rkcriticalframeworks 9/2

This week as I came across the Baudelaire reading titled “Modernity-Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” I was not quite sure what to expect. I had already read the “Painter of Modern Life” and was having trouble understanding exactly what is was I was reading. Only two sentences, as confused as I was I finally understood something. Baudelaire quickly wrapped up everything I felt uneasy about in one sentence. “ To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world- and at the same time that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.” (15) This brief but explicit sentence really opened up my eyes to the modern world. As we discussed in class once you are aware of this it is much easier to point it out in daily life. Since I don’t live close to home I make it a top priority to stay in touch with my friends and family, but sometimes I find it nearly impossible and that is because of the society we live in. As Baudelaire says we live in a society where we can grow but also where we can be destroyed. Sometimes just the simple lack of communication for me with my friends and family from home seems treacherous and I wonder how and why that is, but then I realize that everything good is compromised in this modern world. However, more obviously as I found myself wondering around the Prime Outlets Friday I noticed the many signs that read “vintage chic” in the windows of the stores. Again, as we discussed in class comes the “re-invention” idea of our day and age. By re-inventing things, like making clothes look old from a past decade or even more we are obviously selling the “new us” as a society and as individuals who follow. So although Baudelaire helped me understand modernity the reinvention of the past still seems to concern me in some ways.

Baudelaire

The application of the analysis of what was involved during the creation of modern art is not something I can confidently say I can do successfully, but there was a concept in the reading that struck me as applicable to our modern times. Baudelaire states on page 4, “ For the sketch of manners, the depiction of bourgeois life and the pageant of fashion, the technical means that is the most expeditious and the least costly will obviously be the best. The more beauty that the artist can put into it, the more valuable will be his work; but in trivial life, in the daily metamorphosis of external things, there is a rapidity of movement which calls for an equal speed of execution from the artist.” I found this to be somewhat disappointing, assuming the mindset of the eighteenth century was similar to today’s perspective that whatever is more successful is sought out, rather than showing the reality of a situation. For example, an artist following the typical modern-day approach would focus on work that would make him successful.

For the artists who wanted to paint the “trivial life”, they would be at a disadvantage. Upon analyzing the art of Mme J.C. Prost, despite the loss of intricacy in the black and white copy, I noticed that there was a rapidity to her pieces. The art was focused on the general scene rather than the details of the masses of people in each piece. Her work is the kind that I look at and say, “I could do that,” because they are so quick and lacking of intensity. The rushed demeanor and unfinished borders immediately draw the eye to the picture as a whole rather than those involved, which I can appreciate. When Baudelaire speaks of the quick execution expected from the artist when painting everyday trivial life and it can be demonstrated in Prost’s work, I can’t even imagine what Prost would do if she were asked to go to the streets of New York City on a Monday morning and paint what she sees. There is such a faster pace than back in the eighteenth century, and I think that maybe anyone who can capture the speed we encompass now as a general society would be more respected than someone who can add the details on a skirt.

"On my honor, I have neither given nor received nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this blog."

Through Curiosity Comes Clarity

Going through the day, I look down at my fall schedule and suddenly am caught in a trance of memories. I see that one time in which my confidence was shaken and through a new perspective did I find strength. I see the time when I took “the journey less traveled” and the time I followed the crowd. Life is full of making decisions, finding a new angle, and discovering the characteristics you truly value. Well, this may be a personal anecdote; I bet that somewhere in someone’s life they have gone through quite similar experiences. Trying to gain a bit of understanding of exactly what modernism is, what post modernism is, I cannot help but think about my college career.

Coming in as a freshman, I had my own practice and understanding of the world around me. I had my own traditions, my own history and forms of expression, and personally I was quite content with the bubble that surrounded me. However, these first few chapters of my story were trapped in modernity. They were stable, concrete if you will, and I was entirely coloring within the lines. Nonetheless, college is not quite as clean cut as this and thus I entered into a condition known as postmodernism. I walked outside and I did not see the bubble that I spent my first eighteen years in, things were just different, and I was in my own form of Yeat’s Second Coming. William Butler Yates writes of a time in which “things fall apart; the centre cannot hold […] surely some revelation is at hand.” While this poem carries much more depth and understanding of the global atmosphere emerging in the 1940s, my interpretation is more personal and directed at a time when my life started to turn directions. Things were not necessarily falling apart and the center was not necessarily losing strength, but a new foundation had begun to be built. I would have to find that revelation, that Avant-Garde of thought and experience, and look inward in order to really understand what I believe.

Postmodernism is a time when thought was called into question and stability was a term of the past. The universal rules and forms of understanding that I followed every day were about to rupture, about to change. I am not challenging the world the way the early postmodernists did, in fact I still am in the stage of trying to comprehend the theories themselves. However, I know that college is all about finding instability and constantly reinventing one’s own element because at the end of the day, it is through this unsteadiness that I find strength; it is through the curiosity that I gain clarity; and it is through deconstruction that I build a stronger foundation.

Post Modernism

Upon studying Post Modernism I have discovered that, although it is difficult to pinpoint the exact time in which it began, is often spurred by traumatic events, therefore Post Modernism repeats itself as history does. Dr. Cummings mentioned the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima as the starting point of Post Modernism and since then various events have resurrected similar thoughts and feelings, but I feel that Post Modernism does not end at any certain point, only gets stronger once another devistating event occurs. Artistic movements show the progression of Post Modernism through the advancement of abstract art. In the beginning, there was Cubism which only slightly distorted the image of reality in rebellion of the norm. Over time, Surrealism emerged, altering the perception or reality to a dream-like state as if tapping into the subconscious. Finally, abstract art broke the mold, unveiling art that portrayed nothing but internal feeling through splashes of paint on a canvas. Visual art was not the only subject to experience the Post Modern movement. The disciplines, including psychology, biology, and writing were affected as well. Post Modernism embodies change, whether it was internal or external. Reinvention of oneself was a common pursuit during this time. Today, we have musical artists, such as Lady Gaga who not only break outside the norm, but embody an image from the past, such as Madonna. We have restaurants purposely designed to look like 1950s diners, proving that the past is forever part of the present. I believe that we continue to live in a Post Modern society sparked by the attacks of September 11, 2001. I also feel that Post Modernism is vital for society, similar to the Enlightenment period, for thinking outside the box is what stimulates change and advancement within technology, science, diplomacy, etc. I believe that the Picassos, Dalis, and Pollocks of the past had the right idea, and that we need to become independent thinkers constantly making social comments through our personal medium, that alone will improve this country and humanity as a whole.

September 3rd

This week in class, Professor Cummings introduced us to the concept of modernism and post-modernism. Both of these concepts represent a certain time period, even though we can never say exactly when modernism and post-modernism began and ended. We can however, think about events that caused cultural change of thought about the world, including the Atomic Bomb, Civil Rights movement, and recently, 9/11. Media has had a major influence on these events and how people view them. For example, when feminists were protesting and burnt their bras the media made it out to be a much bigger deal than it actually was, but everyone watching believed that it was this huge riot because that is what they were seeing in newspapers, hearing on TV, and listening to on the radio. Another example that is more recent, is the war and how much information we actually know about it. They barely show any pictures from the war because of reasons such as it is too graphic, but in a way we are being lied to, because the government makes sure that the media does not leak too much information that could cause the American people to view the war in a negative way.

We read three readings, but the one I found most interesting was “The Painter of Modern Life” by Charles Baudelaire. Baudelaire talks about fashion when discussing modernism. He says, “But if one wants to appreciate them properly, fashions should never be considered as dead things; you might as well admire the tattered old rags hung up, as slack and lifeless as the skin of St. Bartholomew, in an old-clothes dealers’ cupboard. Rather they should be thought of as vitalized and animated by the beautiful women who wore them. Only in this way can their sense and meaning be understood” (Baudelaire 33). Fashion should never be considered outdated because it’s part of an aura, when things reoccur and the feelings people get when things reoccur. Fashion is always reoccurring-trends from 20 and 30 years ago are just starting to come back now and that will always happen with fashion. I agree with Baudelaire when he says that if you want to understand the full meaning of fashion you have to imagine the women who wore them and what they were going through at the time, because you will appreciate the items of clothing more. Fashion is just one example of an aura, but there are many other things that reoccur over time. I enjoyed reading Baudelaire’s essay because it was very interesting to get an idea of what society was like during that time period.

"On my honor I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work"

Class Post 9/3/10

This week in class we were introduced to the ideas of modernism and post modernism. Both terms define certain time periods; however, distinguishing when these periods begin and end is a challenge. It is impossible to pin point a specific date in which a way of thinking changed. As a result, instead of looking at exact dates, Professor Cummings encouraged our class to identify specific events that could have changed the way a culture thought such as: the Civil Rights Movement, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and September 11th 2001. While discussing time periods and cultural change the word aura arose. I really like the idea that each time period is an aura not an era, because era is confined to time but an aura is a feeling, sensation, or atmosphere that can reappear. In Charles Baudelaire’s The Painter of Modern Life, he explores the idea of aura. When speaking of fashion plates Baudelaire states, “I am happy to find in all, or almost all of them, is the moral and aesthetic feeling of their time” (Baudelaire, 2). Fashion is a form of expression, and very much defines a culture. You can witness fashion shaping and defining culture on a small scale from decade to decade. The eighties are known for neon, the fifties are known for poodle skirts, and the sixties are strongly identified with tie dye. When critically analyzing a culture, attire is a relevant factor. Rich made a good observation when he described ways of thought as reoccurring. Continuing with my fashion example, fashions reoccur continuously throughout decades. Recently, the styles of the eighties have been reiterated into our mainstream culture. Though this is small scale, and in class we are looking at a much larger scope of time, it is a good metaphor for the ideas we talk about in class. The idea of reoccurring further cements the description of time periods as auras not eras. Eras are locked into place but auras are moving.
I have neither given nor received aid on this blog… Kelsey Hughes

cswimmer6 9/3/10

"And the external world is reborn upon his paper, natural and more than natural, beautiful and more than beautiful, strange and endowed with an impulsive life like the soul of it's creator. The phantasmagoria had been distilled from nature. All raw materials with which the memory has loaded itself are put in order, ranged and harmonized and undergo that forced idealized which is the result of a childlike perceptiveness-that is to say, a perceptiveness acute and magical by reason of its innocence!" - Charles Baudelaire

This quote really caught my attention for the word of modernism. Modernism is particular tendencies, notably to the experimental art and writings of the 1890's to 1940. Monsier G is showing our time period, 2010, what it was like living in his time period. Describing the changes that were going on around him. He was sharing the changes of the world around him, the building, the people. He was also sharing the evolution of new styles of artwork. With each drawing he did new styles would come to the paper. But it is hard to say what is modern in our world. There is always repeated styles, themes, and kinds of people. There is never a clear definition of what is modern and what is post modernism. Modernity is a complete difference compared to modernism. It’s a accumulating impact of these forces of modernization on individuals, societies and environments. Its talking about a society in general not of the artwork. I hope to soon find out more about modernism and all the differences between modernity