Painting’s low formal barriers made it modernism’s pioneer

Evidence

It is thus no accident that painting started to break with the conventions of representation well before any other art, even poetry, and has witnessed far the largest number of formal revolutions since. In front of the canvas, the painter enjoys an individual freedom without precise counterpart. Yet, far from being the pursuit par excellence of solitaries, painting has been objectively the most collaborative of modern arts. In no other do the terms ‘school’ and ‘movement’ — in the strong sense of mutual learning and common purpose — recur so frequently and actively. — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 242

Categorization

• XREF: Explains why art history leads the periodization debate that frames this reader’s entry into the postmodernism literature. — connects to: Painting anticipates cultural shifts because its production costs are lowest — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 240; Early modernists saw industrial city life as demanding a fundamentally new art — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 143; Modernism is a coherent artistic category despite skeptics who call it empty — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 77 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Function followed from experimental form, not the other way round, in modernism. #corroborates (0.85) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 93
• Early modernists saw industrial city life as demanding a fundamentally new art #corroborates (0.82) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 143
• Modernism is a coherent artistic category despite skeptics who call it empty #corroborates (0.78) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 77
• Modern art’s drive came from Kant’s gap between the conceivable and presentable #expands (0.75) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 74