Cultural Changes: the Effect on Art
Cultural Changes: The Effect on Art
You’re an artist during WWI, bombs exploding everywhere, innocent people even children losing their lives, how will you express your intense anger and sadness towards the events that are taking place? The frustration towards war and other social, political or cultural changes can bring about different responses from different people. When it comes to art, art movements are created out of the need for people to communicate their reactions to these changes. Whether they admire them or despise them, their central goal is to show how they feel about them.
I’m going to start out with the art movement Dadaism. This movement was roughly between the years of 1916-1924. Some of the major artists were Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, George Grosz, Francis Picabia and Man Ray. The Dadaism movement was a protest against the brutality of the War and the strictness in both art and everyday society (Dadaism, n.d.). Artists were so fed up with everyday life that they did everything they could to go against the norm when it came to art. Whatever art stood for at the time, Dada represented the complete opposite. If art was intended to have a message, Dada went all out to have no meaning. “With the order of the world destroyed by World War I, Dada was a way to express the confusion that was felt by many people as their world was turned upside down” (Dadaism, n.d.). These artists used any public medium they could find to figuratively spit on nationalism, rationalism, materialism and any other -ism that they felt contributed to a senseless war (Esaak, n.d.). They used this as a way to protest the war and other social injustices. They felt if society was going to handle problems by going to war, they didn’t want anything to do with society or its customs especially when it came to art. “Using an early form of Shock Art, the Dadaists thrust mild obscenities, scatological humor, visual puns and everyday objects (renamed as "art") into the public eye”
You’re an artist during WWI, bombs exploding everywhere, innocent people even children losing their lives, how will you express your intense anger and sadness towards the events that are taking place? The frustration towards war and other social, political or cultural changes can bring about different responses from different people. When it comes to art, art movements are created out of the need for people to communicate their reactions to these changes. Whether they admire them or despise them, their central goal is to show how they feel about them.
I’m going to start out with the art movement Dadaism. This movement was roughly between the years of 1916-1924. Some of the major artists were Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, George Grosz, Francis Picabia and Man Ray. The Dadaism movement was a protest against the brutality of the War and the strictness in both art and everyday society (Dadaism, n.d.). Artists were so fed up with everyday life that they did everything they could to go against the norm when it came to art. Whatever art stood for at the time, Dada represented the complete opposite. If art was intended to have a message, Dada went all out to have no meaning. “With the order of the world destroyed by World War I, Dada was a way to express the confusion that was felt by many people as their world was turned upside down” (Dadaism, n.d.). These artists used any public medium they could find to figuratively spit on nationalism, rationalism, materialism and any other -ism that they felt contributed to a senseless war (Esaak, n.d.). They used this as a way to protest the war and other social injustices. They felt if society was going to handle problems by going to war, they didn’t want anything to do with society or its customs especially when it came to art. “Using an early form of Shock Art, the Dadaists thrust mild obscenities, scatological humor, visual puns and everyday objects (renamed as "art") into the public eye”
Bibliography: Abstract expressionism (Late 1940’s – early 1960’s). (n.d.) Retrieved January 20, 2010, from http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/absexpress.htm Art history: Abstract expressionism: (1940-1955). (2009, September). Retrieved January 20, 2010 from http://wwar.com/masters/movements/abstract_expressionism.html Chilvers, I. (1999). Socialist realism: A dictionary of twentieth-century art. Retrieved February 14, 2010, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O5-SocialistRealism.html Dadaism(1916-1924). (n.d.). Retrieved January 20, 2010, from http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/dadaism.htm Esaak, S. (n.d.). Dada - Art history 101 basics: The non-art movement (1916-23). Retrieved January 20, 2010, from http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm Futurism (1909-1914). (n.d.) Retrieved January 20, 2010, from http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/futurism.htm McLaughlin, N. (n.d.). Futurism art. Retrieved January 20, 2010, from http://virtualology.com/hallofartmovements/futurismart.com/ Order from stone: Nazi architecture. (n.d.) Retrieved January 20, 2010, from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/artunderfascism/architecture Pioch, N. (2002, October). Futurism. Retrieved January 20, 2010, from http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/futurism/