THE MODERN IDEAL: The Rise and Collapse of Idealism in the Visual Arts. H/B 2005

 THE MODERN IDEAL: The Rise and Collapse of Idealism in the Visual Arts From the Enlightenment to Postmodernism. By Paul Greenhalgh.

This book does two things. First, it defines and explores the idea of modernity, returning it to its historical context and showing how theory and practice in the moder visual arts emerged over three centuries. Modernity is surprisingly easy to define, but profoundly difficult to describe; concepts central to its meaning will be explained, including: style, modernization, progress, ideology and universality.Movements across all disciplines from the Enlightenment onwards will be discussed, including : Neoclassicism, Romanticism, the Design reform movement, Realism, Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Neo-Impressionism, the Arts and Crafts movement, Cubism, Futurism, de Stilj, the International Style, Surrealism, Pop, Minimalism, Conceptualism and Postmodernism. Second, and more specifically, the book explores the rise of idealism in the modern visual arts. The attempt to create a definitive, positive style, that was capable of transforming not only art but society as a whole, became the obsessive quest of suceeding generations of artists, architects and designers. This secular Utopianism had particular recurring features. By far the most important of these was the concept of simplicity. Simplicity underpinned successive generations of idealist art and design; during the twentieth century - reinvented as purity - it reached a definitive pitch, becoming the core idea underlying humanist aesthetics. By 1970, the International Style in architecture and design and various forms of minimal abstraction in the fine arts had come to dominate orld art. The rise and collapse of this unfolding are here described in detail.

The book also deals with issues at large in the contemporary art and design scene. The author proposes that in real terms, the previous phase of modernist practice, and postmodernism, have come to an end. He identifies the collapse of idealism in the modern arts as being of central concern at this point in time, and speculates on what the next phase of modernity will be about.

100 Colour Plates / 10 Black and White Illustrations. 

 

A large FIRST EDITION hardback published in 2005 by V & A Publications (£35.00 r.r.p.)