Modernist Era Saw the Rise

¶ … modernist era saw the rise of some of the world's greatest artistic geniuses, chief among them was Picasso, Courbet, Manet, Frieda Kahlo, etc. According to TJ Clark, the modernist era exemplified the era of disillusionment and breakaway from traditionalist thinking. He argued that within the context of social change and economic empowerment during the 19th century and beyond, class division became a central theme in art and literature. Modernists therefore have a heavy emphasis on the existence of social frameworks, and class divisions. This was a result from the breakaway from primarily religious based art and the heavy romantic era and renaissance art styles. The rise of modernism was the rise of several different new formats and genres of painting and as a result, artists became more focused on the depiction of our world as it is rather than the celestial and spiritual. In the following review we will look at whether or not class division was a focus within the modernist movement, and which artists and paintings exhibited this theme.

The Modernist era explained by Clark occurred in the aftermath of an impressionist rebellion. Post impressionism then is the earliest roots of modernist art. One of the chief architects of class division in modernist art was Seurat, who was famous for his depictions of life beyond the bourgeois pleasure domes to look at our society's "invisible citizens." Seurat contrasts his "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," in which he depicts the outing of upper class bourgeois as they picnic during the summer months, with both prostitutes and the unemployed carefully blended into the life of urban leisure. The influence of his post-impressionist art caused modernists to veer away from social depiction to focus on the upper class, and instead drew emphasis to the ordinary and mundane, as well as the poor and hungry. Gauguin for instance, is recognized for his unnatural use of color and depiction of religious themes within non-contextualized circumstances, such as in his painting "Yellow Christ" in which puritans worship at the alter of a crucified Jesus. The contrast between modernist art and the previous periods is its focus on disillusionment and the demystifying of the occult and the religious. It is clear that class division is heavily emphasized within modernism and therefore Clark identifies some artists and their paintings that exemplify the growing concern about class division.

Clark identifies many artists in the modernist movement to depict the rising class division and focus on urban identity. Chief among these painters was Manet, who was a strong influence within French modernism. Manet's "Un Bal masque a l'Opera" and "Exposition Universelle de 1867" both look at the urban environment of class conflict and differences. The modernist era was not just a revolution in art, but rather a whole social, economic, and cultural movement away from the previous era. As a result, Parisian society and the growing disparate classes meant that Manet's painting is capture both the decadent and the "now," the sense of immediacy that was occurring within the city. The depiction of in his masked ball for instance, depicts the rising "shift" within city life, no longer is everything and everyone stationary and domestic, but always on the move, with people passing by each other without a clue to their actual identity. The indistinct nature of the masses is Manet's theme, he looks at the clash between traditional depictions of French upper class, and compares it with the "mobile population" of Paris's underground as urban leisure has created Paris as not a cohesive image, but a series of constantly changing actions and people, represented by the steady migration of people in and out of the city. Manet's look at Paris in its "invisible population" attempts to capture the disparity between class divisions at the time. Industrialization and the modern revolution of the world has taken the emphasis away from the rich, and turned the thrust of social power and mobility to the transient masses. Life in Paris as it were, just does not add up, because its cultural identity can no longer be attributed to the actions of a few, or its cultural heritage. This new wave of mobile population shifts creates the allure of class division and re-emphasis on urban leisure for modernist artists. Another painting that is heavily discussed is Manet's "Olympia" is a depiction of a nude prostitute. The conflict and class division within this painting is the artist style in contrast to the theme. Manet paints the prostitute as he would in an aggrandizing style rather than a demeaning one, glorifying the prostitute to the stature of nobility. Clark explains that Manet's painting explicitly creates class tension, because it treats the prostitute as a "courtesan." Men within this era are socially accepting of courtesans because they are viewed as the entertainment of the social elite, but prostitution was taboo within the societal standards of the rich. Manet shows the prostitute as a part of the growing decadence of the times, as a reflection of the urban leisure that contrasts within traditional viewpoints. Manet's painting therefore blurs the existing lines between the "safe margin" of society and the grey area of lower class acceptability. It is the clash of class, body and social identity that makes this painting so provocative of the class division and emerging emphasis on artistic expressionism in the modernist movement.