Art and Aesthetes late Modernism and Formalist Debate

Blog Risatti

Art and Aesthetes late Modernism and Formalist Debate

Here we have Risatti applying Kant to Post-Impressionism, giving credence to Roger Fry and Clive Bell for their early interest in Formalism.

Fry and Bell in viewing the move of Modern artist away from representational, moving their focus to Form.

So came to life the Theory of Significant Form.

In reviewing the Art history as a whole they saw the communality in both line and color that created forms in themselves that related to other forms in the artwork.

Thus representations became form; obviously this thought was important to Modernism and Modernist criticism, became the bases of Formalist theories to come.

Risatti show this as the ground work for Greenburg’s work some 50 years latter.

So Greenburg using Kant method of pure, calling it self critical the method, seems Greenburg worked all this out between 1930 and 1940.

Greenburg started a one man war , a rescue mission to save the world from Kitsch, sadly he lost that one.

Even sadder is the fact that Formalism has taken art to the madness of Post Modern chaos.

One thing I do agree with Greenburg is his fear of the decline of culture, I would say the decline now 2011 far exceeds that of the 1950’s

I also agree with Clark that art and art criticism should not be restricted to Formal concerns alone.