Inflection Points of Modern Art
What is modern art? Modern art is loosely defined (and disputed) as the period of art between ~1860s to ~1970s. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation.
But how did we go from the magnificence of the Old Masters - the drama of Rubens, the purity of Raphael - to the hammer price in the hundreds of millions for colourful, messy smudges on canvases?
This is how I start my art tours. Modern art - let alone abstract art - is hard enough to understand (especially for us left-brained people), but beautifully satisfying when you can understand its origins.
Think about Uber. Uber only truly could have worked following several inflection points: touch screen phones, GPS, and mobile payments. The intersection of these technological advances and a premature mindset shift towards sharing economies created a new avenue for taxis.
As we approached the 20th century, we encountered two key inflection points: paint tubes and cameras.
Entering the Industrial age, our societies gained technological advances to mould metals into skyscrapers and railroads. We also created the first tin paint tube.
This portable paint tube changed everything. Artists were free from the bounds of studios, mixing paints from powders. For the first time, artists could take their medium on a hike and paint a sunset, live. Maybe even paint quickly enough to just capture the elements of light, maybe make an… impression.
Impression, Sunrise is an 1872 painting by Claude Monet first shown at what would become known as the "Exhibition of the Impressionists" in Paris
Second, the first cameras appeared. Oh no, thought artists, that’s it - we’re done. We’re out of business. This new technology could now capture portraits in a second. Why would they want to sit uncomfortably for weeks anymore? How could humans outdo a machine?
So the artists began to create something cameras could not: abstract art. Sure, a camera could capture a lily pond, but not in the way Monet could. A camera could capture the likeness of a woman, but not in Picasso’s cubistic perception of multiple viewpoints (from the front, her profile). The rhythm and speed of Boccioni’s “dynamism of a cyclist” could not be captured in a photograph (at that time…).
Why is this not art? The artists cried. Who says? The Royal Academies? Pish posh, art is art and we will rebel.
Of course, there were earlier artists like the misunderstood Van Gogh and Cezanne. The first movers battling a lagged audience. Turner was so ahead of his time, already playing with light and abstraction in his classical landscapes and seascapes, but his later works were not considered innovative until much later.
As with our pioneering startups who dealt with much trouble until only to later be recognized as innovative disrupters, the avant-garde artists were also often initially underappreciated.
But that’s where the biggest shifts in our human history come from. From the disrupters.
We may not understand why doodles without the technical awe of Boticelli sell for over $100mm. We may not understand their meaning. Maybe it’s all just tax evasion.
But, maybe, you feel a flutter of emotion looking at a piece. Maybe, you start to see how history, philosophy, politics, psychology and art intertwine. Maybe, that’s what it’s all about.
Katya