Modernism is both a philosophical movement and an art movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism refers to people in these times who thought of themselves as modern because they were breaking away from the then society’s ideals.

Anita Malfatti

Alive between 1889 and 1964, Anita Catarina Malfatti is heralded as the first Brazilian artist to introduce European and American forms of Modernism to Brazil.

A lot of her artwork is paintings of people, painted with lots of bright colours. These colours don’t accurately portray the colours of peoples’ realistically, but they instead they make the painting very colourful, and so it feels very alive and full of emotion. It is more expressive than realistic.

I think that she mainly used oils and watercolours.

Some of the artists and movements that inspired her were; expressionism, German expressionism, pointillism, Fritz Burger-Muhlfeld, Lovis Corinth, and Ernst Bischoff-Culm.

Some of the major world events in her lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903. The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912. World War 1 between 1914 and 1918. In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead. World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975, so she never got the chance to witness the end of the Vietnam War.

I like her art, the colours she uses are always very expressive, and always seem to work well together.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Alive between 1887 and 1986, Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist. She was best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O’Keeffe has been recognized as the “Mother of American modernism”.

All of her paintings are very bright and colourful and are all very experimental with different colour palettes and shading. Her art is so beautiful.

She used gouache, watercolour and oils for her painting. She also liked using charcoal for drawing.

Some of the artists and movements that inspired her were; Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Paul Strand, and Edward Steichen, Arthur Wesley Dow, abstract art, American modernism, and Precisionism.

I like her art, it is so beautiful. She seems to focus on nature a lot, and she portrays it as inexplicably beautiful. It is very cool.

Henry Moore

Alive between 1898 and 1986, Henry Moore was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art.

His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore’s works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his birthplace, Yorkshire.

As well as sculpture, Moore produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.

Henry Moore was known to make sculptures out of Green Hornton stone, various types of stone, wood, bronze, plaster, and concrete. But when drawing, he was known to have used pencils, charcoal, chalk, and pens.

Some of the artists and art movements that inspired him were; modernism, medieval sculpture, Constantin Brâncuși, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, and Frank Dobson.

Some of the major world events in his lifetime were; The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft in 1903. The titanic setting sail and inevitably sinking in 1912. World War 1 between 1914 and 1918. In the same year, a worldwide influenza epidemic struck; by 1920, nearly 20 million were dead. World War 2 between 1939 and 1945. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975.

I’ve never been a big fan of his abstract type of sculptures, and thus his don’t really appeal to me. But I absolutely love his drawings, they’re moody and very atmospheric, and I just love them. When I went to the Tate Britan I actually found the above drawing, and I loved it but didn’t know who Henry Moore was, so I’m really happy to have found the artwork and its artist now. Also one of the reasons why I love his drawings so much is because the more scribbly ones are similar to my drawings. I love seeing how realistic forms can be made out of scribbly lines. One of his scribbly drawings is below.