Ism Lecture

Impressionism, postimpressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism, Constructivism, Expressionism and De Stijl, the out and out rejection of traditional views of how art is made, what art is about and even what art is at all.  Heavily varied in style and form, all of the “isms” share the underlying tone of rebellion to the accepted norms of society.  During the industrial revolution the world shrank, ideas long overdue began to come to fruition, and the remnants of widespread feudalism were in their death throws.  This stage of rapid change and progression set the stage for a revolution on all fronts.  The newly improved process of photography left many artist out of work and the art world as a whole dumb struck.  In this scene of eminent destruction young artist began thinking of new ideas as well.  If art was dead anyways they why conform to the standards of a dying institution?  

It all started with impressionism, like most of the modern art movements impressionism was named by its critics who said that these paintings were not paintings but mere impressions.  Impressionist such as Von Gogh created art that gave the feeling of what a scene was instead of trying to replicate it precisely and in so doing idealize the natural to a level of fiction.  Impressionism spired rapid change in the art world.  In the  latter days of the 1800s and early days of the 20^th century the art world went through a hail storm of movements, postimpressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism just to name a few.  At the beginning of the modernist view of art all the movements seemed to come from France, Paris to be precise.  However, it did not take long for the other European countries to catch on and begin their own movements.   Still, the ancestry of art as we know it today is firmly rooted in seedy underbelly of the lower class Parisian night life.  America took a bit longer to adopt the trends coming out of Europe but after World War II took the title of capital of innovations in art.