Essay Sample on 20th-Century Art: Birth of Modernism and Notable Art Movements

Introduction

20th-century art is considered to be the period when modern art started to become popular. At the end of the nineteenth century is when the modernization of art began. The artists in the 20th century majored in two main ways to showcase progress, excitement, and modernism, which were realism and abstraction (Howell). During that period, there was the birth of notable art movements like the Art Nouveau, symbolism, and post-impressionism, which led to the twentieth-century first art movements of the Die Brucke, which mean "the bridge" in German and fauvism of France. In France, fauvism brought change to art by introducing the heightened nonrepresentational color to the norm that was the figurative painting, and the die broke led to the understanding of the emotional expressionism (Howell).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

During that period, there was the birth of another movement in Germany by the name Derblaue Reiter which meant "the blue rider," the movement was linked to the "nonfigurative spiritual, mystical art of the future" that Is known as the blue rider image. It was being led in Munich by Kandinsky. Kandinsky, together with Picabia, Delauney, and Kupka was the non-representational art pioneers and the game changers (Howell). The two-dimensional image was also introduced in the 20th century by Picaso, Gleizes, Metzinger, and Braque generated Cubism after rejecting the plastic rule of the renaissance (Howell). The futurism art assimilated the illustration of machine age imaginary and movement. Dadaism art had proponents that were most notable in that century's art, the style of Maercel Duchamp, who was the exhibitor of the found objects after by rejecting the conventional art style, together with Francis Picabia who is famous for "mecaniques portraits" (Howell). There was also another movement in Russia who were also revolutionizing the art; the parallel movement was "suprematism," and their artwork was nonrepresentational, and the jack of diamonds movement also illustrated expressionism (Howell).

Expression Artworks

The Scream Artwork

The scream was Edvard Munch's work in1893; his primary focus throughout his career was agony scenes, anxiety, and death, which were in the form of emotional and distorted portraits. All the styles and themes that he used in his work were later endorsed by expressionists (Eden). Below is the most popular Munch' portrait, which illustrates the battle between the society and individual persons. According to the artist, he got the idea of the scream artwork while walking past the bridge that overlooks Oslo when the "the sky turned and became as red as blood" according to his words. Through the artist's explanation of his work, he topped and inclined on the fence he was shivering from deep fear, and then he heard a big absolute nature scream (Eden). The artist did not put the exact scenery on his painting, but instead, he illustrated the anxiety that people have towards the actual world. The painting formed the grounds of expressionist artistic illustrations from the way the feelings were represented. The theme was a Person disaffection, unfriendliness, or estrangement, which was well represented in the portrait, and it was constant all through in the twentieth century, which intrigued the artists that worked as expressionists as the modern life central features (Eden).

Der Blue Reiter

The blue Reiter was art by Wasily Kandisky in 1903. It was a simple image that was done on cardboard with crayons (Eden). The artwork showcased a lone rider who was racing by the landscape, though the portrait was a representation of the writer's determined moment of pictorial language development. In the portrait, there is the delight concern of contrasts that are of light and dark as well as the stillness and movement that are revealed by the fascinating hillside (Eden). The artist represented all the major themes throughout the opus or the work. The artist representation was in between two links that were the burgeoning expressionist group and post-impressionism which made the Kandinsky's canvas to become the image or the logo of the expressive responsibilities that were very popular and also honored by the Munich avant-garde. The art was a nominative opus that the collective got its name from in 1911(Eden).

Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat

An artist did this portrait by the name Oskar Kokoscha. However, the commissioning of the art was done by two historians by the name Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-conrat, who was referred to as esteemed historians for an art collection they had founded (Eden). The background of the portrait is very colorful. It has a concentration of gestures that act as a representation of the figures of the couple that the artist referred to as "closed personalities that are filled with tension" (Eden). Kokoschka had a way of showcasing his themes in all his artworks by focusing them on the inner drama. These portraits were illustrated when he used the shaky hands of the couple as the primary point that represented anxiety (Eden). That explanation characterizes how the artist viewed the couple's ego instead of the natural and physical appearances. The artist uses emotional representation, which is seen as typical to the expressionist style. The twirling and the color abstract which have obscured the portrait background that also comes up around them is Kokoschka's frenetic characteristic surface explanation of the opus space throughout (Eden).

Large Blue Horse

The artwork was done by Franz Marc who was a painter, the painting was done in 1911 by the painter and printmaker who was a member of Der Blaue Reiter, and it used anima symbolism (Eden). The images majored around horses that were looked upon spiritual renewal objects. Robert Delaunay's and cubism image influences are shown in the art by the use of lush colors and space fracturing. The artist generated some influence from the present though he emphasized material world subjects like the blue horses that were from his artwork of 1911(Eden). He focused on the spiritual depiction, the authentic and the emotional on his art by moving away from the realist one where according to his, he preferred the color symbol, which was different from other expressionists who saw it as descriptive (Eden).

Horses at Night

This was an artwork done in 1912 by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff; it was an explanation of a city block after the artist moved to the berlin city, which was booming at the time (Eden). The images illustrate a modern city, with the woodblock being clear though the painting was done at night. He used bright colors, which brings some estrangement and ease to the image; the type of illustration on this opus was the avant-garde interpretation (Eden).

Street Berlin

This was a painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 1913 that was among several of his street paintings, but it emerged to be popular amongst them (Eden). The Brucke movement sought such kind of painting as he was able to execute a rebellious sort of a painting on a canvas by using acid colors and jagged, angular brushstrokes. He established this new kind that was more accurate in the figure forms (Eden). He used modernization in his image, and he did not follow the realistic illustration. Still, just bent and controlled his figures like grass blades, he also focused on a focal point that was using prostitutes in the image who were represented by their signature hats (Eden).

Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up

The Embrace

This was an image done by Egon Schiele in 1917, the artist illustrates the Australian expressionism, and he was mainly illustrating sexuality in his images (Eden). This is a portrait of his wife, scantily dressed and sitting in a different posture. The artist wanted to showcase the feminine beauty in his image through the expression it was giving to the viewer (Eden). The image had great emotive quality and use of color, which makes him fall under the category of expressionist movement (Eden).

Portrait of a Man

This portrait was drawn in 1919 by Erich Heckel, who was mainly doing experimental works on woodblock painting, which at the time was the expressionist's favorite medium (Eden). The artist has attracted to traditional German heritage the raw emotionalism techniques. Most of his work is nude images and city life scenes. The portrait was an expressionist themed art as it illustrated a person's physical, psychological, and physical fatigue (Eden).

Mad Woman

There were two versions of the painting by Chaim Soutine in 1920 that depicted the image of a madwoman but used different women in each one of them (Eden). The character is illustrated in the images, and it was his darkest pair of paintings. The painting draws the viewer closer and more profound in its face, gaze, and its general form. The image makes the viewer get into it and understand its troubles, which is an expressionist style.

Works Cited

Gibson, Ann Eden. Abstract expressionism: Other politics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.

White, John Howell. "20th-century art education: A historical perspective." Handbook of research and policy in art education. Routledge, 2004. 63-92.