I t was two Englishmen who would develop the new theory of art that would put Cézanne in context and have sweeping ramifications for art in the 20th century : Roger Fry 1866-1934 ) and Clive Bell ( 1881-1964 ).
An English artist and critic ( and co-founder of The Burlington Magazine ), Fry is also especially known for his advocacy of the French Post-Impressionists , Paul Cézanne . Former Director of the National Gallery , London , Kenneth Clark referred to Fry as , “ incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin ” and claimed “ In so far as taste can be changed by one man , it was changed by Roger Fry .” Bell , also an English art critic and close associate with Fry ( both were members of the Bloomsbury Group ), noted in his 1922 book Since Cézanne , “ One of the many unpremeditated effects of Cézanne ’ s life and work was to set artists thinking , even arguing .
His practice challenged so sharply all current notions of what painting should be that a new generation , taking him for a master found itself obliged to ask such questions as ‘ What am I doing ?’ ‘ Why am I doing it ?’ Now such questions lead inevitably to an immense query -- ‘ What is Art ?’” It was Bell and Fry who would articulate a new definition of what constitutes the fundamental nature of Art , which boiled down to a concept that Bell called “ Significant Form .”
I n his 1914 book Art , Bell puts it this way , “ There must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist ; possessing which , in the least degree , no work is altogether worthless . What is this quality ? What qualities are shared by all objects that provoke our aesthetic emotions ? What quality is common to [ Saint ] Sophia and the windows at Chartres , Mexican sculpture , a Persian bowl , Chinese carpets , Giotto ’ s frescoes at Padua , and the masterpieces of Poussin , Piero della Francesca , and Cézanne ? Only one answer seems possible — significant form . In each , lines and colours combined in a particular way , certain forms and relations of forms , stir our aesthetic emotions . These relations and combinations of lines and colours , these aesthetically moving forms , I call ‘ Significant Form ’; and ‘ Significant form ’ is the one quality common to all works of visual art .”
Pable Picasso Les Demoiselles d ’ Avignon
1907 Museum of Modern Art
Photo : Wikimedia commons This work is often designated as the first truly “ Modern ” painting .
This theory of art later became known as Formalism and its influence can hardly be overemphasized . The “ art ” of any artwork was now said to be its formal arrangement . In this regard subject matter , storytelling , or truth to nature became irrelevant . Whereas the distortions of Picasso or the unnatural colors of a Matisse struck many first-time viewers as impudent , garish , and incompetent (“ my child could do this ”), this theory served to make plain that Modern artists weren ’ t trying to paint realistically and failing . They were pushing the boundaries of Art itself , to boldly go where no artist had gone before . This was the “ avant-garde .” The doctrine that the essential elements of art are line , shape , and color would spread into college and university art departments in the United States for decades to come . In expanding this theory to include the Abstract Expressionists , Clement Greenberg was simply taking it to its logical conclusion : getting rid of referential content ( which he saw as impurities ) altogether . In the critical establishment , “ Realism ” was out .
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