The Rise of Modern Art and Abstraction

Cubism, Futurism, and Constructivism by J.M. Nash explores the emergence of three of the most influential and significant art movements in the twentieth century. Between these three movements there were certainly similarities and differences, and all of them developed their own characteristics that spoke to social conditions as well as aesthetic representation. Cubism as one of the early points in the trajectory of modern art emerged within an intimate circle of professional painters and writers. Picasso’s Demoiselles exemplifies a process by which Picasso went through iterations to arrive at this work suggesting experimentation, which seems to be contrary to his approach towards painting, yet the final product is an assemblage of grotesque figures with seemingly deformed bodies and detached or masked faces. Within this composition Picasso employs “ambiguous silhouettes” that contorts the bodies in a way almost incomprehensible to the viewer, which was picked up by painter Braque, who explored reduction of solid form to cubes. Certain techniques influence by Cezanne but reinterpreted by Braque include the lack of strong diagonals, the fabrication of patterns for balance, and also avoiding closed contours. The development of the facet was also incremental to Cubism.

Futurism emerges as a result Manifestos dispersed through newspapers at the beginning of WWI. Futurist artists attempted to show the world as it was experienced rather than as it stood in reality. They were interested in movement and the effect of color on the scene. Where a disarrayed composition with a sense of imbalance took hold of the picture, the goal of many futurist pieces was the experience itself. Constructivism came next, and with it came an even further abstraction whereby notions of reality were all but blurred or forgotten. Constructions by Tatlin influenced by Picasso became one of the first pieces to be truly assembled from material, and several artists emerged that attempted to construct different themes or objects.

Through these three movements, it is clear that one influenced the other, and their existence is not linear rather it is based on continual feedback loops ranging across vast distances with artists interacting with each other and also artists trying to create new forms of art. Within these movements, the idea of revolution is accomplished through a higher level of abstraction than was ever seen, and the use of spatial configurations with visual techniques became of utmost importance. Yet, as most revolutions occur as a product of social conditions, These movements arise from societal shifts or events, and as society change, so too will the arts.