16 Nov Modern art Facts for Kids
Modern art is known for its avant-garde aesthetics and celebrated by its artists ahead of their time. Developed over approximately 100 years, this stream incorporates many important art movements and inevitably includes an eclectic range of styles. To delineate the peculiar evolution of modern art, we must recognize and understand the many genres that make it up. However, to achieve this, the most useful thing will be to establish some modern art facts for kids.
What is modern art?
“Modern art” refers to art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this time, the works produced to show the artists’ interest in reimagining, reinterpreting, and even rejecting the traditional aesthetic values of previous styles. It should not be confused with contemporary art.
With Modern Art or modernism, the aim was to create new, young, free, and avant-garde art, which broke with the dominant styles, both those of academic tradition and rupture ones. It was tried to create an art of inspiration in nature at the same time that new features derived from the industrial revolution were incorporated, of materials such as iron and glass.
What is the meaning of Modern Art?
Modern art or modernism is a unique concept since it has different areas in the art world, especially in aesthetics, in historiography, in the theory of what art is, and in the market. And it is that this type of arts aims to make a distinction between the productive part of art that will be identified with certain definitions of modernity. So, you understand it better. For example, academic art represents everything traditional in art. This style of art experiments to bring out innovative things.
That is why this concept is an aesthetic and not chronological art since any time limitation is somewhat problematic for this type of art. To better understand it, let’s give an example: The art that was made in the modern age (from the XV century to the end of the XVIII century) was not in itself the concept of “modern art” that is known today. However, the art that was made in the Contemporary Age does fit the definition of this concept.
The concepts of contemporary art and modern art for kids
They are frequently used interchangeably. Many times they are exchanged between institutional settings or in specialized biographies. There are even many occasions in which similar areas are used in opposition. In other words, they reserve an indefinite time for modern art that can be between the different movements from the 19th to the 20th century. This happens because many times, there is no conformity between contemporary art and modern art and that is why many people confuse them, something normal after all.
However, to differentiate modern art from contemporary art, we only have to know that this concept is aesthetic and not chronological (as could be the case with contemporary art). For you to understand it better, we will put as an example a painter who may be William Adolphe Bouguereau, who did not make works of this style of art, but Vincent Van Gogh did. If you look at two works by these painters, you will notice the difference between them. In summary, to finish explaining this art modality, we must say that modern art was an innovation of traditional art. This type of art symbolizes a new way of understanding the function of art and theory.
Modern art Facts for Kids
Modernist artists were inspired by nature and used natural origin elements but with a preference for vegetables and rounded organic forms intertwining with the central motif.
-The curved line and asymmetry were used, both in the plants and elevations of the buildings and in the decoration.
-There was a tendency to stylization in the motifs and less in their realistic representation.
-Female images were used in delicate and graceful attitudes, with a clear emphasis on the waves of the women’s hair and the folds of their dresses.
-The modernist paintings tended to sensuality and sense gratification, even reaching eroticism.
-There was great freedom in the use of exotic motifs. A great example was the use of Japanese prints.
Modern Painting for kids
The modern period of art history witnessed the demolition of traditional constraints regarding form (the appearance of art) and content (matter). This happened in all branches of art, with painting at the forefront. Kid painters brought aesthetic innovation to the end of antiquity. The most prominent innovation in the form was the emergence of increasingly distorted styles, culminating in abstract art’s birth. In terms of content, modern painting tends towards everyday scenes instead of traditional “elevated” themes (biblical, mythological, historical).
Modern Art witnessed the celebration of the “age of the academies.” In art history, an Academy is an official body that upholds traditional artistic standards by providing artistic training and organizing prestigious exhibitions. In these exhibitions, which could make or break an artist’s career, naturally, only works of art that respect the Academy’s rules are accepted. Therefore, these works are known as “academic art.”
Non-Western art played a key role in the development of modern art. In search of new aesthetic possibilities, Western kids found unlimited inspiration in the traditions of other cultures worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa, Pre-colonial America, and Oceania were particularly influential.
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