This is my modernism painting
As we learned about history from World War One through the Great Depression I was inspired to show the era’s side by side to highlight the differences. As I studied art for my 1920’s project more in depth, ideas kept formulating in my mind and what I was going to do for my Individual project. Analyzing different artists styles throughout the 1920’s and a few years after I really got a feel for the type of art that was produced during the time period. I felt that it was necessary to portray how the times changed so drastically in such a short period of time. American over a span of 30 years dipped into years of struggle during World War One, they flourished in 1920’s and when the stock market crashed, life had never been harder. Showing the time period through art puts a visual to the years and it brings them to life.
From the beginning when we were first thinking about what we wanted to create to represent modernism in 1920’s I had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted to make. I knew I wanted to do a painting of some sort, but I didn’t have a clear idea on what exactly I wanted to be showing the person viewing the art. From the first few days of thinking I knew I wanted to show the difference in the moods of World War I, to the Roaring Twenties and then lastly transitioning to the Great Depression. When we did the 1920’s project and we were free to pick a topic the interested us, I picked art. I wanted to analyze the art that was created during the time period and some of the works I looked at inspired me. In addition to looking at those works of art, the MoMA trip gave me amazing ideas. Getting a feel for the style of work I was able to create a clear vision of my project in my mind as time went on and I had more time to think deeply about it. During my first meeting with Ms. Hawes and Mr. Belanger I was looking at doing one collective piece of work that showed the time periods across the canvas, but an amazing idea came up which was to create a tryptic, which is three piece of art side by side, not physically connected, but connected in the sense that you knew they were part of a set. By that point I knew that in the first painting I wanted to portray WWI in the second I wanted to show Gatsby’s party and the glamour and extravagance of it all and then lastly the Great Depression which was a time of severe struggle for millions of Americans. The first challenge that I faced was how I was going to use symbolism in the art. I didn’t want everything I was painting to have a literal meaning because then it wouldn’t be as complex so in some way I wanted a powerful symbol. The second challenge I had was figuring out how I was going to connect the three pieces so they looked like they were part of a group. I couldn’t just make them three completely different piece and stick them together, I had to think a little deeper than that. I solved both problems by seeking help from a teacher. I went to Ms. Hawes and she helped me so much. She really thought about how I could take my painting to the next level and she gave me things to think about and idea’s of how my works could connect. We collectively came up with the idea to have trees above the horizon to represent the time period. The tree showed the overall mood of what was happening. Regarding the connection of the pieces the trees brought them together, but the bottom of each piece had a consistency. As a symbol of WWI I glued in a picture of a field of poppy flowers at the bottom of each piece. Art within itself is a challenge for me, but in addition to just the idea of making a painting I challenged myself by adding small details that may not be the most important part of the work but they definitely have a reasoning behind them. I made each piece as detailed as I could and I also integrated multimedia into the work. I am most proud of how accurately I showed each time period, but I’m especially proud of the first image. The image of war is very powerful to me and the way I introduced pictures were subtle, but they fit perfectly in. One of the biggest skills I acquired during this project was 100% time management. My time management allowed me to not stress one bit for this project. I completed a fair amount every night so I wasn’t cramming everything into my piece until the night before. I was relaxed and calm and I knew I could finish. I never gave up and when something was hard I pushed through and got it done.
The most prominent example of modernism in my project is the middle piece which is the painting of Gatsby’s house and his party. It portrays the new and glamorous lifestyle of the wealthy which was new for people in American. The economic growth brought millions of more dollars into American and the American people were becoming richer. My project reflects a little of everything we have studies regarding modernism. The history of the time period is what really allowed me to understand what I was going to paint and learning about the dynamic changes in the time period allowed me to take my learning and put it into something that would stick in my mind. The literature that we read which was The Great Gatsby was a gigantic part of my piece. I dedicated one third of my project to what I read in The Great Gatsby I used his house and his party to show how different the time period was from the years of WWI. As I mentioned before I studied art very indepth and the art that I looked at gave me a feel for what kind of work I was going for. The MoMA was also a huge inspiration as I said before as well.
I really enjoyed this project and I think it was a different yet smart way for us to show what we have learned the first half of this semester. Taking so much time to research and learn important details about each time period and then painting them on a canvas allows me to never forget the information I have learned. The amount that I can retain when learning in a hands on style is significantly more that I can retain when I take notes, read a textbook and then take a test. I study for the test and then the information is no longer relevant, but what we did is the polar opposite. We were given a broad topic and told that we could express it in anyway we wanted. Having such freedom can sometimes be scary, but when you pursue what you are interested in it become less of a burden and it allows the project to be fun, which is how I felt. I felt free to do what I wanted, but I was interested in what I was going to make. This project was a great way to express what we have learned about Modernism and I really enjoyed it.
sofiadodaro 