In the present debate on postmodern art, neither its champions nor its opponents can ignore the need to study and define the opposite end of the spectrum: modernism. In the process, it becomes clear that there is no consensus about its substance, about the common, unifying properties of its varied manifestations and what these signify.
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Despite a historical mode of presentation, I do not intend to write a history of modernism. This study attempts only to point out the main lines of its development and to place them in context in conjunction with chapters summarizing parallel developments
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I have restricted myself to the visual arts... Only a few artists, as representatives of entire groups or movements, are examined in depth.
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Those selected not only mirror the artistic production of our age but also its reception by the public. Public response is a decisive factor in artistic development; success and public recognition or the absence thereof affect all artistic endeavor in many and far-reaching ways. Who knows how the oeuvres of Cézanne or van Gogh would have developed, had the artists received recognition in their lifetimes, or how Picasso would have proceeded if practically no one had paid any attention to him. The work of these artists is clearly inseparable from its reception. The success of an artist indicates that viewers recognize or think they recognize themselves in a work (or its creator) and thus identify themselves with the art or the artist. Only a "successful" work mirrors the consciousness of "its" age. This also holds if awareness-and thus success-comes later, as in the case of many pioneers.
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I am well aware of the limitations of my undertaking... For, as Popper says, there can be no history without a point of view; like the natural sciences, history must be selective unless it is to be choked by a flood of poor and unrelated material. [...]
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The only way out of this difficulty is [...] consciously to introduce a preconceived selective point of view into one's history; that is, to write that history which interests us. This does not mean that we may twist the facts until they fit into a framework of preconceived ideas, or that we may neglect the facts that do not fit. On the contrary, all available evidence which has a bearing on our point of view should be considered carefully and objectively. [...] But it means that we need not worry about all those facts and aspects which have no bearing upon our point of view and which therefore do not interest us.1
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The way out of this dilemma, of course, is to be clear about the necessity of adopting a point of view; to state this point of view plainly, and always to remain conscious that it is one among many, and that even if it should amount to a theory, it may not be testable.3
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The German historian Sebastian Haffner comes to a similar conclusion. There is no such thing as a historical science comparable to the natural sciences-and for a very simple reason: Nature is the present but history deals with the past. The present is real, concrete, explorable. But the past is not real anymore, it has become unreal. It has been removed by time, it no longer exists and can therefore no longer be explored. Basically, all historical studies rest on a simple terminological mistake, on the confusion of the terms 'past' and 'history'. [...]
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In a word: History is not a given like nature, history itself is an artificial product: Not everything that has ever happened becomes history but only that which writers of history at some time somewhere considered worth recording. It is the writing of history that creates history. History-to put it bluntly-is not reality; it is a branch of literature.4
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A word about the relationship of scientific, political and social developments to the course of the visual arts. This relationship is of great significance, for it reveals that the views, attitudes and mental thrust of a society's artistic output are the same as those that propel its development in other areas. But there is, in my opinion, no causal relationship between these parallel and synchronic processes; artists at the dawn of modernism were as baffled by the trailblazing discoveries of contemporary science as were their peers in the sciences by the achievements of modern painting and sculpture.
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in other words, that they share the same initial givens. However, it does not necessarily follow that such shared givens inevitably lead to similar developments. At the turn of the century, the most varied tendencies and models could be observed in all fields of culture. Every historical turning point is characterized by the fact that new problems can no longer be resolved by the old models, that the established consciousness and established approaches are no longer able to cope with a new situation.
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The problems of any turning point are fundamental in nature. To be resolved they require a new paradigm that can adequately cope with unfamiliar demands, i.e. with the above-mentioned givens involving all areas of endeavor: the resulting shared paradigm yields a meaningful correspondence among the scientific, political, social, philosophical and artistic developments of a new, incipient age (or of a new epoch within this age).
The problems of any turning point are fundamental in nature. To be resolved they require a new paradigm that can adequately cope with unfamiliar demands, i.e. with the above-mentioned givens involving all areas of endeavor: the resulting shared paradigm yields a meaningful correspondence among the scientific, political, social, philosophical and artistic developments of a new, incipient age (or of a new epoch within this age).
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par·a·digm (pār'ə-dīm', -dĭm') n.
One that serves as a pattern or model.
A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.
One that serves as a pattern or model.
A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.
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I view modernism as an independent cultural age comparable to Greco-Roman antiquity (500 bce-400 ce), the Middle Ages (400-1300), or the Modern Age (1400-1900). A look at this chronology shows that these epochs successively diminish in length. Modernism, whose beginnings I date around 1870,15 already seems to be drawing to a close and is unlikely to survive into the 21st century. This dwindling life expectancy is a consequence of steadily accelerating cultural developments. The fact that modernism is of brief duration does not lessen its status as a cultural age.
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The respective paradigms define the self-image and the worldview of their contemporaries and invest individual and collective ambitions with meaning, measure and orientation; they form the spiritual basis of the respective cultures and find representative expression in their art.
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The process is dialectical. The paradigm is subject to change as a consequence of the respective artistic endeavors and these endeavors are in turn affected by independent changes of the paradigm. This interplay between specific worldviews/self-images and their formal condensation in the work of art propels artistic developments.
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di·a·lec·tic (dī'ə-lěk'tĭk) n.
The art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.
The contradiction between two conflicting forces viewed as the determining factor in their continuing interaction.
di·a·lec·tic (dī'ə-lěk'tĭk) n.
The art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.
The contradiction between two conflicting forces viewed as the determining factor in their continuing interaction.
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The nature of the process might be compared to the course of a human life and can be viewed and interpreted as such from a number of different vantage points. The guiding idea of an age is delimited by birth and death. It has already germinated in the spiritual heritage of the preceding age now drawing to a close. It enters the stage of history with the emergence of a new ideal; it embarks on its own era. It progresses through childhood and youth (its archaic epoch) and reaches the classical phase of its development on coming of age. All doubts have been dropped; its artistic, aesthetic manifestations have acquired a clear, distinctive and unmistakable shape. The new idea has found its own language, community and conventions. Succeeding generations will test their viability, adapt them to their own expressive needs, and apply and modify them in a host of different ways. The expressive and formal potential of the new, originally unknown paradigm is ultimately exhausted. Despite repeated attempts to regenerate it, it gradually, inevitably loses credibility and appeal until it is finally supplanted by a new vision, a new paradigm.
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The process is familiar. Humankind, forever confronted with the frightening vastness, uncertainty and mystery of nature and the cosmos,16 has always tried to plumb the mysteries of existence, to approach the unfathomable, to conquer the diversity of a boundless universe, and to grasp the essence of being through interpretation.
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The discovery of a radically new approach, a new paradigm, inspires the impassioned hope that the eternal mystery can be solved after all and lends momentum to new developments. In the initial stages, the new paradigm seems to fulfill its promise; it proves to be a fruitful and compelling principle that leads to unsuspected means of approaching the heart of the matter. But the more these means are explored and exploited from every conceivable angle, the more unavoidable the realization that the distance from ultimate knowledge has not diminished, that the mystery of being has remained untouched.
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Giacometti described reality as being behind a curtain that must be swept aside, only to find another reality, and another. It is as if reality were behind the curtains, he writes, You tear them open and there's another reality [...] and another, I have the impression or the illusion that I make progress every day. That motivates me, as if it were indeed possible to grasp the essence of life. You keep going despite the knowledge that the closer you get to the 'matter', the more it recedes. The distance between me and the model keeps increasing. [...] It is a never-ending quest.17
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Once the illusion of making progress every day begins to fade, the cycle draws to a close. The paradigm of the age has been revealed and integrated into the collective conscious; it has become part of the society's cultural heritage. The human mind begins to look for new dimensions, for new promises. Cultural development is characterized by a general attitude of anticipation and an almost manic delight in experimentation. The time is ripe for a new paradigm.
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