Modern Art

The term ‘Modern Art’ applies to the forward thinking architects, designers and artisans who from the 1880s onwards created new and diverse ideas, particularly to escape the oppression of stark representation. Artists became frustrated with the inability to convey emotion and real meaning. Modern artists saw that representationalism had all been done many times over. Perhaps the introduction of photography added to this mood, was there still a need for realism? Modernists broke with tradition and a progression of many new art movements was developed.

It began with Impressionism. Artists created works that depicted the effects that light has when it falls on objects. This gave a new found freedom to art. Soon after, the Expressionists became interested in the depiction of emotions and the types of responses those same emotions evoke. Artists worked with a freely expressive use of colour and form. A fine example of this is Gauguins ‘Woman with Flower’. Next a fascination with primitive art became very influential. We can see this influence in Cubism; a good example is Picassos ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’. Picasso deliberately moved away from realism as he realised that is was inadequate when it came to expressing emotion. Artists believed art was for art’s sake, a famous example of this was when Marcel DuChamp took a urinal and signed it R. Mutt. He believed that because he was an artist it was art. The freedom to express was evident. This period was known as Dada. In the 1920s-1940s the Bauhaus was introduced, applying some of the concepts of Cubism to architecture and art. During 1924-1930s dreamlike states made way for Surrealism as artists shared a fascination with the strange. Watches melted, apples replaced heads and fun was introduced to art. In the 1960s artists expressed images of popular culture. Pop Art brought art to the material realities of everyday life, to popular culture, in which ordinary people derived most of their visual pleasure from television, magazines, or comics. During the 1970s Minimalism was the way to go. Art was reduced to the simplest of elements and what you see is what you get.

Modern art may not need the hand eye co-ordination that realist art has, but it is still a result of a thoughtful and deliberate choice of the artist.

Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan, performance artist, folk singer or poet? Dylan’s response when asked replied ‘just a guitar player’ (Pennebaker’s. D.A, Video). Bob Dylan created music that purposely set out to challenge, provoke and create a response within society and his audience. Therefore I feel he can be classed, among other things, as a performance artist. Born Robert Zimmerman in the USA 1941 Dylan has been ‘on the road’ since the death of his hero Woody Guthrie who’s hobo folk music carrying news to poor folk across the USA proved inspirational to Dylan. Some say Dylan is the voice of the oppressed, the champion of the small man. His career started in the early nineteen sixties and he remains in the highest esteem of the cream of modern day musicians.

‘Protest singer’ was an early tag put on Dylan perhaps because of his arrival on the ‘scene’ coinciding with the underlying dis - ease in the USA with the intensity of the Vietnam war in which they were entrenched. During this period he spent three years supplying marching songs for the campus protests against the war, hypocrisy and discrimination. This created a reaction with the right wing press who Dylan referred to as ‘the idiot wind’. However Dylan has never been an artist to rest on his success and he has written and performed songs constantly over the past forty years. These include comments and insights into politics, life’s injustices, and rights of the poor man, social issues, love and its reflections and the liberation of the mind. This he has done successfully. Dylan’s artistic style challenges people to think about where they are and what they and others are up to in life. Many of Dylan’s song have the status of anthems such as Mr Tambourine Man, All along the Watch Tower, I Shall be Released, but arguably the man in the street will remember ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, a song to the human race asking when will they get there act together, featuring lines such as ’Yes,n how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry?’ (Cape.J 1987 Pg. 77)

As a performance Artist Dylan has been and continues to be a thought provoking inspiration throughout the world. However Dylan’s reaction to such labelling is ‘I am not a preacher or travelling salesman. I do what I do. There was a time I cared if anyone understood. Not anymore…(Shelton.R 1986 Pg. 329).

Vanessa Beecroft
Vanessa Beecroft was born in Genoa, Italy in 1969 and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She studied architecture, painting and stage design and now concentrates on performance art. Her work features the installation of groups of young women creating performances about the union of high fashion and art history. She has become known for pieces involving up to twenty similar women wearing underwear, high heels (or trainers), maybe tights or wigs, and not much else. Her work is done with the professionalism of a commercial art – director. She uses make – up artists and lighting designers to achieve this standard.

The performances consist of the groups of women positioned for up to two hours in the same position with the occasional movement. Critics have said the work is ‘Fascist and incorrect’ others have said ‘it’s art, it's fashion. It's good, it's bad. It's sexist, it's not’. (Smith.R The New York Times, 1998). One of her performances titled "Show" featured twenty tall gorgeous women, mostly professional models, standing in a museum. Fifteen wore elegant red bikinis and matching four-inch spike heels; the others just wore the shoes. The wardrobe was designed by Tom Ford of Gucci and the makeup by Pat Mc Grath. It included light body-makeup and powdered hair that contributed to the walking-mannequin effect. The women stared into space, aloof and indifferent. Occasionally the models would stretch, crouched or walked slowly around. Vanessa said ‘ I want women on heels because that’s powerful, that’s not natural nudity or pureness,’ ‘When men see these woman standing on heels as if she were dressed, and facing the audience, well, if that’s what they like to see, then here it is, so what. I don’t know if that will create more respect or go somewhere beyond that. Maybe after they see it twenty times they’ll start not to think of it the same way, I’m not sure. It’s an experiment’

Vanessa Beecroft calls them an "army" that empowers women and refers to her instructions to them as "rules". She also claims an indifference to the presence of men in the audience. She said, ‘the true beauty of women has never been reflected in art or fashion’ (Smith.R The New York Times, 1998). I feel this statement is very untrue. She is implying that she aims for greater accuracy by presenting the real thing in this highly artificialized structured form. Is she not just exposing women? Does she have to use models to express the female form, is it not just a pretentious show of glamour and high fashion. Or is she relating to girl-power and feminism? When studying her work these are questions that come to my mind. But, she is after all a performance artist and is it not her job to shock and question our confusion within her subject and the way she exhibits?

So what is all the fuss surrounding good-looking female models taking off their clothes and standing around in galleries and museums? Of course people are going to want to have a look! Could it be that contemporary art is in such danger of becoming insignificant that any bit of scandal, which creates public interest, is desperately embraced?

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