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Media Culture and Modernism 2008
“Modernism denotes artistic experiment and novelty, a radical overhaul of existing forms of representation and available traditions”. Discuss.
Jing Shi

Module Code: MP0508
Student number: 06034616
Module Tutor
Dr John Armitage
Name: Jing Shi

“Modernism denotes artistic experiment and novelty, a radical overhaul of existing forms of representation and available traditions”. Discuss.

Within my essay, I will focus on the definition of Modernism first. Modernism describes an array of cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The term covers a series of reforming movements in art, architecture, literature and the applied arts which emerged during this period. It is such a trend that asserts the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology or practical experimentation (Berman, 1982). After that, artistic experiment and novelty should be talked about in this article. According to Dubravko (1971) says that：”artistic experiment is not the objective of art to try and reach the depths of the infinite in order to discover something new, but to reach the depths of the definite in order to discover in it what is inexhaustive.” (pg111) At the meanwhile, I try to talk about Modernism in the visual arts. This is important theory within the Modernism, which include in painting, photography, printmaking, and filmmaking. The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature. What will be followed with visual art? I will link the topic to discuss how Modernism did in the visual arts overhaul representation. Here, in Modernism, representation as an Image, a drawing or painting; the action or fact of exhibiting in some visible image or form and symbolic action or exhibition (Ann, 1996). In the end, I will plan to give an example to interpret that visual arts overhaul representation in Modernism. Because there are lots of ways to resolve Modernism, artists have different ideas in this approach, I only focus on one explanation to discuss it.

REFERENCES:

Kolocotroni, V. (1998) ‘Introduction’ in their Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Bradbury, M. and McFarlane, J. (1976) ‘The Name and Nature of Modernism’ in their Modernism, 1800-1930. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Nicholls, P. (1995) Modernism: A Literary Guide. London: Macmillan.

Brettell, R. R. (1999) Modern Art: 1851-1929. Oxford: OUP.

Frascina, F. and Harris, J. (1992) Art in Modern Culture: An Anthology of Critical Texts. London: Phaidon.

Rodrigues, C. and Garratt, C. (2001) Introducing Modernism. London: Icon Books.

Levenson, M. (1999) The Cambridge Companion to Modernism. Cambridge: CUP.

Suzi, G. (1984) Has Modernism Failed? London: Thames and Hudson.

Brooker, P. (1992) Modernism/ www.51lunwen.org Postmodernism. London: Longman.

Wood, P. (2004) Varieties of Modernism. Yale: Yale University Press.

Dubravko, D. (1971) International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music. Croatian Musicological Society.