Art History - Modernism

Modernism - Class Notes

How have technical advances advances affected the manner in which photography has evolved?

 

The modernism movement arose in the late 19th and early 20th century and can be dated back to 'The Great Exhibition of 1851'. The Great Exhibition although at the time, it was presented as a great feat of modernism, its expression was early and only eventually influential. It served as an announcement of a new regime and presented 'new ways of thinking'.

The Great Exhibition (1851)

Opposition
The British bourgeoisie were strongly opposed and unwilling to accept modernism. They were a social class whose power came from employment, education and the industrialised world as opposed to those whose power came from being born into an aristocratic family. Their power waned as the advancement of industrial technology showed that they would not be needed anymore.
The Romantic movement also opposed modernism, the poets, William Blake and William Wordsworth called it 'monstrous', writing many poems to express their feelings towards the movement.
The Industrial Revolution
Through the industrial revolution, new ideas were being presented that caused excitement and rebellion against 'traditional' thinking.

'We affirm that the worlds magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty, the beauty of speed.' Futurist Manifesto (1905).

These new ideas had started to replace traditional thinking by which, the new modern world had started to rely on. Through this movement became a dependence, a 'faith in machines', which, is ever more apparent in recent times.

• The Eifel Tower, built in 1889 is viewed as a personification of 'the melding of man and machine'
• Considered an engineering marvel of the 19th century 
• Philosopher 'Roland Barthes', saw projections of the two sexes incorporated into the stucture

Lewis Hine was a key photographer during this period of transformation:

Icarus, (1931) Lewis Hine

• Depicts man's faith in technology
• Contrasts with traditional Neoclassicism thinking, in which the higher up in a painting one was, the closer to god they were.
• Technological advancements make this image possible
• If this man falls he would most certainly die

 This image is likened to that of the Greek myth 'Icarus':

The Sun or the Fall of Icarus, (1819) Merry-Joseph Blondel

• Icarus, the son of a master crafstman 'Daedalus', attempts to flee Crete with wings constructed by his father, made from feathers and wax
• Warned by his father not to fly to high or low
• Ignored the warnings and flew too close to the sun, resulting in his wings melting
• Fell to the sea and drowned 

Task - From Modernism to Post-Modernism 

Compare the works of  Lewis Hine and Sebastiao Salgado

'Power House', (1920) Lewis Hine

'Kuwait', (1991) Sebastiao Salgado

Lewis Hine:

• Taken during the era of the great depression
• Depicts masculinity
• Surrounded by the machinery that defines his job
• Man winning against machinery, taut muscles straining
• Raises the profile of manual labour
• Very clean and well groomed look to the young man depicted
• Looks posed, not natural, the machinery too clean

Sebastiao Salgado:

• Direct comparison features a male worker set against circular object
• Projects the entirely opposite message of Hines promotion of industry
• Looks downtrodden, beaten by machine perhaps
• On first inspection, his role is not made clear by the surroundings
• Completely covered in what looks like oil, modern life biting back
• Technology and machinery may have made us lazy, the man is overweight and not perhaps up to the task before him
• Not staged, looks natural and realistic
• Has industry turned against us?