Western Contemporary Art: From Abstract Expressionism to Hyperrealism

Author: Smith
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Features: We do not want to deny the numerous masterpieces of Cubist painters, but we must point out that its main development has gone astray. Cubism also has a branch, Orphism by Robert Delaunay. The poet and publisher Guillaume Apollinaire was very enthusiastic in supporting Delaunay's Orphism. However, Delaunay was unable to persist in his radical exploration. He created a branch of Cubism that emphasized the importance of color and the dynamism of the picture, rather than static creation like Braque and Picasso. His exploration gradually approached an early pure abstract expression method, with large patches of pure color alternating and rotating on the canvas (Figure 6). The sense of motion in many of his paintings is unparalleled. Delaunay's preference for dynamism was preempted by the Italian Futurists. However, the position of Futurism in the early history of modern art has not yet been fully recognized, although art retrospectives of it have been held in Turin and other places to some extent correct this injustice. One oddity in Futurism is that its leader was not a painter. The Futurist Manifesto, first published in a Paris newspaper in February 1909 by F. T. Marinetti, was an Italian poet who lived in Paris. However, this manifesto was drafted in response to the social conditions of Italy, sweeping away the cultural indifference and heavy burdens Italy had fallen into like a whirlwind. The most famous line in the manifesto is: "We firmly believe that the world will be more glorious with a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A high-speed racing car is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace." The manifesto also claims: "Beauty lies in struggle, and a work without aggression cannot be a masterpiece. Poetry must launch a fierce attack against all the unknown forces destined to submit to human power." There are at least three reasons why modernist scholars are deeply interested in Futurism. First, Futurism perfectly summarizes the aggressive spirit shared by avant-garde painters worldwide before the World War. Marinetti was a nationalist and a super-patriot who believed that resolving disputes by force was a noble and magnificent act. He longed for war, viewing it as "a fresh wind blowing onto this dusty old roof." Poets and artists everywhere at the time admired this violence. We found that British Vorticist painters and some Russian Futurists strongly expressed this sentiment in their works. Some more extreme avant-garde painters at the time were deeply yearning to completely overthrow the entire social structure of Europe. However, Marinetti himself was not a left-wing figure; he belonged to the radical right. After he quickly realized that Mussolini was not a political ally but an enemy, his career as a loyal fascist ended. The second important feature of Futurism is that it was an early organized, conscious avant-garde movement that sought to invent and demonstrate its independent existence, rather than leaving this task to critics. Marinetti indeed strongly hoped that Futurism could expand its