Modernist Art Form and Post Modernist Art Form Essay

Modernist Art Form and Post Modernist Art Form - Essay Example The essay "Modernist Art Form and Post Modernist Art Form" discovers a modernist art form and the postmodernist art form. The history of art reflects different periods that conveys the changing views of artists as to what art is all about and how they want to express themselves using it. In the late 1800’s, the birth of Modern Art became evident through the initiative of Édouard Manet and other painters later known as impressionists. Their goal was to express their individuality as artists while criticizing the government. They strove to break free from the rules imposed by academic institutions which were deemed as the sole authority on art. As the industrial age progressed and art evolved to include different types of media, various modern art movements developed and soon it became impossible to find a single trend to the period. Modern art encompassed movements such as cubism, surrealism, dada and pop-art as well as collage and 3D variant assemblage. These latter moveme nts opened the path to the new period of postmodern art. Perhaps the unifying theme of modern artists was their belief that art mattered – that it had real value. Whereas before art was used mainly to convey ideas of powerful religious and political institutions, the period of modern art gave artists more freedom to suggest personal meanings to their art forms. This gave birth to the expression art for art’s sake which suggests art without any religious or political intention. Other theorists claim that modern art’s defining characteristic.... This was the time when some modern art movements such as pop-art and minimalism slowly developed into what is now known as contemporary or postmodern art. The disillusionment with life's meaning that the effects of World War II brought about, was what made artists lose sight of the value of their art. During this period, artists rejected the idea that life (and art for that matter) has any intrinsic value. For them the world has been filled with reproduction and as such originality and individual expression are no longer valid goals. There is nothing new to create as all visual images are mere copies of previous copies. This emphasis on reproduction has led many artists to master production techniques such that they are able to make art without undergoing the traditional processes of learning perspective, composition, color theory and the other knowledge and skills required by traditional artists. With the emergence of new image-based technologies such as the television and computer, artists were able to manipulate this media and they managed to emerge with something new. Postmodern art also focused on gratifying modern consumer's wan t of novelty and entertainment and anything that would equally shock them. Thus the period saw the emergence of huge ice-sculptures, islands wrapped in pink polypropylene fabric and a large monolithic block filled with discarded computers as art with the latter even winning the prestigious Turner Prize. Art then has acquired a new meaning where concept takes precedence over aesthetics and craftsmanship becomes secondary. Film or motion pictures are series of images projected into a screen to create the illusion of motion. When these images are flashed in rapid succession, the eye through a phenomenon called