ArtForms

This reading touched on a lot of different aspects of formalism and post-modernism. There were some things I was unclear on, especially when it came to post-modernism, however I noticed a commonality of beauty with each art form.  Each art movement focuses on form in different ways redefining what is beauty and redefining how we view this beauty.  I agree that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that we all view different things as beauty. What one may observe as beautiful another may dislike.

Realists want the use of a form to be non-distracting from the meaning; it wants to show the best representation of reality without alterations.  Expressionists want the form of a work of art to embody the emotion articulated and communicated in a medium.  Formalists want the form and form alone to be attended to by the maker and perceiver (whatever that may mean).  From that definition I got the feeling that formalism focuses on the beauty of a shape.  For example some people could view circles as a pleasing shape because of their symmetry and balance.  Others may find the curve of a well-designed car as beautiful, clean and smooth.

And finally Post-Modernism seems to be a mash up of these and other art forms.

I don’t really know or even understand a lot about art history and art movements but I really like the formalist definition of beauty.  I feel that this movement really gets viewers to focus on the world around them and the beauty of things in everyday life.  I also like it because I really like the Mondrian piece with the lines and rectangles.  I like clean and simplicity and how there is symmetry in the piece.  I could be way off with my assumption of formalism but I get a real Zen quality from this movement.  I think this might be why I like the Helvetica font so much because it is so clean and simple and symmetrical.