Art is a term used to describe a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities; it is however most understood to refer to painting, film, photography, sculpture, and other forms of visual media. In the broader more evolved definition of the arts lie music, theatre, literature, and dance. Mastery and skill were the chosen words in the earlier centuries used to describe what art was and it had no specific differentiation from the sciences and crafts of the time. Today, however, fine arts are used best to describe them as they have been set aside from the crafts and sciences which are acquired skills in general.
Historical Context
The twentieth-century arts were however divergent from the earlier centuries and therefore known as modern art. The twentieth century gave rise to numerous movements such as the Die Brucke in Germany who were a group of expressionists who had an interest in primitivist art and expressing extreme emotion through high keyed colors. Other movements were Abstract expressionism, pop art, and photorealism movements amongst others.
Modern art drew a lot of criticism because of its seemingly divergent path from what art had come to be accepted by art critics and lovers alike. Modern paintings had moved on from having to represent an object or figure, but to be a tool for expression.
Every aspect of human life evolves to fit the time we live in, art is no exception. Modern art was an art form of evolution in the twentieth century with post-impressionism arising in the early twentieth century. “The post-impressionists extended impressionism only without its limitations: they continued using vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary color”.
Roger Fry, a famous art critic and major supporter of post-impressionism concluded that post-impressionism was abstract “formal elements counted most-that alone were essential-so that a painting no longer had to represent an object or figure”(Fry 19, 27). Moving on into the twentieth century, photorealism was another movement that took shape in the late and early seventies where paintings were essentially drawn from photographs taken of people and places. “The use of photography symbolized yet another stage of the evolution of art where modern techniques and equipment were accepted by the art world”(Lidney 27-33).
The movement has had criticism about its actual artistic value. Benjamin Genocchio it is an interesting thing to note such detailed paintings which “fail to hold much interest beyond the way they were painted”. It is to be stressed that when you have a closer glance at photorealist art, a kind of hyper formalism evolves. “It is all about form, technique and surface, a manic, unthinking empiricism, every leaf and blade of grass carefully colored and designed”. (Genocchio 2005).
This critic fails to appreciate the skills which the artist had to learn and perfect to produce a photorealist picture that would capture the attention of all; the modern way of blending man’s talents with the convenience of machines to make a work of art.
Expression of Modern Art
The ultimate expression of modern art in the twentieth century is the digital art movement that sprung up in the seventies and continues to date. Digital art is the use of digital technology as part and parcel of the creative as well as presentation processes. To describe the process, numerous names have been used such as multimedia art or computer art, for example. “Digital technology has impacted on such forms of art like painting, drawing, and sculpture aside from creating new forms such as net art”(Christine 7-8).
Digital art is the profound expression of the modern artist who has at his disposal the technology to express himself as accurately as possible without running the risk of having something getting lost in between the points of creation or conceptualization and presentation to the viewer. The criticism of digital art is that the actual involvement of the artist, in this case, is limited as computer systems are the ones used to create the work itself, which although true, once again fails to appreciate the efforts being put in by the artist managing the system.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the earlier centuries were marked by marvelous pieces of work by the artists of the time, timeless works. Art has a habit of being topical, either directly or indirectly hence one could argue that early American painters emphasized landscape paintings as well as paintings of their famous leaders. The French had their paintings and other forms of artwork revolve around political regimes such as that of Napoleon Bonaparte. In the same grain, twentieth-century artwork has expressed the evolution from the older less developed methods to the newer ones. This can be highlighted by the progressive use of machines such as cameras and other implements as opposed to the canvas which was favored in the earlier centuries.
Works Cited
Fry, Roger. Cezanne, A Study of His Development, New York: Macmillan, 1927. Print.
Christine, Paul. Digital Art, London: Thames and Hudson, 2006. Print.
Genocchio, Benjamin. Art Review, New York Times, 2005. Print.
Lidney, Christine. Super Realist Painting and Sculpture, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1980. Print.