Modernism

Modernism is the term to describe cultural movements which took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, in the Western society. This refers to art, architecture, music, literature and applied arts that came out at this time. Modernism encouraged the re-examination of many things, including commerce to philosophy. Through examining them they aimed to find what was 'holding back' progress and found ways in which to replace it with better and more progressive ways. Believers of modernism usually rebel against 'tradiotional' forms of art, religious faith, etc. Modernist thinkers in the nineteenth century believed that daily life was becoming outdated. Some people divide the 20th Century into two movements – modernism and postmodernism. Others see them as two apects of the same movement. Some modernists believed that by rejecting traditional ideas they could discover new, radical ways of making art. Abstract artists made the assumption that colour and shape formed the essential characteristics of art. The main aspect of the modernism movement is the rejection of traditional ideas – things such as freedom of expression, experimentation and radicalism.

Walker Evans

Walker Evans was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1903. His aim, in his words, was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent". He is best known for his work which documents the effects of the Great Depression. Like other photographers, Evans loosely supervised the making of prints and rarely spent time in the darkroom making them from his own negatives. Another well known piece of work is the book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men", which told of his stay with three white tenant families in Alabama, during the Great Depression. While Evans provided photographs of sharecroppers, James Agee, a writer, provided the words for the book, which was an account of rural poverty. T he individuals photographed became icons of the "Depression-era" (some of the descendants stated that "the family was presented in a falsely unflattering light by Evans' photographs"). It was also suggested that Evans may have been the inspiration for Andy Warhol's photo booth portraits. Evans experimented with photo booth self portraits himself in 1929. Many of Evans' work are kept as part of permanent collections in museums, and institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus was an American photographer who is famous for her unconventional portraits or both ordinary and extraordinary citizens (such as transvestites, giants, prostitutes and dwarfs). In the 60's Arbus worked as a photojournalist and her work was featured in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Bazaar and Sunday Times magazines. Arbus experimented with the use of flashes in daylight, which allowed her to highlight and separate her subjects from the background. Her first public work was called "The Vertical Journey: Six Movements of a Moment Within the Heart of the City", which consisted of six portraits of New Yorkers. One of her most famous pieces of work is "Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park", which featured a scrawny boy holding a toy grenade in his left hand with a claw like gesture with a maniacal expression. The other, "Identical Twins" showed young twin sisters standing together in corduroy dresses, one smiling and the other frowning. Arbus' work has been criticized as being demeaning to her subjects, as it has a voyeuristic approach. However, admirers of her work were interviewed by the BBC and defended her work. Arbus then studied "conventional" people in an attempt to dispel this image.

Dave Lachappelle

David LaChapelle is a photographer and director who is known for fashion, advertising and fine art photography. He has a surreal and humorous style. He was born on March 11th 1963 in Conneticut. LaChapelle went to North Carolina School of the Arts. His first photograph was of his mother who wore a bikini and held a martini glass on the balcony. Soon after he became obsessed with photography. He was offered his first professional job by Andy Warhol for Interview magazine, and his book LaChapelle Land and Hotel LaChapelle which both contained vivid and bizarre portraits of celebrities. He was the director of Madonna's video for the 2005 hit "Hung Up" but fell apart due to creative differences. Also in the UK he directed the surreal Lost trailers for Channel 4 and showed the cast dancing in 1920's costume among the burning wreckage on the beach. He also directed Channel 4's promotion for Desperate Housewives (season one). His work has been described as surreal, ironic. He uses celebrities and exaggerates aspects of them or their superficial world.

Man Ray

Man Ray was an American artist who was known for his avant garde photography and he was a significant contributor to both Dada and Surrealist movements. He spent most of his career in Paris and describes himself as a modernist. From time to time he began to attract attention until his death more than 60 years later. Man Ray never allowed the public to know about his early life and family background. Man Ray's father was a garment factory worker who also ran a tailoring business. May Ray's mother also enjoyed making family clothes from her own designs and using scraps of fabric. Man Ray's autistic abilities were first known in childhood. His time at Boy's High School provided him with grounding in drafting and otherbasic art techniques, however he educated himself with frequent visits to local art museums where he studied works of the Old Masters. Over the next four years he converted his room into a studio and worked towards being a professional painter while earning money as a commercial artist. Later in life he was forced to leave Paris due to the outbreak of the second World War. He lived in Los Angeles California from 1940 untill 1951. He met Juliet Browner, and they moved in together and married in 1946. He died in Paris on November 18th 1976.

Dandyism and Fashion

Pet AT-AT By Nick Drummond