Introduction
Around 1850s the, a philosophical movement in the field of art emerged. The artists started to believe that the old ways of undertaking artistic works had become redundant and new ways had to be incorporated. Ezra Pound’s poem, “Make it new” of 1934 was one of the most important touchstones in the modernization of art and literature. Modernization therefore refers to the broad movement in the artistic world which reached its exponential phase in 1850. The movement rejected the style of emphasis and innovation, and developed experimental techniques which best reflected he realities of the modern world. Modernism focuses on self-consciousness; it believes that there is no universal interpretation of a given piece of art (Galenson & Weinberg 1268). Modernism encourages individual interpretation in understanding the message portrayed by the piece of work. Various artists contributed to the modernism. Matisse and Picasso used their paintings to influence the changes in the artistic styles.
How Henry Matisse revolutionized art
Henry Matisse was a French artist who was born in 1869 in Le Cateau, France. His main works included painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Even though most of his objects were traditional, which involved nude paintings; he applied brilliant colors with exaggerated forms which vividly portrayed the emotion of his piece. This made him very popular and one of the most celebrated artists in the 20th century. Matisse carried various experimentations with various techniques which were quite distant from the traditional painting styles. With his works, he was able to shift the paradigm in the artistic field. In 1905, when visitors came to Salon d’Automne, they were surprised with Matisse’s paintings. His use of color was very intense and bold which vividly expressed the message expressed by the panting. Some of his critics, the reactionaries, named him “the wild beast”; this was because his technique was wild and deviated from the traditionally accepted artistic styles. Matisse formed a group of artists called the Fauvism, which he was the leader, hence he was called “the king of Fauves” (Galenson & Weinberg 1269).
A good example of Matisse’s work which incorporated the modernism and influenced the revolution in the arts industry was “Woman with the Hat”. In this painting Matisse employed “modern” ways of coloring which included the use of intense coloring and vivid expression of the object. When it was first exhibited in the Salon d’Automne in 1905, most of the contemporary spectators considered it offensive. Their concern was how Matisse depicted the face of that woman (Galenson & Weinberg 1267). The woman’s face depicted several colors which formed a mask. According to Matisse, the form and the color can only achieve their potential when the forms, the colors and the objects are all independent of each other. His colors and forms were not arbitrary. By juxtaposing the object and the use of color, Matisse was able to create an even more tense energetic effect on the resultant painting. By applying repeated complementary colors on different parts of the object, the viewer will move their eyes without stopping at any point.
In his work, “The Dance”, Matisse used the power of coloring to depict different information in a folk dance. Folk song is traditional and religious in nature. It connects the living and the spirits by commemorating the tradition of that society. The blue color seemed quite irrelevant as compared to the superficial message of the painting. The blue color represents the color of heaven. Matisse was able to juxtapose the dance with the heavens. He used the colors to red, blue and green to symbolize the unity between man, earth and heaven. By this, Matisse was able to profoundly capture the true meaning of dance within his painting. The five figures were deformed to indicate how passionately aroused the dancers were to the rhythm of the song. Matisse, therefore, was able to depict both the nature and the emotion of the painting using the coloring techniques (Galenson and Weinberg 1271). By using intense coloring, Matisse was able to influence to modern styles and methods of painting which involves both the superficial meaning and the emotional meaning of an artistic piece.
How Pablo Picasso Revolutionized Art
The artistic works of Pablo Picasso have been so influential both to the historic world and the modern artistry. Picasso is acclaimed as one of the most influential artists who did not just painted the objects, but also made the objects to speak for themselves as well as a for those who embraced his works. Pablo demonstrated a rare talent in painting which was able to change, not only, the way people looked at the painting, but also the way they interpreted the meaning behind it. When Picasso painted a picture of bullfighting in at the age of eight, his parents started to encourage him by providing him with all the brush and paints he required for his work. Little did they know that their son will create a great revolution in the field of artistry thereby encouraging the modernism (Galenson 53).
One great step towards modernism by Picasso was the creation of Cubism. The most important aspect of cubism was that it was able to explain itself. When Degas visited Picasso, he expected Picasso to do the explanation of his painting. When Picasso withdrew the paintings, Degas just said that, “this is exactly what I meant”. His drawings were both vivid and self-explanatory (Galenson 57). Picasso did several experiments and realized that the painting should not necessarily depict the exact representation of the world. According to him, some impressions should be applied to create a symbolism in the meaning of an artistic work. In his Analytical Cubism, Picasso painted three-dimension objects by breaking them down into sets of forms and rearranging them. By doing so, he was able to represent multiple views of the same objects at the same time. This marked an important turning point in the field of art. From the Renaissance period, all the paintings were either represented in one-dimension or two-dimensions. Using the Analytical Cubism, Picasso was able to paint Les Demoiselles d’avidnin, one of his most popular pieces of works (Galenson 61). Picasso was not only able to break down objects into different parts, but also able to create a painting that can be viewed in multiple dimensions.
In 1912, Picasso came up with the Synthetic Cubism. This was a step ahead of Analytical Cubism that they thought was becoming too abstract. In Synthetic Cubism, he used stronger and more vivid colors which were meant to increase the level of expression in the objects. One of the most important aspects of Synthetic Cubism was the incorporation of collage. Instead of just breaking down the facets of the object and reconstructing them, Picasso now started to use the ready-made fragments of an object and synthesizing them to create an image which is more concrete (Galenson 58). With the Synthetic Cubism, Picasso was able to represent the entire object as well as keeping the originality of the object. The first collage was created by Picasso. This was a revolutionary step which created a technique currently used by the modern painters.
Works Sited
Galenson, David W. and Bruce A. Weinberg. "Creating modern art: The changing careers of painters in France from impressionism to cubism." The American Economic Review 91.4 (2001): 1063-1071.
Galenson, David. Conceptual revolutions in twentieth-century art. No. w15073. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2009.
