American Modernism

Growing up all kids, including myself had take art classes in elementary school, to express what creativity they have. As we grow older some kids grow out of the art class phase and just seem to not care about what art has to offer, however I was not one of those kids. In my high school it was required that we had to take one credit hour of a fine arts, that included choir, band, theater, or art. Having no musical talent or acting skills whatsoever I decided to sign up for art classes, however I was not much of a drawing person, so I decided to go more of the sculpting route, and turns out it was actually really fun. Now myself being stubborn, I wanted to improve my drawing, the type of drawing I will be blogging about is actually from the time of American Modernism.

American Modernism in general, is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment (Wikipedia “American Modernism”). The aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation makes this possible and is thus in its essence being both progressive and optimistic American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at the turn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century. The idea is that human beings can define themselves through their own inner resources and create their own vision of existence without tradition (Wikipedia “American Modernism”).

 

Characteristically, modernist art has a tendency to be abstract and is innovative, aesthetic, and futuristic. It includes visual art, literature, music, film, design, architecture, as well as life style. It reacts against the institutionalized of art (Wikipedia “American Modernism”). In this context American modernism marked the beginning of American art as distinct and independent from European taste by breaking artistic conventions that had been shaped after European traditions. Popular artists in American Modernism include Charles Burchfield, Mardsen Hartley, Stuart Davis, and Arthur Dove. There is no single date for the beginning of the modern era in America, as dozens of painters were active at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the time when the first cubist landscapes, still life and portraits appeared; bright colors entered the palettes of painters, and the first non-objective paintings were displayed in the galleries (Wikipedia “American Modernism”). I’m excited to see what more is to come as I research more on this path of creativity, knowing it has become such a revolution in the past decades.

Works Cited

 "American Modernism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Modernism>.

Image URLs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Me_and_the_Moon.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:O%27Keeffe_Georgia_Ram%27s_Head.jpg