Handout

Harrison G and Wood P(eds) 1997, 'art in theory 1900-1990'. Oxford, Blackwell.

The first decade of the twentieth century had witnessed an attempt to synthesize elements from a range of late-nineteenth century sources into an art that was of the new century yet could stand along the classical tradition. The concept of expression established itself with artists trying to create a sense of self though a variety of different guises. The role of nature played a large part in the paradox of new art giving artists ideologies to work off such as nature cults, peasant decoration, primitive fetishes and so on. The artists of the avant garde were able to deploy these notions, establishing their own values and priorities when it came to industrialized and urbanized societies. as the passage into the new century deepened so the modern condition bore down upon avant-garde.

The modern art being created began to spread itself across Europe and establishing itself well within Paris, with the impact of cubism making it one of the most modern thinking artistic countries yet. Closely follower by german speaking countries that were focusing on being expressive and subjective linking closely with their cultural traditions.

A big influence on artists who were expressing their modernity, was what Marx said 'philosophers had hiltero merely sought to understand the world intellectually the point was to change it practically'.

As mentioned before german speaking countries sought out expressionism and they did this by looking at expressionism and futurism which were evidently the forms of response to the circumstances of urban modernity. Cubism achievements but virtue of it unprecedented techniques innovation, was that it succeeded in imbuing the form of the art with modernity. This then marked a crucial change because for once this emphasis upon the means of representation is achieved, representing the modern - whatever the subject it chooses to depict. Cubism's technical innovations were rapidly assimilated but avant garde artists. Cubism, which in retrospect seemed most central to its critical force - its continued referentially and its preoccupation with the autonomous picture surface. this had the effects of driving a wedge between a concern for arts in realism in respect of wider social form, and its own reality as a signifying practice. In a sense cubism marked the turning-point, a hinge, as if it were between the modern art of the 19th century and what was to become the condition of modern art in twentieth century.