MODERNISM IN ART: AN INTRODUCTION Reflections of a Modern World (An Introduction to some key thinkers)

1. MODERNISM IN ART: AN INTRODUCTION Reflections of a Modern World (An Introduction to some key thinkers)

2. Joseph Stalin propaganda poster John Heartfield. (1932)Adolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk

4. Independent, skilled workers replaced by semi-skilled laborers

7. His ideas played a significant role in the development of modern communism and socialism

9. Marxism and Modernism: David Bathrick “Is the often antagonistic relationship between Marxism and modernism due more to historical contingencies or are there basic political or philosophical incompatibilities between to two? To be sure, Marx’s own views of art and culture were derived from a classical aesthetics founded upon notions of autonomy and organicity which was an anathema to modernists and their assault upon ‘tradition’.” Bathrick also identifies the clash with Marxism and “modernism’s rejection of causal progression”. P207, New German Critique © 1984

10. Realism Begins in France, as realisme, a literary doctrine calling for “reality and truth in the depiction of ordinary life.” Grounded in the belief that there is an objective reality which can be portrayed with truth and accuracy as the goal; The writer does not select facts in accord with preconceived ideals, but rather sets down observations impartially and objectively.

11. Problem : Relationship between art and reality “It is absolutely impossible to understand art and literature proceeding only from their internal laws of development.” Essence, origin, development, and social role of Art could only be understood through analysis of social system as whole within which economic factor plays the decisive role Thus art is one of the forms of social consciousness and it therefore follows that the reasons for its change should be sought in the social existence of men Creating works of art appeared as a result of the long development of human society and were the product of man’s labor also “in accordance with the laws of beauty” They emphasise that man’s aesthetics sense is not inborn, but a socially acquired quality

12. Marx and ideology During the mid-20th century art historians embraced social history by using critical approaches. The goal was to show how art interacts with power structures in society. One critical approach that art historians used was Marxism. Marxist art history attempted to show how art was tied to specific classes, how images contain information about the economy, and how images can make the status quo seem natural (ideology).

13. Marxist aesthetics Marxist aesthetics is a theory of aesthetics based on, or derived from, the theories of Karl Marx. It involves a dialectical approach to the application of Marxism to the cultural sphere, specifically areas related to taste such as art, beauty, etc. It involves incorporating the Marxian theory of history and class consciousness and the critique of bourgeois ideology, so as to generate principles of analysis and evaluation and show the place of art in the theory and practice of revolution. Some well-known Marxist aestheticians include Theodor W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Antonio Gramsci, Georg Lukács, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson and Raymond Williams.

14. References http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/lit_crit/klingender/index.htm Marxism and Modern Art: An approach to social realism by F. D. Klingender 1943 Marxist aesthetics: foundations within everyday life for an emancipated consciousness, Johnson & Pauline, Publisher : Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1984 Art and society : essays in marxist aesthetics (translated by MaroRiofrancos), Vasquez & Adolfo Sanchez, Publisher - Monthly Review Press, New York 1973

19. but with lithography we have something where the art exists ONLY as a copy

20. why should this be important? – speed

25. The Dadaists attached much less importance to the sales value of their work than to its uselessness for contemplative immersion. The studied degradation of their material was not the least of their means to achieve this uselessness. Their poems are "word salad" containing obscenities and every imaginable waste product of language. The same is true of their paintings, on which they mounted buttons and tickets. What they intended and achieved was a relentless destruction of the aura of their creations, which they branded as reproductions with the very means of production . . . Dadaistic activities actually assured a rather vehement distraction by making works of art the centre of scandal. One requirement was foremost: to outrage the public. (Walter Benjamin, 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', 1936) Hannah Hoch (1919) Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany

27. he rejected the historicism because it makes the present seem to be the cumulative progressive consequence of what has gone before

28. he claims that history is neither neutral nor is it positive progress, rather it is endless carnage and sufferingBenjamin was trying to cut away the intellectual underpinnings of fascism and to do so he rejected the entire tradition of what he called universal history.

29. References Benjamin, Walter. Theses on the Philosophy of History Benjamin, Walter. (1936) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction