When contemporary art comes to your home!
What is Montableaudeco? It’s nothing more than a platform filled with a variety of modern paintings. Here you will find original modern artworks and high-quality art reproductions from the most renowned artists in the world. Whatever your need may be, Montableaudeco will certainly be able to satisfy you.
Brief overview of modernism and contemporary art
The period between the 1860s and the 1970s was marked by a revolution in Western art, bringing 'postmodernism' to the forefront. All 'modernist' works born from this revolution represent what art historians and critics call 'modern paintings.' Contemporary art, on the other hand, encompasses all works created between the end of World War II and today. Montableaudeco.com mainly features contemporary works, as they obviously come from the best artists of this century. Nevertheless, lovers of modern art need not worry, because Montableaudeco.com has also thought of them. Our site also offers contemporary modern artworks, paintings inspired by Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and more.
The history of modern painting
At the end of the 1800s, the European industrial revolution completely disrupted the course of social, economic, and cultural life. Faced with these many radical changes, artists did not remain indifferent. This led them to create modern art in order to reject religious and allegorical works commissioned by the government, as well as all traditional modes of representation. They introduced into their works all aspects of newly modernized everyday life, mixing elements of both high and low culture. 'Art for art’s sake' emerged in the domain of modern art paintings, replacing traditional subjects and styles such as portraiture, still lifes, and realism. In fact, modernism aimed to highlight the unique qualities of each medium, explains art critic Clement Greenberg. Modern painting was part of an effort to create a purely optical world that exists only on a flat canvas—a goal several art movements, notably Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism, tried to achieve, though without success.
Modern Painting Techniques
Modern art paintings underwent several changes between the late 1800s and the 1950s. In the past, painting was done by planning compositions and working in studios—a technique that the Impressionists rejected in favor of painting outdoors and applying thick layers of wet paint to capture fleeting moments. The effects of the industrial revolution on street life were a constant concern for these painters; it is difficult to look at their modern oil paintings without finding subjects relating to wandering flâneurs and isolated people in urban scenes. Some of these artists preferred arbitrary yet vibrant colors for their compositions, like Henri Matisse. Others, however, focused on form and created works filled with fantasy, such as the Cubist painters Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Other painters are surrealists, whose works are completely detached from the outside world and draw viewers into unprecedented illusions. Their compositions do not reference any object existing in real life, such as the colorful scenes of Wassily Kandinsky and the grids of Piet Mondrian.
According to Clement Greenberg’s modernism theory, the abstract expressionists achieved the purest form of modern painting and are even associated with the end of modernism. Their splashes possessed all the unique qualities of painting, even if they did not create a recognizable subject. Some artists tried to bridge the gap between high and low forms of culture. The artist Jackson Pollock made a great reputation with his drip paintings made from a mix of sand, broken glass, and nails. Futurism, Expressionism, Orphism, Suprematism, and Precisionism are the main other movements associated with modern painting.
Major Artists of Modern Painting
Edouard Manet is a modern painting artist known for his controversial subjects and style. This is actually why many consider him the first modern painter. He was inspired by earlier paintings, incorporating elements from works by Raphael and Titian with traditional styles of portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. Edouard Manet created two works highlighting nude women: “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” (1862-1863) and “Olympia” (1863).
In his work 'The Joy of Life' (1905-06), Henri Matisse also experimented with these styles. Matisse, for his part, created a modern pastoral scene using vibrant and arbitrary colors, as well as a skewed perspective. With broad, flat brushstrokes, Paul Cézanne produced an extraordinary composition with shifting planes and a flattened perspective, which characterizes his work 'The Basket of Apples' (1893) and his other famous modern paintings. Pablo Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' (1907) also abounds with multiple perspectives and a fragmented visual space. This famous work, depicting the story of a group of prostitutes in a brothel, is the result of a fusion of cultures (lower and upper) in a purely modernist style. Wassily Kandinsky's 'Composition VII' (1913), Joan Miró's 'The Birth of the World' (1925), Jackson Pollock's 'Number 1A, 1948' (1948), and Piet Mondrian’s grid series, mainly featuring white, black, red, blue, and yellow, are among the most famous modern abstract paintings. The list of famous modern painters is not exhaustive; we can also mention Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, Gustave Caillebotte, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Robert Delaunay, Salvador Dali, Paul Klee, Georgia O’Keeffe, Diego Rivera, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko.
