What are some features of a good modernist painting for Greenberg?

In his influential essay “Modernist Painting” (1961), Greenberg articulated the idea that painting should be self-critical, addressing only its inherent properties—namely, flatness and colour.

What did Clement Greenberg feel about modern art?

Although he championed what is often regarded as avant-garde art, Greenberg saw modern art as an unfolding tradition, and by the end of his career he found himself attacking what many others saw as avant-garde art – Pop and Neo-Dada – against the values he held dear in earlier modern art.

What is Clement Greenberg famous for?

Clement Greenberg, (born Jan. 16, 1909, Bronx, N.Y., U.S.—died May 7, 1994, New York, N.Y.), American art critic who advocated a formalist aesthetic. He is best known as an early champion of Abstract Expressionism.

How did Clement Greenberg define art?

In the essays collected in Art and Culture (1961), Greenberg argued that what mattered most in a work was its articulation of the medium, more particularly, its finessing of the terms of the material medium, and the progressive elimination of those elements that were beside its point.

What is Greenberg formalism?

As Greenberg’s Formalism was an examination of an artist’s ability to visually balance the elemental forms on the canvas, it was also a judgment of that painting’s purity of medium and style.

When did Clement Greenberg define modernism in art?

In his 1961 essay on “Modernist Painting,” Clement Greenberg (1909-1994) defined “Modernism” as the period (in art) roughly from the mid-1850s to his present that displayed a self-critical tendency in the arts.

Who was the first modernist painter in America?

In his 1961 essay on “Modernist Painting,” Clement Greenberg (1909-1994) defined “Modernism” as the period (in art) roughly from the mid-1850s to his present that displayed a self-critical tendency in the arts. Greenberg considered Immanuel Kant the first Modernist.

Why did Clement Greenberg support abstract expressionism?

Strongly associated with his support for Abstract Expressionism, Greenberg fervently believed in the necessity of abstract art as a means to resist the intrusion of politics and commerce into art.

What did Modernism cover more than art and literature?

Modernism includes more than art and literature. By now it covers almost the whole of what is truly alive in our culture. It happens, however, to be very much of a historical novelty. Western civilization is not the first civilization to turn around and question its own foundations, but it is the one that has gone furthest in doing so.