Asher. P2.T4 - Modern Era Synthesis

The separation and contention that was formed during the Modern Era between “'spiritual' abstract painting and the 'materialist' representational painting of the Western tradition” has served as the canvas for new forms of expression and social criticism. Academia criticized the nineteenth century's preoccupation with subject matter, the person or object, and apparent lack of the spiritual or emotional elements, and has professed that modern art concerned form rather than representation. During the modern era we saw a shift in how we both interpreted and created art. We started to take focus away from replicating an object or person, such as Rembrandt did, to replicating an inspiring or emotional connection or reaction. This became the basis for Modernism art.

The ideals of modernism are visible in the cubist paintings of Picasso most of all, who was what many believe to be the most renowned modern painter. Picasso's cubist art represented a hitherto unheard of level of abstraction. Picasso and others created 'analytical' Cubism a style of painting in which the objective representation of a subject was broken down and formalized. Although strict modernists would object to any social connection or implications within modern art Picasso allowed many elements of social interest to be incorporated into his works. In his earlier works the circus performers, impoverished beggars and prostitutes, and Parisian night life figures do not demonstrate contemporary ideals, but Picasso painted them as symbolic 'types'. Many believe that this stemmed from the tendency to divided and define social, cultural, and economic differences within the country during the first half of the Modern Era. These growing gaps within the population became barriers and the source of eventual societal and economic instability that has led to patterns of violence and prejudice throughout the Modern Era and well into our time.

Late on, after he had honed his cubist style, Picasso’s work often contained hidden social criticisms. The scraps of newspaper in Guitare brought attention to and eventual criticism to the events of the Balkan War. Picasso's monumental painting Guernica presents similar problems. While it can be read simply as a symbol of the terror of war, it was painted in response to the Spanish civil war and the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Another one of his famous works, Massacre in Korea, a product of the Korean War during this era, portrays U.S. soldiers massacring communist sympathizers in Korea, all in the cubist style. Compare to the analytical scenes depicted in Rembrandt’s works, Picasso's works plainly displayed the tragedies, fears, and social changes and criticisms of the era.