History Of Modern Art

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Modern Art is :turning away from urbanism and rejection of the world. Technology is a driving force in modern art making, photography forced painters to think about their craft and think about new ways of expressing themselves.
Modernism starts in the middle of the 19th century with the onset of the industrial revolution. It starts in paris and doesn’t move to new york until the middle of the 20th century. It was a resentment towards the academy. It had a strong hold on the art community and controlled the failure and success of artists.
Hierarchy of hanging paintings at the salon: top register- historical and religious—had moral intent. Bottom had paintings of animals and every day life.
The resistance to the salon was because of the content of these paintings, artists didn’t feel they reflected reality.
Ex. the birth of cenus by wiliam bougureau vs. song of the lark by jules Breton
One of the first developments leading into modernism is realism. –the peasant. Ex. The stonebreakers by Gustave Courbet. Shows people that have little to look forward to in their lives. Old and young man show that its something that’s happening at all stages of life. They become every man/every labourer bc their faces are turned away. It was an age when books started to appear on poverty. Communist manifesto was written. It was an issue starting to be noticed in society.
Courbet rejected the salon with the way he painted naked women—painting the naked body rather than the nude. Ex. Venus looks like she never wears clothes and its natural not to, these women are every day women that have lost the idealization.
Luncheon on the grass and Olympia were scandalous for manet because they were shown in every day life. Olympia was a prostitute. He had replaced venus of urbino by tTtian with a woman more common place. Venus looks coyly and is inviting you to look, she seems unaware
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