1970s Postmodernism

The term postmodernism is used to describe the changes that took place in Western society and culture from the 1960s onwards that arose from challenges made to established structures and belief systems. In art, postmodernism was specifically a reaction against modernism which had dominated art theory and practise since the beginning of the twentieth century. 

Postmodernism is widely used to define contemporary culture, technology and art- an age transformed by information technology, shaped by electronic images and fascinated with popular art. 

Postmodernism rejects the elitism and difficulty of Modernism. 

It celebrates the idea of fragmentation, provisionality or incoherence. 

 

Nineteen Sixties

'During the nineteen sixties women's fashion changed dramatically with Mary Quant's introduction of the mini skirt. Women gained the right to vote and began to find more independence with what they wore and what they did. 

There were many other influences in art, music and culture. 

Bridget Riley and Andy Warhol were extremely popular op and pop artists. 

There were many changes in fashion during the decade, the most noted being:

-Mary Quant invented the mini skirt in the 1960s which became one of the most popular items of the decade. 

- The bikini came into fashion in 1963 after being shown in the film 'Beach Party'. 

- The hippie movement in the later part of the decade had a strong influence on fashion, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as Paisley prints. 

- Popular women's hairstyles included the beehive, the birds nest type style and the chignon in the early half of the decade. Very short Vidal Sasoon type hairstyles were then popularised by Twiggy and became extremely popular during the latter half of the decade. 

Fashion trends popularised for men included:

- Hairstyles such as the mop-top, the Beatle boots and the Nehru jacket were influenced by the Beatles during the sixties. 

- Other mainstream hairstyles included the pompadour, the crew cut, the flattop, the tapered hairstyle, and short parted hairstyles in the early part of the decade and long hairstyles with side burns in the latter part of the decade. 

- African-American hairstyles for both men and women included the Afro among other styles. 

There was a lot of very famous photography from the nineteen sixties including:

TWIGGY

BRIDGET BARDOT

THE BEATLES

ANDY WARHOL

JOHN AND JACKIE KENNEDY

WOMEN PROTESTING FOR THE MINI SKIRT

American Moderism

What is American Modernism?

American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at the turn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century. Modernism was a rebellious state of mind that questioned all artistic, scientific, social and moral conversions.

Nihilism- The Belief in Nothing:
Modernists viewed the world, and especially human existence, as being meaningless. 

Before Modernism the goal of an artist was to achieve perfection within their art in the following categories: A highly polished style, use of historical or mythological subject matter and a moralistic tone.

During Modernism artists deliberately created pieces that completely went against what was seen as acceptable and developed a type of art that was strange, unknown and unlabeled in itself. Modernism created a new language of images which expected the viewer to engage with the art work.

         Modernists explored both Primitivism and Perversity in their work. Primitivism was a term that explains how modernists rejected technology and embraced the natural primal roots of primitive man. Modernists were free to explore their personal and artistic freedom. Perversity was a term given to modernists work which explored the uncivilized nature of man.

FASHION:

The 1920's was a big decade for women, fashion, music and American culture. Women were given the right to vote and ready-to-wear fashion began to spread around America. More women began to earn their own wages and fashion as a status symbol was no more important as the class distinctions were becoming blurred. Women were beginning to want inexpensive fashion and in the aspect of mass production of contemporary style womenswear clothing, America was ahead of any other country. 

Flappers:
During the 1920's the term 'Flappers' was also created. Flappers were a "new breed" of young women in the 1920's who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz music, and flaunted their nonacceptance for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking alcohol, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise going against social and sexual norms.

Lingerie:
Flappers did away with corsets and pantaloons in favor of "step-in" panties. Without the old restrictive corsets, flappers wore simple bust bodices to restrain their chest when dancing. They also wore new, softer and suppler corsets that reached to their hips, smoothing the whole frame, giving women a straight up and down appearance, as opposed to the old corsets which slenderized the waist and accented the hips and bust.

The lack of curves of a corset promoted a boyish look. Adding an even more boyish look, the Symington Side Lacer was invented and became a popular essential as an everyday bra. This type of bra was made to pull in the back to flatten the chest. Other women envied flappers for their flat chests and bought the Symington Side Lacer to enhance the same look; large breasts were commonly regarded as a trait of unsophistication. Hence, flat chests became appealing to women, although flappers were the most common to wear such bras.


JAZZ AGE:

The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920's, ending with the Great Depression, in which jazz music and dance became popular, mainly in the United States, but also in Britain, France and elsewhere. Jazz originated mainly in New Orleans as a fusion of African and European music and played a significant part in wider cultural changes in this period, and its influence on pop culture continued long afterwards. The Jazz Age is often referred to in association with the Roaring Twenties.

The spread of jazz was encouraged by the introduction of large-scale radio broadcasts in 1932. The radio was described as the "sound factory." Radio made it possible for Americans to experience different styles of music without physically visiting a jazz club. The radio provided Americans with a trendy new avenue for exploring the world through broadcasts and concerts from the comfort of their living room.

POP ART 1950's:

Key characteristics of pop art are:

• Usually includes very bright colours.
• Recognizable imagery, drawn from popular media or products.
• In sculpture, an innovative use of media.
• Flat imagery influenced by comic books and newspaper photographs.
• Images of celebrities or fictional characters in comic books, advertisements or magazines.

Andy Warhol is a very famous Pop Artist.

Bauhaus and the Second World War Fashion

Bauhaus:-

Bauhaus, was an art school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. 

Bauhaus literally means "house of construction"—was understood as meaning "School of Building".

The Bauhaus was first founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus during the first years of its existence did not have an architecture department. Nonetheless, it was founded with the idea of creating a "total" work of art in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together.




Fashion during the First World War:-

Women in the Land Army were trouser pioneers

Although women who worked in mines before the war wore trousers, they would cover them up with skirts during time off. Those in the Land Army didn’t have trousers as regulation uniform, despite the practical advantages – they were more likely borrowed from male members of the family. It was decades before trousers became acceptable for women away from the tennis court.

Makeup became more established during the war

Maybelline started in 1915, and it coincided with makeup – or the appearance of wearing makeup, anyway – becoming more acceptable, particularly as working-class women who could now afford it. Powder, kohl eyeliner and mascara were popular

Body hair was on its way out

Women’s uniforms had shorter skirts than were customary in 1914 – they were now at six to 10 inches off the ground. The reveal of a bit of leg was part of the change in perception of body hair, from something erotic to something unsightly. Gilette introduced razors in 1915. Shaving legs became part of standard female grooming.


Fashion during the Second World War:-

Nylons Introduced:

Nylon was invented by DuPont in 1938, and nylon stockings were demonstrated at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. When they came on the market on May 15, 1940, over 750,000 pairs were sold on the first day. They sold for $1.25 a pair, the same price as silk, but their shrink-proof, moth-proof nature made them very popular.

Silk Shortage:

Japan was the sole supplier of silk to the US, and deteriorating trade relations in 1941 cut off the supply. Silk was used for parachutes and was the best material for powder bags for naval guns. When the guns were fired, the silk completely disintegrated without leaving any damaging residue. To protect this precious resource, the Office of Production Management (OPM) seized the nation’s supply of raw silk on August 2, 1941. This set off such a shopping frenzy for silk stockings that most retailers set a purchase limit of two or three pairs. The price of nylon stockings subsequently rose to $10 a pair or more.

Making Do:

Women treated their remaining stockings with great care, often reserving them for special occasions. Rayon or cotton stockings were worn, but not fondly, as they tended to sag around the knees. The rising popularity of slacks helped, but most women resorted to bare legs, sometimes with ankle socks for more casual wear. To simulate the look of nylons, women used leg makeup from cosmetics companies such as Max Factor. These “liquid stockings” were reported to last up to three days if the woman didn’t bathe. If possible, a “seam” was painted down the back of the leg with an eyebrow pencil by a friend or family member. This leg makeup was endangered when a lady crossed her legs or when it rained.

    

Influential Designers During the Second World War:

ELSA SCHIAPARELLI – SHOULDER PADS & THE WRAP DRESS

MADELEINE VIONNET & THE BIAS CUT DRESS

French designer Madeleine Vionnet was famous for her bias-cut clothes. Her dresses were Grecian-inspired with romantic draping achieved by cutting the fabric across the grain at a 45 degree angle. Minimizing darting or doing away with it altogether, Vionnet’s designs embraced the natural female form with free-hanging fabric. Due to wartime hardships, Vionnet closed her design business in 1939, but still remains an influential designer of the early 20th century.

1925-1939

Art Contextual:-

• 1925 Flapper dresses became stylish.
• 1926 A.A Milne publishes Winnie-the-pooh and Houdini dies.
• 1927 BBC Founded.
• 1928 Penicillin discovered.
• 1929 The Great Depression begins.
• 1932 Scientists split the atom.
• 1934 Bonnie and Clyde killed by Police.
• 1935 Monopoly Board Game Released by Parker Brothers and Alcoholics Anonymous founded.

Bauhaus:-

Bauhaus was a revolutionary school of art, architecture and design established by the pioneer modern architect Walter Gropius at Weimar in Germany in 1919, includes artists Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.

Wassily Kandinsky
Swinging 1925
Oil on board

Dada:-

Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in nature.

Max Ernst
Dadaville circa 1924
Painted plaster and cork laid on canvas

German Expressionism as well as many of the 'isms' were being documented in films between 1925 and 1939, for example: Nosferatu released in 1922 directed by F.W. Murnau starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlock was a great example of German Expressionism.

   


Surrealism:-

Surrealism was a movement which began in the 1920s of writers and artists (including Salvador Dalí and René Magritte), who experimented with ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination.

René Magritte
The Future of Statues 1937.

Surrealism sought to free the imaginative human mind and reveal the unconscious, encouraging radical change and rejection to logic and reasoning. Surrealism literally means 'above and beyond reality'. 

Andre Breton published The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924.

Fashion between 1925 and 1939:-

The desirable look for women in the1930s was still slim, but more womanly and sophisticated than in the previous decade. This body shape was created through longer skirts cut on the bias and by an indented waistline and rounded bosom.

This increased exposure of the body was due to sportswear’s influence on new styles including the ‘halter-neck’ credited to the French couturier Madeleine Vionnet, which exposed arms and back.

Typical daywear for women consisted of a two-piece suit with sleek, fitted jacket and matching skirt or dress. Day dresses were usually simple and calf-length, while more formal attire was longer, often reaching the floor. Evening dresses became more elaborate and extravagant as the decade progressed.

Although Hollywood stars, such as Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn wore trousers, they were not widely accepted. However, they did appear in sports and leisurewear, particularly for playing golf, tennis or for riding and cycling. In 1939 high fashion magazine Vogue featured trousers as acceptable day wear for women for the first time.

  

1914-1925

Art Contextual:-

• 1914 Charlie Chaplin first appeared as the Little Tramp.
• 1916 Battle of the Somme.
• 1920 Women given the right to vote in the U.S.
• 1921 Extreme inflation in Germany.
• 1922 Insulin discovered.
• 1924 First Olympic winter games.
• 1925 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald published.

Constructivism (1913-1930)

Constructivism was a total commitment to and acceptance of modernity. The pieces created were often totally abstract, with an emphasis on geometric shapes and experimentation. Constructivist art was optimistic. The movement wanted to remove all art that had come before which led to catastrophic war. The new art would lead to greater understanding, peace and unity, which would then have an impact on the social and economic problems of the time. The movement was founded in about 1915 by Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko.

El Lissitzky
1. Part of the Show Machinery 1923
Lithograph on paper

Cubism (1907-1915)

Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907/08 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who aimed to bring different views of subjects (usually objects or figures) together in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted.

Pablo Picasso
Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle 1914
Oil on canvas

Fauvism (1905-1910)

Fauvism is the name applied to the work produced by a group of artists (which included Henri Matisse and André Derain) from around 1905 to 1910, which is characterised by strong colours and fierce brushwork.

André Derain
Henri Matisse 1905

German Expressionism (1905-1925)

German expressionism was an early twentieth century German art movement that emphasized the artist’s inner feelings or ideas over replicating reality, and was characterised by simplified shapes, bright colours and gestural marks or brushstrokes.

George Grosz
Suicide 1916

Futurism (1909-1914)

Futurism was an Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world.

Gino Severini
Suburban Train Arriving in Paris 1915

De Stijl (1917-1931)

De Stijl was a circle of Dutch abstract artists who promoted a style of art based on a strict geometry of horizontals and verticals.

Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart
Composition No. 15 1925

Suprematism (1915-1925)

Name given by the Russian artist Kasimir Malevich to the abstract art he developed from 1913 characterised by basic geometric forms, such as circles, squares, lines and rectangles, painted in a limited range of colours.

Kazimir Malevich
Dynamic Suprematism 1915 or 1916

Abstract Art (1907 Onwards)

Abstract art is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect.

Morris Louis
Phi 1960-1

Fashion between 1914 and 1925:-

My image of a woman of the 'Roaring Twenties' is the image of a flapper. Flappers did not truly emerge until 1926.  Flapper fashion embraced all things and styles modern.  A fashionable flapper had short sleek hair, a shorter than average shapeless shift dress, a chest as flat as a board, wore make up and applied it in public, smoked with a long cigarette holder, exposed her limbs and epitomised the spirit of a reckless rebel who danced the nights away in the Jazz Age. 

The bras of the early 20s include home made ones in white cotton and which were little more than bust bodices with extra separation.  Some purchased bras were like camisoles and they offered no support.

  

1900-1914

Art Contextual:-

Between the times of 1900-1914 there were many events that influenced the art and popular culture:

• 1901 Queen Victoria dies and U.S President McKinley was assassinated.
• 1904 Theodor Seuss Geisel and Salvador Dali were born.
• 1905 Painting by Matisse and and Derain introduce Fauvism.
• 1907 Picasso introduces Cubism.
• 1908 the Converse rubber corporation was formed.
• 1909 Plastic is invented.
• 1911 Mona Lisa is stolen.
• 1912 the Titanic sank.
• 1914 WW1 began.

Aestheticism:-
Aestheticism (or the Aesthetic Movement) is an art movement that was prominent particularly in Europe in the 19th century. It supported the emphasis of aesthtic values more than social-political themes of literature, fine art, music and other arts.

The Peacock Room, Aesthetic Movement designed by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, one of the most famous examples of Aesthetic style interior design.

Modernism:-
Modernism refers to the broad movement in Western arts and literature that gathered pace from around 1850, and is characterised by a deliberate rejection of the styles of the past; emphasising instead innovation and experimentation in forms, materials and techniques in order to create artworks that better reflected modern society.

Women and Fashion between 1900 and 1914:-

Only 19% of women had jobs, most of them working in factories. By 1900, more than one million women worked in factories, primarily in textile mills and clothing factories. They worked long hours, often 15 hours a day, in poor conditions and for very little pay. They could not fight for better conditions because many unions did not allow women to join. Only about 5% of women were secretaries, clerks, or salespersons. Middle-class women joined the work force, primarily as teachers and nurses (teachers, however, were required to quit when they got married). They also worked as typists or telephone and telegraph operators. Half the female workers were under 25 years old and they were paid less than men. 

Because of this women's fashion also began to change, women's skirts became shorter, in part to make it easier to step into automobiles and trolleys and when at work. A popular skirt was the "hobble skirt" which had a slit to the knee, making walking easier. Women also liked to wear big hats. Middle class women copied styles from fashion magazines, either hiring someone to make replicas or sewing the clothes their own. At the time of around 1908, women started rejecting the corset and European style for more comfortable clothes such as tailored skirts and blouses. Women based their styles on the Gibson Girl, a creation of American artist, Charles Gibson.