Modernist Art

Modernism is a new type and style of artwork. The modernist movement in art history features in the late 19th centuries and early 20th centuries. With Modernist artworks the old traditional styles and past techniques are forgotten about. Instead new styles and methods are used to create these modernist artworks. The process of making modernist artworks is a primary component in the final completed piece. The modernist artist provides us with a way of viewing an artwork and looking back from a particular vantage point. The modernist movement involved using processes to seek “answers in machinery, technology, and the expression of industrialized power” meaning it looked beneath the surface and looked into the technicality of the artworks. The

Boccioni is a futurist artist. The techniques Boccioni used were different but there were still some aspects that were the same. To start off three paintings I feel are all quite similar and their processes are similar are ‘The City Rises’, ‘Riot in the Galleria’ and ‘Sound of the Street’. These three paintings are formed with the same processes. They are all formed using definite diagonal lines. These diagonals are used to create the precise forms within the paintings. In his painting ‘The City Rises’, the development of the painting “was his attempt at a great synthesis of labour, light and movement”. The way he was to do this was within the techniques of the painting. The primary processes that Boccioni used that many other modernist artists also used was the use of the vivid contrasting colours. We can see this clearly in several of Boccioni’s works. The striking animated colours are used in the development of his paintings to give dimension to the works. The colours and the application of the paint give form to the figures in the paintings. The different surfaces, textures and subject matter are all expressed through this dimensional form of painting using these colours. These techniques that are used bring movement and action into the works. Without these main processes the paintings would be lifeless and very bland. Unlike these paintings Boccioni’s ‘States of Mind’ paintings are composed very diversely. They are completely different. The States of mind works are a series of various different scenes. They were an “ambitious attempt to shake off dependence and descriptive reality and to capture the essence of emotion by forcing colours and forms to express themselves”. His aim to do this was done using the various processes to create these. The composition of them is very muddled. The diagonals and colour techniques used express