What are Impressionism, Abstraction, Modernism and Postmodernism?

/kloc-From the second half of the 9th century to the beginning of the 20th century, a large number of impressionist artists emerged in France, who created a large number of classic works that we are still familiar with today. Among his masterpieces, Manet's Lunch on the Grass, Monet's Impression of Sunrise and Van Gogh's Sunflower are even more famous.

Abstraction "Abstraction" is a relative concept of "concreteness", and it is a new concept that combines the commonalities of various things. This concept is called "abstraction". "Abstract painting" refers to the painting style that wanted to break away from "learning from nature" in the 20th century. It includes many schools, not the name of a school: its formation has evolved over a long period of time. However, no matter which school, its similarity lies in trying to break the traditional concept that painting must imitate nature. In the1930s and after World War II, various forms derived from abstract concepts became the most popular and unique artistic style in the 20th century.

Abstract painting is based on intuition and imagination, rejecting any symbolic, literary and explanatory expression, and only integrating shapes and colors into the picture. So the pure color presented by abstract painting is similar to music.

The development trend of abstract painting can be roughly divided into: (1) geometric abstraction or cold abstraction. This is based on Cezanne's theory and developed through cubism, constructivism and new formalism. It is characterized by a tendency to be geometric. This school of painting can be represented by mondriaan. (2) Lyrical abstraction (or hot abstraction) This is based on Gauguin's artistic concept, developed from Fauvism and Expressionism, and has a romantic tendency. This painting school is represented by ﹝Kandinsky﹞.

Modernism The so-called western modernist art refers to some schools of modern art developed by western countries from the early 20th century-Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Abstraction, Pop Art and so on. The emergence of western modernist art has its historical origins in politics, economy, culture and philosophy, which is closely related to the process of western modern society. /kloc-after the British bourgeois industrial revolution in the 0/7th century, a series of changes caused by the new technological revolution led to corresponding changes in social structure, people's thoughts, consciousness, values and the relationship between people. Reflected in the field of fine arts, the emerging modern science, with its practical effects and achievements, has prompted people to gradually adopt a more open attitude towards artistic innovation; The increasingly mature photography technology has seriously shaken the belief that imitating nature has always been the whole purpose of painting; The introduction of oriental art and African art, represented by Japanese prints, greatly stimulated the single development of western art; Under the influence of Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Freud's psychology, a group of painters opposed the oppression of reason and the bondage of tradition, attached importance to the activities of intuition and subconscious, and paid attention to internal "self-expression" instead of being satisfied with the reproduction of objective things in art; All kinds of contradictions and disadvantages in the western real society are also directly or refracted in the painter's works, so modernist art is the inevitable product of the development of modern western society. Since the dazzling appearance of western modernist art, there have been different views, not only in China, but also in the West. Whether art is traditional or modern depends on its content: what does it represent? Reflect what? On the other hand, as a creative method and art school, it is not fixed. It is unscientific and incomplete to conduct in-depth research and historical sociology analysis on artists and works, generally affirm and deny them, or simply equate modernist art with bourgeois decadent art.

Postmodernism Modernism after World War II is called "postmodernism" or "postmodernism". Due to the heavy casualties in the Second World War, many European cities became ruins, and the economies of European and American countries were very depressed. The whole capitalist world is full of contradictions. People can't see the light and way out. They feel dark all around and their future is bleak, so they are depressed and have pessimistic and desperate thoughts. In this case, existentialist philosophy flooded the society, and various new modernist literary schools appeared in the literary world. These schools are called "postmodernism". "Postmodernism" has existential literature represented by Sartre and Camus in France; The absurd drama represented by Yunescu and Beckett, and the new novel school represented by Alain Robbe-Grillet. These factions have exerted influence all over the world. In the United States, "postmodernism" is powerful and has many factions. There are not only absurd plays; And absurd novels. In addition, there are black humorous stories, beat generation, existential novels, new novels, new "new novels", super novels, abstract novels and surreal novels. Black humorous stories are the most popular and influential in America. "Postmodernism" writers are generally influenced by existentialism, and their thoughts are negative and decadent. Existentialism belongs to the category of subjective idealism, which holds that only what I feel is the real existence. This philosophy is self-centered and values the individual above everything else. Take a contemptuous and negative attitude towards society and the masses, thinking that the world is absurd and life is painful. People living in this world can't understand each other, they can only hate each other. Man's greatest fear is the fear of death. People exist to wait for death. Just like Beckett's play "Ah, the beautiful moon! It is to preach that although people are alive, they are going to die step by step. At the beginning of the play, an old woman is on the stage, and half of her body has been cut into the loess. But she didn't seem to realize that she was dying. She still combs her hair, washes her face and brushes her teeth according to her daily habits, and she is still admiring: "Ah, beautiful days!" American black humor stories expose all kinds of dark phenomena in the real society, and at the same time show the author's negative emotions of feeling powerless to unscrupulous evil forces. Anger, pain and despair, they hide their tears with laughter and express their tragedies with comedy. Their idea that disaster is imminent and the future is bleak is related to existential philosophy. "Postmodernism" inherited the symbols, stream of consciousness and dreams of modernism before World War II, and made new development. For example, the theater of the Absurd has adopted new stage expression techniques: broken stage image, comic exaggeration, emphasizing the role of props and so on. The new novel school is constantly innovating in skills. For example, the novel Unfortunate Man written by an Englishman, Johnson, is divided into parts, unbound and put in a box. Except the first part and the last part, the other parts can be reversed, and the reader can arrange the order at will.