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In art theory formalism is the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form--the way it is made, its purely visual aspects and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than Realism, context, and content. Formalism dominated modern art from the late 1800s through the 1960s. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In fine art, a work of art (or artwork or work) is a creation, such as a song, book, sculpture or a painting, that has been made in order to be a thing of beauty in itself or a symbolic statement of meaning, rather than having a practical function. ... Artistic merit is an English language term that is used in relation to cultural products when referring to the judgment of their perceived quality or value as works of art. ... Look up form in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Realism in art and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear, without embellishment or interpretation. ... Look up Context in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up content in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Modern art is a general term used for most of the artistic production from the late 19th century until approximately the 1970s. ...

History of formalism

The concept of formalism can be traced as far back as Plato, who argued that 'eidos' (or shape) of a thing included our perceptions of the thing, as well as those sensory aspects of a thing which the human mind can take in. Plato argued that eidos included elements of representation and imitation, since the thing itself could not be replicated. Subsequently, Plato believed that eidos inherently was deceptive. For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Eidos is a Greek word meaning image, form, or shape. The term became significant in Greek philosophy when Plato used it to refer to the ideal Forms or Ideas in his Theory of Forms. ... It is generally agreed that people know and understand the world and reality through the act of naming it; thus, through language and representations (Oxford English Dictionary, cited in Vukcevich 2002). ... Mimesis (μίμησις from μιμεîσθαι) in its simplest context means imitation or representation in Greek. ...

In 1890, the Post-impressionist painter Maurice Denis wrote in his article 'Definition of Neo-Traditionism' that a painting was 'essentially a flat surface covered in colours arranged in a certain order.' Denis argued that the painting or sculpture or drawing itself, not the subject of the artistic work, gave pleasure to the mind. A Hundred Years of Independence by Henri Rousseau Post-Impressionism is a term applied to painting styles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries — after Impressionism. ... Maurice Denis (November 25, 1870 – November 1943) was a French painter and writer and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. ...

Denis' emphasis on the form of a work led the Bloomsbury writer Clive Bell to write in his 1914 book, Art, that there was a distinction between a thing's actual form and its 'significant form.' For Bell, recognition of a work of art as representational of a thing was less important than capturing the 'significant form', or true inner nature, of a thing. Bell's work harkened back to the Aristotelian concept of general forms and 'species.' For Aristotle, that an animal was a dog was not important; that a dog was a Dalmatian or an Irish wolfhound was. Echoing this line of thought, Bell pushed for an art that used the techniques of an artistic medium to capture the essence of a thing (its 'significant form') rather than its mere outward appearance. The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set or just Bloomsbury, as its adherents would generally refer to it, was an English group of artists and scholars that existed from around 1905 until around World War II. // History The group began as an informal socialwe have been great to society assembly of... Arthur Clive Howard Bell (September 16, 1881 – September 18, 1964) was an English critic, associated with the Bloomsbury group. ... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... This article needs cleanup. ... Aristotle (Greek: Aristotélēs) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ...

Throughout the rest of the early part of the 20th Century, European structuralists continued to argue that 'real' art was expressive only of a thing's ontological, metaphysical or essential nature. But European art critics soon began using the word 'structure' to indicate a new concept of art. By the 1930s and 1940s, structuralists reasoned that the mental processes and social preconceptions an individual brings to art are more important that the essential, or 'ideal', nature of the thing. Knowledge is created only through socialization and thought, they said, and a thing can only be known as it is filtered through these mental processes. Soon, the word 'form' was used interchangeably with the word 'structure'. Structuralism is best known as a theory in the humanities. ... In philosophy, essentialism is the view, that, for any specific kind of entity it is at least theoretically possible to specify a finite list of characteristics —all of which any entity must have to belong to the group defined. ...

In 1940, the American art critic Clement Greenberg, in an influential piece in Partisan Review, argued that the value of art was located in its form. The representational aspects of a work of art are less important than those aspects which embody a thing's 'internal identity'. This led Greenberg to the conclusion that abstraction was the purest art of all. Clement Greenberg (January 16, 1909 - May 7, 1994) was an influential American art critic closely associated with the abstract art movement in the United States. ... Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003. ...

Greenberg also perceived that impressionism had blurred the boundaries between various art forms. This led to a 'confusion of the arts', he wrote, and a lack of purity in artistic endeavor. Defining a work of art by its 'art form', or medium, limits a work's artistic possibilities to the nature of that medium. Yet, this also allows the work of art to stand alone on its own merits. Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists who began publicly exhibiting their art in the 1860s. ...

Formalism today

The concept of formalism in art continued to evolve through the 20th century. Some art critics argue for a return to the Platonic definition for form as a collection of elements which falsely represent the thing itself and which are mediated by art and mental processes. A second view argues that representational elements must be somewhat intelligible, but must still aim to capture the thing's 'form'. A third view argues for a dialectic between the internal and external form a thing, and places the value of art in how the artistic medium best captures the inner form.

Formalism gave rise to a variety of art movements. Abstract expressionism, Color Field painting, Lyrical Abstraction, Cubism, Conceptual art, Hard-edge painting, Minimalism and Op art all are derived from, reactions against or close cousins of formalism. This USPS stamp illustrates Pollocks drip technique. ... Color Field painting was an abstract style that emerged in the 1950s after Abstract Expressionism and is largely characterized by abstract canvases painted primarily with large areas of solid color. ... Lyrical Abstraction is an important American abstract art movement that emerged in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC and then Toronto and London during the 1960s - 1970s. ... It has been suggested that Analytic cubism, Synthetic cubism be merged into this article or section. ... Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs (1965) Conceptual art is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. ... The Hard-edge painting style can be considered a subdivision of Post-Painterly Abstraction, which in turn emerged from Color Field painting. ... For other uses, see Minimalism (disambiguation). ... Op art is a term used to described certain paintings made primarily in the 1960s which exploit the fallibilty of the eye through the use of optical illusions. ...

At a point, Pop art consumed the tactics of formalism, challenging abstraction's role as the sword bearer of modern art. Many saw this as an early manifestation of Pluralism as Pop art and Minimalism dominated the vanguard simultaneously. House I, created by Roy Lichtenstein in 1996, is designed to be an optical illusion. ... It has been suggested that Pluralistic perspective be merged into this article or section. ...

Although formalism had its roots in structuralism, structuralism itself had moved on. Structural linguists such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Claude Levi-Strauss, Noam Chomsky, Jacques Lacan and others had begun to argue for the importance of language as a means of developing personality. Borrowing from structural linguistics, art structuralists rejected what earlier movements took for granted--that art communicates non-discursive ontological knowledge. Instead, structuralists focused on how the creation of art communicate the idea behind the art. Whereas formalists manipulated elements within a medium, structuralists purposely mixed media and included context as an element of the artistic work. Whereas formalism's focus was the aesthetic experience, structuralists played down response in favor of communication. Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (IPA: ) (April 26, 1889 – April 29, 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who contributed several ground-breaking works to contemporary philosophy, primarily on the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. ... Claude L vi-Strauss (born November 28, 1908) is a French anthropologist who became one of the twentieth centurys greatest intellectuals by developing structuralism as a method of understanding human society and culture Biography Claude L vi-Strauss was born in Brussels and studied law and philosophy at the... Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph. ... Jacques Lacan Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Structuralism's focus on the 'grammar' of art reaches as far back as the Post-Impressionist work of Marcel Duchamp. In many ways, structuralism draws on the tools of formalism without adopting the theory behind them. Post-Impressionism is a term applied to a number of painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose style developed out of or reacted against that of the Impressionists. ... Marcel Duchamp. ...

To many art critics, formalism--and modernism--seem to have choked to death on the monochromatic works of the color-field painters and minimalists. But it is not clear what will supersede formalism.

See also

• Modernism
• Abstract expressionism
• Josef Albers
• Structuralism
• Constructivism
• Modular constructivism
• Hard-edge painting
• Color field painting
• Minimalism
• Lyrical Abstraction
• Post-modernism

Modernism is a trend of thought which affirms the power of human beings to make, improve, deconstruct and reshape their built and designed environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. ... This USPS stamp illustrates Pollocks drip technique. ... Josef Albers (born March 19, 1888 in Bottrop, Westphalia (Germany) - died March 26, 1976 in New Haven, Connecticut), was a German artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of... Structuralism is best known as a theory in the humanities. ... Constructivism may refer to: constructivism (mathematics), a view on mathematical proofs constructivism (art), an artistic movement in Russia from 1914 onward constructivism (learning theory) constructivism, an approach to language acquisition in linguistics Constructivism in international relations constructivist epistemology, the philosophical view This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles... Modular constructivism is a style of sculpture that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s and was associated especially with Erwin Hauer and Norman Carlberg. ... The Hard-edge painting style can be considered a subdivision of Post-Painterly Abstraction, which in turn emerged from Color Field painting. ... Color Field is an art movement characterized by canvases being covered entirely by large fields of solid color. ... For other uses, see Minimalism (disambiguation). ... Lyrical Abstraction is an important American abstract art movement that emerged in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC and then Toronto and London during the 1960s - 1970s. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ...

References

• Bell, Clive. Art. London: 1914.
• Denis, Maurice. 'Definition of Neo-Traditionism.' Art and Criticism. August 1890.
• Greenberg, Clement. 'Towards a Newer Laocoon.' Partisan Review. 1940.