Wednesday, February 27, 2008
ISMS—not as we know them
Paul and I saw this list of ISMS hanging as part of an exhibit in Austin, Texas in the Branson Gallery, on the UT campus at Austin. We were quite amused at the list and very much taken with the gallery which stands as a true asset on the University of Texas campus. The gallery is named for a former history professor, soon to become Chancellor of the University. With chutzpah and forethought he sought to acquire an extensive collection of art from the modernists explaining that so many other institutions established collections of old and ancient work that this university would serve well to concentrate on more recent work.
How refreshing it was to view an exhibit detailing the creation of modernism (including visual art, literary art, film, and poetry) instead of the old favorites, which we all still love and revere and can view elsewhere—works of Ancient Greece, medieval Italy, or the Victorian era and so on. Experiencing an extensive and annotated display drawing on the origins of modernism made our day.
NO ONE at the gallery could provide any information about the origins of the list in this photograph. I put Paul (he is taller and could get a better point of view) up to shooting a photo from the hip for me-against gallery rules, I imagine.
I questioned the docent on duty about the list, a young third year English student with a love of art. She agreed that it was indeed a strange and unfamiliar list of isms, but could offer no further information. In case you have trouble reading the attached photograph, it reads as follows;
Text from photo (Where blank, no dates were available)
Symbolism 1880-1890’s
Primitivism 1908-1912
Cubism 1907-12
Futurism 1909-1929
Expressionism 1910-1918
Der Blaue Reiter 1911-1914
Creationism 1914-1925
Nowism 1916-1918
Numism
Simultaneism
Presentism
Dada 1917-1021
Vorticism 1914-1915
Imagism 1914-1918
Constructivism 1913-1929
Suprematism 1914-1923
Bauhaus 1919-1933
Elementalism
Surrealism 1924 1945
Does anyone have any further feedback about the above list? We thought it was quite “enlightening.”
How refreshing it was to view an exhibit detailing the creation of modernism (including visual art, literary art, film, and poetry) instead of the old favorites, which we all still love and revere and can view elsewhere—works of Ancient Greece, medieval Italy, or the Victorian era and so on. Experiencing an extensive and annotated display drawing on the origins of modernism made our day.
NO ONE at the gallery could provide any information about the origins of the list in this photograph. I put Paul (he is taller and could get a better point of view) up to shooting a photo from the hip for me-against gallery rules, I imagine.
I questioned the docent on duty about the list, a young third year English student with a love of art. She agreed that it was indeed a strange and unfamiliar list of isms, but could offer no further information. In case you have trouble reading the attached photograph, it reads as follows;
Text from photo (Where blank, no dates were available)
Symbolism 1880-1890’s
Primitivism 1908-1912
Cubism 1907-12
Futurism 1909-1929
Expressionism 1910-1918
Der Blaue Reiter 1911-1914
Creationism 1914-1925
Nowism 1916-1918
Numism
Simultaneism
Presentism
Dada 1917-1021
Vorticism 1914-1915
Imagism 1914-1918
Constructivism 1913-1929
Suprematism 1914-1923
Bauhaus 1919-1933
Elementalism
Surrealism 1924 1945
Does anyone have any further feedback about the above list? We thought it was quite “enlightening.”
# posted by Ann Carol @ 9:49 PM 
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