The historical significance of European modernist art

Human society has entered the stage of capitalist development. Modern industrial civilization has changed the relationship between people, also changed the traditional way of life, and accelerated the pace of life. Art enters the market as a commodity, bringing fierce competition to the development of art. The development of modern science and technology has changed the relationship between man and nature, and human eyes have extended to the macro and micro worlds. Therefore, modern artists must create and choose new artistic languages ??to express the new world they know. Modern philosophy directly affects modern art creation. Schopenhauer's solipsistic ontological thought and voluntarism perspective lead to cognitive intuitionism, which sublimates the artist's genius and inspiration into the foundation of artistic creation. Later, Nietzsche and Freud made a comprehensive analysis and revelation of the human spiritual realm, and became the source of modern artistic creation. Bergson's "irrationalist philosophy" is a complete denial and betrayal of the negative and traditional values ??brought by modern industrial civilization. From then on, art is no longer a reflection of the objective world, but an expression of the subjective world. The emergence and development of modern art follow inevitable laws. Western art has focused on practicality and material reproduction since ancient times. It has experienced development and improvement in different eras and reached its peak during the European Renaissance. When photography was invented, representational realism painting has been partially replaced by photography. Painting must choose another path, from representation to expression, from describing the form of objective matter to expressing the painter's inner spirit. Since the birth of painting, the purpose of painting has been to serve others. In primitive society, it was practical. Later, it served God, human life, and political struggles. Western artists claim that they no longer serve anyone, and that art exists independently to improve art itself. Thus the values ??of art broke with tradition. All of this is slowly changing from quantitative to qualitative changes with the development of society and the evolution of ideological trends. The origin of modern art begins with Impressionism. The emergence of Impressionism was an epoch-making milestone in Western art. In order to express the rich and fleeting changes of light and color in nature, it ignored or denied the inherent nature of objective things, and even destroyed or abandoned the rigorous modeling that the West had perfected over thousands of years, thus deriving a series of rebellions later on. Painter, school of painting. Cézanne was the first to break with tradition. He wanted to create an absolute painting, which was no longer an imitation of objective things, but an eternal form and solid structure infused with the painter's subjective interpretation. At the same time, there is the painter Gauguin. He started from a strong subjectivity, analyzed and synthesized the impressions and feelings obtained from objective things, and created a symbolic painting that broke through the constraints of time and space. The Dutchman Van Gogh used bright tones and trembling and unrestrained lines to convey fiery thoughts. Together, they pioneered modern Western art. Many modern schools were derived from their theories. Some painters who followed Cézanne confirmed that the management and structure of the picture was the painter's ability and right. The painter was the creator of the picture and should arrange the picture arbitrarily like God, forming Cubism represented by Picasso. He believes that painting should not be a slave to natural objects, nor should it be just the careful construction of a picture, but must express the painter's mood and will, and must be an external image of the painter's inner emotions. This gave birth to French Fauvism and German Expressionism. . After surveying this change in the painting world, the Russian Kandinsky realized that painting no longer relied on the support of objects, but relied on color, lines and shapes to dominate the entire picture. It was these elements of painting that gave the picture life and beauty. It was he who The first to create abstract painting. The above-mentioned schools are all expressions of exploration after thinking about art. When artists faced society and modern material civilization and thought about it, they came to the conclusion that tradition was outdated and modernity was incomplete and unhealthy. This gave rise to the Dadaists who destroyed everything and overthrew everything. They hoped to build on a pure blank basis. A new civilization. When an artist faces life, human consciousness is decorated with too many concepts and is no longer real. Only the subconscious realm is the most real realm. This realm has never been expressed. The painter focuses on this spiritual world and creates Surrealist painting, this kind of painting shows a little-known subconscious world with a combination of objects that defy logical common sense. After the Second World War, the modern art center shifted from Paris, France to New York, the United States, and began a new exploration and creation, which was more characterized by a focus on conceptual changes. Abstract Expressionism emerged in the 1950s. Performance painting focused only on the process of painting rather than on the result of the painting. It reflected the vitality of Americans' free creativity. When people were dissatisfied with accidental venting and subjective arbitrariness in painting, they instead advocated letting the picture develop its full potential on its own, so large color field painting, minimalist painting, hard edge painting, etc. appeared. These arts mostly use calm and simple large color blocks to arrange the pictures without any emotional expression. Pop art entered the painting world in the 1960s and first became popular in the United States. It allowed art to penetrate into modern civilization, making art a more popular means of communication and closely related to the survival of modern people. Since the 1970s, modern art has completely entered a diversified pattern. Artists have explored art and artistic expression on a broader level. Since then, there has been no style or school to be found. It can be said that one person has a school, and the patterns have been renovated and emerged one after another. From then on, Western art has entered an endless world far away from the world of common sense. Modern Art First, "modern art" is the dominant art form in the West since the 20th century.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, as Western society has entered the modern period, modern art has emerged that is different from classical art and modern art. Its outstanding feature is that its artistic form is no longer dominated by a realistic style, but rather reflects the artist's style. Personal concepts and formal language, and formed many art schools, a period is dominated by a certain art school. For example, we are familiar with Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, Abstraction, Pop Art, Photorealism, etc. Of course, no matter what form of art, what it reflects and expresses are the social psychological characteristics brought about by the changes in modern society to people, and they are all artists' exploration of artistic expression forms. The positive results have enriched people's aesthetic experience and opened up the visual expression space of art; the problem is that due to the lack of uniform artistic standards and excessive personalization, the art is mixed, and some are divorced from the public. Go to extremes. Second, in the process of modernization in various countries, "modern art" with its own cultural connotations that is related to its own social development characteristics has emerged, reflecting the process of social modernization in content and embodying the modern spirit in artistic form. Because Western developed countries took the lead in the modernization process, Western "modern art" has a considerable impact on the world, but this does not mean that the art of various countries is a copy of the West. During the century-old development of Chinese art in the 20th century, it has its own distinct cultural "modernity". "Contemporary art" refers to today's art in terms of time, and in terms of connotation, it mainly refers to art with modern spirit and modern language. The reason why current exhibitions generally use the term "contemporary art" is because the term "modern art" is easily confused with the existing "modern art". At the same time, "contemporary art" embodies not only "modern art" but also "modern art". "ness", as well as the "contemporaneity" of artists based on their feelings about today's social life. Artists are in today's cultural environment and face today's reality, so their works will inevitably reflect the characteristics of today's times. Postmodernism has been the most fashionable topic in the Chinese art world since the 1990s. However, no academic term originating from the West has been endowed with such rich ambiguity and ambiguity as postmodernism. Looking at the many relevant articles published in newspapers and periodicals and various artistic creations with this sign, I found that postmodernism is almost regarded as an all-encompassing grocery store. For many young Chinese artists, postmodernism is interpreted as rogue cynicism, a loss of social responsibility and the dissolution of the noble spirit. Reflected in the picture, it is often a simple patchwork of the Coca-Cola logo and figures in Peking Opera costumes. Although mankind has entered the information age, Western postmodern art is still rarely introduced in our country, and most Chinese people are not familiar with its true nature. There is no doubt that this is the reason for the contradictory understanding and interpretation of postmodernism. Happily, at the turn of the century, at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, we unexpectedly got an opportunity to see Western postmodern art with our own eyes. "Out ward Bound: American Art at the Eve of the 21st Century" is hosted by the China Exhibition and Exchange Center and co-organized by the Meridian International Center and the Mobil Foundation. Brink of the Twenty-First Century) was exhibited in Shanghai and Beijing for a long time from October 1999 to January 2000, allowing us to correct mistakes and gain a correct understanding of the true face and significance of Western postmodern art.