Formalism is a theory of art that is entirely determined by its form. Formalists focus on the compositional aspects (color, line, shape, and texture) instead of expression or narrative. Art does not need to have a purpose or a story behind it, and formalism supports “art for art’s sake.”
I like the idea of formalism. I want to enjoy Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers for the aesthetics– the vibrancy of the yellows, the shape of the petals, and the texture of the flower’s centers. I do not need to go deeper and force meaning behind the life of the yellow sunflowers in full bloom and the death of the brown and wilting sunflowers. Who am I to say that Sunflowers is portraying the fulfillment of seeing all angles of the spectrum of life and how all living things are tied together? Artwork does not need to refer to the world beyond itself.
Post-modernism is more of a movement than a theory, in protest of modernism. There are no rules in postmodern artworks and artists are more outwardly focused and culturally critical. There is a lot expressed in postmodernists’ work and is created without fear of bothering the audience.
There are many similarities between the four theories presented in Why Is That Art? since each period inspired the next. This makes it hard to put pieces of art into a single category. However, the definitions behind each theory seem pretty clear cut. Realism is a depiction of the real world and represents what it is meant to shown. Expressionism is created through a different way of looking at the world while adding emotion and feelings into the work. Although, the definitions seem pretty clear, it is difficult to place or critique an artist into one correct category.