Formalism and Modernism

The term ‘formalism’ applies to any type of artwork in which the artist places emphasis solely

on form rather than allegorical or contextual qualities. In this mode of artistic creation the

main goal of the work is the effective organization of the elements of art through the

principles of design. It can also be considered nearly synonymous with Modernism which was ‘art

for art’s sake’, with no reference to the world outside of the piece. It was to be to the eyes

what music is to the ears. Impressionism and fauvism are just two of the styles created from

this way of thinking and in the formalist tradition.

One highly notable artist who experimented with formalism was Paul Cézanne. He was a formalist

in that he was more concerned with form rather than content, so subject matter was always

secondary to the act of painting itself. In Cèzanne’s work, his the methods and skills were more

important than the image. “That meant the subject of the painting couldn't be so dynamic as to

overshadow [Cèzanne’s] act of creation. The more he concentrated on this, the less

viewer-friendly his works became. But that suited

. . .

The woman’s face is detectable but is not defined; this allows the audience to imagine

whatever specific features they desire and makes it easier to relate to the artists’ feelings on

the image portrayed. Whistler rebutted by saying that his goal was not to

portray the image of the harbor as it is seen but rather as he experienced it. ”#

In his painting, Nocturne, he depicts a scene of a harbor at night.

The awkwardness used in Primitivism rejected the “polished technical facility”# of pre-Modernist

artwork in exchange for a more simplistic form common to artists of primitive societies. Also in contrast to Impressionism,

Symbolists in general began the use of color for ‘expression’ versus merely ‘description’ or

‘decoration’. Modernism, in its departure from

naturalism, let art become more of a mirror to society and the self, rather than simply to the

outside world. Modernism gave credit to not only his deviation from painting traditional

subject matter but also the feelings the symbols he used evoked.

Modernism can be used to define the artistic movement that began around the turn of the 20th

century and was a deliberate departure from naturalism and the preceding academic art.

In his, Portrait of a Woman Picasso uses analytic cubism as his vehicle for modernism. This can also be considered a form of ‘higher realism’ because

three-dimensional object really do have different sides to them. It allowed for the fully aesthetic value of a

painting to prevail over the boundaries of contextual imagery. This

abandonment of convention led the use of innovative forms of expression carried out to create

abstractions and fantasies rather than simply mirroring the physical world.

This innovation was clearly a boon to the entire art world.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1278
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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