insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 03 - May 2015

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT a look at art... cont. Baroque Art Modernism Two hundred years after Renaissance art began, Baroque art took its place. It began in 1600 in Italy, but was soon found in most of Europe. The church, perhaps worried about how much more secular Renaissance art was becoming, staged a comeback and employed a number of artists to produce impressive works of art with a religious theme. The idea caught hold, and the Baroque style, with its dramatic ﬂair and exuberant style, was soon the art of the moment. Baroque art was big and bold, and the artists weren’t afraid to use colour and movement within their works. Soon enough, the nobles decided that this was the art for them, and competed with one another as to who could ﬁnd the most impressive art for their homes. These homes themselves then also became part of the Baroque style, with grand staircases, enormous entrance halls, and sweeping architecture being added. Neoclassicism Neoclassicism means ‘new classicism’, and it's the style that Europe went back to after the grandeur of the Baroque period had faded. Drawing on inspiration from ancient Greece and Rome, the 18th century began with a step back from the art that had gone before, almost as though the western world was taking a breath. This new, pared down art, was a far cry from the excesses of the Baroque period. This period also coincided with the Grand Tour, in which the sons of noblemen would go travelling through Europe. On their way, they would collect art to bring home, and thus the fad for more minimalist art grew. The period of modernism started around 1860 and continued into the 1970s. Artists who enjoyed success during this time (or who created art in this period, which was subsequently found to be popular, after their deaths) include Cezanne, van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Matisse. Tired of the brutality of Realism, the artists turned again and started to manipulate the world around them, changing it to create a more modern, more dreamlike version of it. No longer was art required to show what was happening, as newspapers were doing that job; now artists could create anything they wanted to, without needing to give it a narrative. Contemporary Art Neoclassicism was all about simplicity, and the style has continued into the modern day. Realism Realism began in France after the revolution of 1848. It seemed it was time to face real life, and show it in all its sometimes wonderful, always gritty reality in art. The people of France had seen many terrible sights during the revolution, and many wanted to ensure that the rest of the world became aware of what had happened; art became the conduit by which that was able to happen. No longer were paintings exotic and fanciful – now they depicted real life situations, no matter how sordid or unpleasant. Landscapes showing rural life, visions of cities full of beggars or the lame, commercial and industrial life were all shown in the period of Realism. And it wasn’t just the subject matter that became more true to life – the ﬁgures shown within did too. If modernism was thought to be abstract, then contemporary art was a shock to the system of many. Beginning in the 1970s as a new and innovative way to create art, contemporary or postmodern art continues today, and includes well-known artists such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hurst. Deﬁned as having no deﬁnition, contemporary art is a mixture of genres, styles, and media that means different things to everyone who sees it. Contemporary art is about making your own narrative and using your own life experiences to inﬂuence how and what you see. 26

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