pictorial and sculptural problems.
Engagement with contemporary
themes and with the norms of
contemporary culture was felt to be
essential for a 'modern' artist as was
acknowledgment of the fundamental
changes marking the history of the
West in thc last 150 to zoo years -
changes including political developments both in practice and theory
(especially Marxism). industrialization
and scientific advances of all kinds.
This had culminated in the Realism
and Naturalism of the late nineteenth
century with such painters as Manet
and the lmpressionists who were
concerned with everyday. themes in an
objective, dispassionate spirit. Some of
their paintings could, however, be
understood - if not misconstrued - in
: another way as abstract surfaces devoid
of content; and the possibilities
inherent in this duality led artists
eventually to Formalism and the
exploration of pure form in an art that
is completely autonomous, concerned
only with itself.
Formalism, as understood by mid
twentieth century artists, was defined
by the New York critic Clement
Greenberg (1909-94) who saw the art
object as being essentially self-
contained and self-sufficient, with its
own rules, its own order. its own
materials; independent of its maker, of