Sunday, June 27, 2010
Modernism
It has been brought to my attention that "modern" means "characteristic of present and recent time; contemporary." This is directly opposed to the definition of Modernism, which is "a movement in the arts, or forms of expression that distinguished styles in the arts and literature of the 20th century." We refer to Modernism as a closed period in history, while the actual definition of the term "modern" means up to the moment; current; the here and now. In the spirit of Revisionist art history, this blog seeks to find the best term with which we can re-name Modernism. The machine age? Post-Romanticism? Narcissism? Surely you can do better. Please use this blog as the forum for discussion of this important, and realistic, historical revision.
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ReplyDeleteI think perhaps you have it backwards. You shouldn't be re-naming the Modernist movement in art or architecture of the early 20th century, but instead need to get a head-start on the historians of today and tomorrow and re-define "the present" with a term that makes more sense.
ReplyDeleteModernists defined themselves as such and defined their movements as such as well. There is certainly no reason we could not do the same in our own time and our own artistic and architectural endeavors.
Modern isn't a fantastic word to begin with, and if used as 'modern' vs. 'Modern,' it would still carry the appropriate definition of defining current times - but do we really want this?
Consider Buckminster Fuller and all of the spectacular terminology he developed just to describe his architectural concepts. Why not be the next DYMAXION? Let go of modern, it's a thing of the past ;)