Within Modernist Second Generation

Within Modernist Second Generation

In my opinion the most important defining element of modernism’s second generation is defined with the emergence of World War II (1939) affecting the mass exodus of artists and intellects from Paris to New York. The critical mass of the movements key figures caused the center of the art world to shift to New York City, making the budding New York School the leading force of the avant-garde.

This in itself gave the opportunity to a new approach, one that sprang from a rejection regionalism and social realism, dissatisfaction with geometric abstractions and deeply influenced by surrealism ‑ Abstract Expressionism was born.

Bauhaus were an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978, although it may be of greater interest to discuss the reference to Bauhaus in regards to Walter Gropius, who was the founder of core concepts, a school of art was built upon (1919-1930). Simply put, Gropius wanted to change the artistic process through a back to basics approach: a fundamentalist approach to learning. His approach was to unite the schools of Fine Arts and Arts and Craft into one, to create a school of art, design, and architecture in an effort to unify the arts, crafts, and technologies. The systems created became the foundation of the Basic Design Course taught in architectural and design schools across the globe. With the onset of the war László Moholy-Nagy, a Bauhaus teacher moved to London, and then brought the ideals to Chicago, spreading the ideals of art of craftsmanship and workshops. The aim was to produce work that unified intellectual, practical and aesthetic concerns through artistic endeavor, and the exploitation of new technologies creating a successful integration of design theory within the industrial process. Now in saying all, I liken the affect this had on the post-modern era to a skipping stone, and the ripples that seem to stretch out until it is absorbed, and within the calm you find the undercurrent of the post-modern era. With Moholy Nagy, Lissitzky, Kandinsky, all in consideration as the “skipping stones” and the inclusion of appropriation of course.

It is noted, that the road to conceptual art was paved by a toilet: Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” (1917), the fact that he used a “readymade” begged to be explained and gave way for the conceptualist and was reinforced through an essay by American Artist, Joseph Kosuth in 1969, (Art after Philosophy”). This reaction against formalism, as Clement Greenberg articulated, emerged as a movement in 1960 and the term “Concept Art”, and was coined, by Henry Flynt in 1961. Concept Art is easily thought of as an art form that the concept and process is more important than the result,