Exercise B: Constructive Criticism

 The painting, “A short History of Modernism” was drawn by Mark Tansey in the year of 1982. It takes reference to the history of modernism dated back from the 1860s to 1970s. He separated his paintings into three sections. In the first section, we observe a purple-tinted painting of a lady standing outside of her house with nature at her backdrop, holding onto a hose and cleaning the clear glass window. In the second section, we see in blue tint, a man headbutting a concrete piece of brick wall, attempting to move in a forward motion. In the last section, Mark Tensay draws a red-tinted painting of a chicken. It stands tall on a slanted platform and stares at itself thoughtfully. While there is a lack of specific focus on the painting, I notice that the sections have something in common - the subjects of the paintings are all facing a certain surface (namely the window, concrete wall, and mirror). I also note that the first two sections are situated outdoors in the day as seen from the use of shadows, indicating the presence of sunlight. This is further emphasised by the brighter tone used in the first two parts, in contrast to the darker tone used in the last section which is situated indoors where the time of the day is uncertain. The mood of the painting is generally a serious one, where the subjects seem to be struggling in their own ways while facing the surface before them.

The distinct use of three different colours, creates a separation between the three sections of the painting, indicating perhaps a different time period for each colour. Yet, despite the difference in colour, each section is painted in a single, monochrome colour. Generally, there is also a lack of texture, highlighting a lack of illusory depth in the painting, which challenges the method of creating depth in artwork.

The paintings highlight sequentially, from left to right, the start till the end of modernism. The painter made use of the theme of “light” and “darkness”, to bring us through the mood of the people living in that era. The first section shows a renaissance woman cleaning the window in an attempt to get a clearer view, to paint a more realistic painting. The brighter tone seems to highlight a sense of hope as they move into the new age of modernism. The second section showcases a man running head-first into the concrete wall. The man is a metaphor of the headstrong and stubborn attitudes of artists in that period of time, as they constantly experiment and try out absurd things despite failures depicted by the concrete wall. The theme of light here symbolises their optimistic attitude. However, towards the last section, we note that the colour has darkened significantly, and there is a lack of a light source. In this case, darkness parallels their sense of loss where artists ponder about their place in art history - just like how the chicken ponders about its place in the world. The dark red colour also feels unsettling, and creates a sense of panic that could mirror the emotions of the artists during modernism. The darkening of colours across the painting highlights the transitioning mood of the artists along with time from the start to the end of modernism.

Despite the informative painting, it seems that the actions are rather nonsensical. This mirrors the absurdity of modernism as it attempts to break from the past in favour of a new mode of literary consciousness. Likewise, Mark Tansey attempts to break the conventional drawing stereotype by painting a flat piece of artwork lacking depth. Through his artwork, he carries out the notion of modernism, where he experiments to deconstruct the past in order to move forward with a new style in future.

This piece of artwork is spectacularly complex despite the seemingly flat implementation of the painting. It successfully conveyed the theme of modernism, and through its painting create a timeline for it as well. However, the actions in the painting could be viewed as ambiguous and confusing for viewers as well.