What themes had the largest impact on modern art

In contrast to classical forms, modern art emerged in the late nineteenth century in various artistic expressions, such as painting, sculpture, literature, architecture, photography, and music. Although there is no consensus on the dating of this period, many art experts consider that the movement goes back to the 1970s.

The path of modern art in the nineteenth century follows the curve defined by romanticism, realism and impressionism. The romantics take a critical stance on the artistic conventions and official subjects imposed by the art academies, producing historical paintings on themes of modern life. Freedom Guiding the People (1831), by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), deals with contemporary history in modern terms. The realistic tone is obtained by the individualized characterization of the people's figures. The free use of bright colors, the expressive strokes and the new use of light, in turn, reject the norms of academic art. Gustave Courbet's realism (1819-1877) exemplifies, a little later, another direction taken by the representation of the people and daily life. The painter's three canvases on display at the 1850 Salon, Burial at Ornans, The Peasants at Flagey and The Stone Breakers, mark Courbet's commitment to the realistic program, designed as a way of overcoming the classical and romantic traditions as well as the themes. historical, mythological and religious.

The term modern art encompasses the European vanguards of the early twentieth century - cubism, constructivism, surrealism, Dada, suprematism, neoplasticism, futurism, etc. - in the same way that it follows the shift of the axis of artistic production from Paris to New York after World War II (1939-1945), with the abstract expressionism of Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Jackson Pollock (1912-1956). . In 1950s Europe, the reverberations of this American production are noted in the various experiences of Tachism. The artistic productions of the 1960s and 1970s, according to much of the criticism, require the setting of new analytical parameters, far from the modernist vocabulary and agenda, which may indicate a boundary between the modern and the contemporary.