NEOMODERNISM.

MANIFESTO.

01

NEOMODERNISM

MANIFESTO

Neomodernism is a movement in art that espouses spiritual and aesthetic values in art. Neomodernism is also a philosophy of art, a way of looking and creating a new relationship with works of art from the 15th to the 20th century. Neomodernism cuts through the media hype surroundingold master and modernist works of art, labels that have blinded the public – not to say made it hostile – to these works’ Neomodern message.

02

THE CRITERIA

  • A Neomodernist picture manifests the Idea in the Hegelian sense meaning the Absolute, the spiritual presence in a work of art.
  • A Neomodernist picture has links to the works of art that preceded it and / or antiquity.
  • The nude or the symbol of the nude is the basis of a Neomodernist picture.
  • Every element in a Neomodernist picture is justified in terms of the whole composition.
  • A Neomodernist approach to religious subject matter is detached and philosophical, never an affirmation of faith.
  • A Neomodernist treatment of political or historical subject matter is detached and philosophical, never propaganda.
  • A Neomodernist artist must have sound drawing abilities and a command of the other traditional academic disciplines, such as perspective.
  • A Neomodernist picture concentrates the soul in the eye.
  • A Neomodernist work of art is emblematic rather than psychological.
  • A Neomodernist figurative or abstract picture has Albertian depth, space and light, never stressing the flatness of the canvas surface but exploring its limitless depths.
  • A Neomodernist picture presents scientific principles aesthetically (La Flagellazione, Piero Della Francesca).
  • A Neomodernist work of art hightens the sense of newness, regardless of when it was made.
  • A Neomodernist work of art is tactile.
  • Simplicity of form is Neomodernist.
  • A Neomodernist work of art has movement and stillness simultaneously.
  • Both figurative and abstract Neomodernist pictures pronounce “painterly” values.
  • Neomodernism precedes and supersedes post-modernism.

03

THE LIST

The following list of pictures epitomises works of art with Neomodernist criterion. It does not include every Neomodernist picture by each artist listed but one example of their work that demonstrates a Neomodernist approach and philosophy.

  • Fayum Portraits are Neomodernist.
  • Some Italian Mannerist paintings are Neomodernist.
  • Most pictures and frescoes by Rosso Fiorentino and Jacobo Pontormo are Neomodernist.
  • Some modernist works of art are Neomodernist.

15th

15th CENTURY

Piero Della Francesca 1416-1492 La Flagellazione 1459 Palazzo Ducal,
Urbino Cosme Tura 1432-1495 Madonna and Child Enthroned National Gallery, London

16th

16th CENTURY

Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519 Mona Lisa 1507 Louvre, Paris
Michelangelo Buonarotti 1475-1564 Tondo Doni 1504 Uffizi, Florence
Tiziano Vecellio 1477-1576 Pieta 1576 Academia, Venice
Rosso Fiorentino 1491-1540 Deposizione 1521 Volterra, Tuscany
Jacopo Carruci, Detto Il Pontormo 1494-1557 Visitazione 1528 Carmignano, Tuscany
Francesco Mazzola, Detto Il Parmigianino 1503-1540 Madonna with the Long Neck 1535 Uffizi, Florence
Bartholomaus Spranger 1546-1611 Venus and Adonis 1597 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Sandro Filipeppi, Detto Botticelli 1445-1510 The Birth of Venus 1482 Uffizi, Florence

17th

17th CENTURY

El Greco 1542-1614 Betrothal of the Virgin 1613 National Museum, Bucharest

18th

18th CENTURY

No significant Neomodernist works of art.

19th

19th CENTURY

Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres 1780-1857 Napoleon I on his Throne 1806 Musee de l’Armee, Paris
Edouard Manet 1832 -1883 Dejeuner sur l’herbe 1863 Musee d’Orsay, Paris
Francois A.R. Rodin 1840-1917 Balzac 1897 Musee Rodin, Paris

20th

20th CENTURY

Giorgio de Chirico 1888-1978 Mystery and Melancholy of the Street 1914 Private Collection
Salvador F. J. Dali 1904-1989 Corpus Hypercubicus 1954 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968 Nude Descending a Staircase 1912 Philadelphia Museum of Art
Henry Moore 1898-1986 Recumbent Nude Figure Tate Britain, London
Thomas Eakins 1844-1916 Max Schmitt in the Single Shell 1871 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York