberties in choosing their subjects.
In contrast, the Post Modern period began in the latter phase of the 20th century and continued up to the 21st century. The term Post-Modern is used to describe the artworks that seem to reject Modernist’s premise of artwork purity and instead of sticking with single medium, artists welcomed impurity and created works of art that combined several medium instead of one. But the main feature of the post-modern art was the genre of abstraction wherein the iconography as well as the theme of the artworks appears indiscernible due to the extreme reduction of lines and the implicit portrayal of the images. For instance, Jasper Johns’ False Start (ca. 1959) is a finest example of the post-modern art that illustrates the transition from modernist perspective. Johns’ work signifies the changing tastes of the artists to explore other side of iconography which is something that is more unique and wild compared to the tamed Modernist paintings. The canvas is covered with messy splashes of vivid polychromatic oil pigments each of them painted alternately on the surface to create a messy appearance, a trait that was highly rejected by the traditionalist Modernist period. Brushstrokes of the painting is not delicate but rather untamed and wild, as if painted during a violent outburst of emotion, a channel for the artist to express their hidden thoughts and feelings rather than painting based from the aesthetic beauty. In this painting, high abstraction is evident; however, the influence of Fauvism is also present. Fauvism existed only for a short while, pioneered by Henri Matisse, a French painter and the leading Fauvist painters. Generally, the nature of Fauvism is to present abstract images through the bright use of colors that does not really mean anything but a kaleidoscope of pigments. The bright use of colors and the wild brushstrokes contributed to the less aesthetic iconography. The artist patterned his painting by using the Fauvist philosophy of using colors to paint and communicate to the audience however, the theme was more akin to abstract expressionism since the painting does not have any iconography at all apart from the fact that it is a work composed of colors alone to communicate visual dissonance to the audiences. What makes the painting truly remarkable is the scientific approach it provides; looking closely on to the canvas, the artist engages his viewers to a color challenge, the evidence of this can be seen on the opposite labels written on the pigments.
For example, the disarray of pigments has words written on top of them, yet the pigments are labeled wrong intentionally by the artist. The yellow pigments on the painting have written words of other pigments such as: white, gray, red, and yellow, all of which were written using a different pigment in order to make the words bolder on the canvas. Other colors such as blue also have written the word gray on top of it written using red color. Despite its abstraction, the artist successfully managed to illustrate the pictorial space on his work. The pigments form irregular shapes and they overlap each other to make room for more pigments to depict onto the work. The painting also rejected the notion of illustrating three-dimensional perspective. One of the art movements that prevailed after the modernist period is the genre of painting called ‘abstract expressionism.’ The main goal of abstract expressionism is to reduce the iconography from complex subjects to simple geometric lines in, a trait which follows the concept of illustrating less rather than filling the whole canvas with ornamental icons. The sharp contrasts of pigments used by the artist reflects the violent colors used by the Expressionist artist yet the iconography is definitely abstract, the role of color on this painting is nothing more than splattered mess of paints, a vivid contrast of pigments that really does not mean anything.
In a way, another goal of abstract expressionism is to present ambiguous subjects to the viewers to critically engage their minds into analyzing the work. The tumultuous paints on the canvas suggest strong and violent emotions. Due to haphazard brushstrokes, the surface of the canvas presents a rough surface texture. Jasper Johns’ artwork presents the style of abstract expressionism, a style that rejects the realistic portrayal of the subjects but welcomes the gradual destruction of it as well as allowing the artist to explore other ways of depicting subjects that combines abstract and minimal iconography and Johns’ work champions this genre due to his creative style of portraying abstract expressionism through the use of opposing colors and words.
While Johns’ focused on depicting colors and words on his painting, the work created by the American painter Jack Whitten titled Khee II (ca. 1978), this is a painting that presents the ultimate destruction of the iconography, exceeded the degree of abstraction far from what Johns’ had established. Johns’ painting used colors and words to convey their meanings but in Whitten’s work, there are no words and no images drawn; the only thing that is barely discernible is the presence of lines drawn across the surface of the canvas using acrylic pigments. Looking from a distance, one can trace the colors used by artist to create the painting. Such colors are slight cyan, magenta, yellow, and brown tints. The lines are thinner and therefore in order to see them, one has to view the painting on the closer distance. Perhaps the common trait the both paintings share is their adherence to the philosophy of abstract and minimalism styles.
Khee II exhibits two-dimensional space, the colors are flat and painted using a single brush strokes without any combination of other colors to create dramatic illumination. Instead, the lines appear to mimic the silkscreen effect due to the horizontal repetition of lines across the surface. Although the entire canvas seems to be obstructed by these lines, the brushstrokes are not evident at all. The fine lines are not that obvious when viewed from a far, this makes the painting look smooth and unnatural. Unlike Johns’ painting that uses haphazard colors and rough brush strokes, Whitten’s painting resembles the Chinese silk scroll paintings with an added abstract style. The presence of the lines on the surface of the canvas obscures the audiences’ view of analyzing the image within. Yet, the colors imply geometrical shapes such as the thick rectangle on the right side with an overlapping small circle on the right side of the panel. Furthermore, the other implied shape depicted on the canvas is a narrow rectangle that looks like a tube without an added depth and color. The images covered by the lines are too vague and akin to the ancient silk scrolls done in brush and black ink.
Both Whitten and Johns painted following the genre of abstract expressionism yet the main core of their works was minimizing the designs on the canvas so that the iconography will not fully reveal itself to the audience which in a way, a method of encouraging viewers’ to analyze their meanings and the process of making these painting. Johns used the color to create irregular shapes evidently on the canvas while on the other hand, Whitten used these colors to present implied shape sand because of the delicate execution of brush, and this created much finer lines akin to a mosquito net. The post-modernism changed the way people perceive art, and through these paintings.
As a conclusion, the modernism created the post-modernism and in these paintings, the post-modernism shows paintings that reject the natural iconography but focuses more on arts that are secular and in a way, too advanced to is time. Johns’ False Start and the Khee II painted by Whitten are the finest examples of minimal abstract expressionism, a genre of painting that prefers the use of turbulent color palettes in order to attract the attention of the viewers’ yet at the same time, these palettes and the lines on the canvas itself shields the iconography within its tricky silkscreen effect. Indeed, the Modern period gave birth to a style known as Post-Modernism and with the additional influence of Minimalism, the art styles shifted from the pure Modernism to a more diverse and complicated art styles that focus more on critical thinking to interpret the painting’s subject. Both arts are the champions as the new styles of painting through the use of abstract iconography.