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Writer's pictureyvettehadfield

Modern Art History

Modern art was a movement/ Trend from 1900 to 1945. In the first half of the 20th century it was marked by the two world wars, and in the second half with the industrial revolution.

Prior to this art had been commissioned by nobility, wealthy land owners and the church and depicted scenes from religion or battle, portraiture and landscapes. This art was in an either Barque, Rococo, neoclassical, romanticism style like the Cystine Chapel or imagine paintings that would have been in Pride and Prejudice. Artists found it difficult to stand out as art around Europe was very similar, patrons wanted the wow factor but this was increasingly difficult to obtain.

After WW1 people did not want to return to ‘service’ or work on the land. Instead they came to the cities to earn a better wage and not be controlled by the establishment. This intern created the middle class. The middle class wanted to make there homes look nice and wanted paintings.

Along side this artists were starting to be being represented by Art Dealers and the old ways of a patrons were diminishing. The artist works were shown in many exhibitions and published events to which critics were invited to publish there views and the public were invited to view and buy.


With the opening of the colonies art materials became easier to obtain and artists took trips to Asia, Africa and the Pacific to open up new ideas and get inspired. This new inspiration saw development in artistic disciplines both sculpture and artist prints. Both of these contained changes in techniques and materials, all influenced by this new way of thinking and living (middle class).

In 1913 a large exhibition called the Armory Show was hosted. This exhibition had 1250 paintings and 300 artists. Lots of different artists attended and this was a great opportunity for the artists of the time to mingle, this created the want to diverse in different artistic disciplines.

Other creative inventions happened in the early part of the 20th century and included photography and moving pictures. This was to massively influence artists. At first they were unsure of the photograph but eventually saw that it could be a better way to perceive human emotion and came to realise that it was not as impersonal as they thought. Cinema also played a role in the influence on art in a similar way better still with the silent to sound and black to colour evolutions.

Another factor that influenced the Modern art movement were the invention of electricity in a domestic way making it possible to paint later and easier to prepare materials.

Prior to this art had been commissioned by nobility, wealthy land owners and the church and depicted scenes from religion or battle, portraiture and landscapes. This art was in an either Barque, Rococo, neoclassical, romanticism style like the Cystine Chapel or imagine paintings that would have been in Pride and Prejudice. Artists found it difficult to stand out as art around Europe was very similar, patrons wanted the wow factor but this was increasingly difficult to obtain.

After WW1 people did not want to return to ‘service’ or work on the land. Instead they came to the cities to earn a better wage and not be controlled by the establishment. This intern created the middle class. The middle class wanted to make there homes look nice and wanted paintings.

Along side this artists were starting to be being represented by Art Dealers and the old ways of a patrons were diminishing. The artist works were shown in many exhibitions and published events to which critics were invited to publish there views and the public were invited to view and buy.

With the opening of the colonies art materials became easier to obtain and artists took trips to Asia, Africa and the Pacific to open up new ideas and get inspired. This new inspiration saw development in artistic disciplines both sculpture and artist prints. Both of these contained changes in techniques and materials, all influenced by this new way of thinking and living (middle class).

In 1913 a large exhibition called the Armory Show was hosted. This exhibition had 1250 paintings and 300 artists. Lots of different artists attended and this was a great opportunity for the artists of the time to mingle, this created the want to diverse in different artistic disciplines.

Other creative inventions happened in the early part of the 20th century and included photography and moving pictures. This was to massively influence artists. At first they were unsure of the photograph but eventually saw that it could be a better way to perceive human emotion and came to realise that it was not as impersonal as they thought. Cinema also played a role in the influence on art in a similar way better still with the silent to sound and black to colour evolutions.

Another factor that influenced the Modern art movement were the invention of electricity in a domestic way making it possible to paint later and easier to prepare materials.

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