Kapitel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

1. Modernism

  • Matthew Stratton

Abstract

Scholars have recently and dramatically expanded the concept of modernism, and the term is now used to describe a wide variety of transnational artists and artworks that appeared roughly from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. These artworks and artists are also recognized as being situated in and responding to a broader field of historical and social forces than was long assumed. Nonetheless, some characteristics of the concept “modernism” seem to persist: a turn away from “realistic” representation of external events and toward interiority and psychology; concern with the possibilities of representing past and future; and the role of the individual artist in representing both solitary and collective experience. Finally, rather than focusing on what precisely modernism “was” or “wasn’t,” it is more productive to consider how the conceptual frame of “modernism” itself changes our understanding of the artists, art, and ideologies to which the term refers.

Abstract

Scholars have recently and dramatically expanded the concept of modernism, and the term is now used to describe a wide variety of transnational artists and artworks that appeared roughly from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. These artworks and artists are also recognized as being situated in and responding to a broader field of historical and social forces than was long assumed. Nonetheless, some characteristics of the concept “modernism” seem to persist: a turn away from “realistic” representation of external events and toward interiority and psychology; concern with the possibilities of representing past and future; and the role of the individual artist in representing both solitary and collective experience. Finally, rather than focusing on what precisely modernism “was” or “wasn’t,” it is more productive to consider how the conceptual frame of “modernism” itself changes our understanding of the artists, art, and ideologies to which the term refers.

Heruntergeladen am 9.12.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110422429-003/html
Button zum nach oben scrollen