In-Lecture Exercise B

The painting is called "A Short History of Modernism" by Mark Tansey in 1982. The painting consists of three different images showing the short history of modernism. It consists of three different panels with different colors. In the first panel on the left, a woman is standing outside a window, spraying water at the window from a hose. In the second panel in the middle, a man is ramming his head into a wall. In the last panel on the right, a rooster is looking at itself in a mirror, while standing on the staircase. Their actions generally do not seem to make logical sense. The detail of making all the characters face the same direction suggests that they are all pursuing a common goal. The various panels seem to be depicting different time periods in the history of modernism, following a chronological order from left to right.

In the first panel, the color is light, suggesting that this panel is the oldest depiction of modernism. Since the woman in the first panel is washing the glass window, it suggests that the artist is trying to depict modernism in a transparent and realistic manner. 

In the second panel, the color intensity is in the middle of the first and last panels, which suggests that it is the second depiction of modernism in chronological order. The man is ramming his head into a wall or head-butting the wall. This suggests the stubbornness of the man as I infer that he seems to not listen to other people’s opinions and goes ahead with his own opinions regardless of other people’s perspectives. This shows that the second panel depicts modernism as stubborn and perhaps narrow-minded. 

The last panel, since the color intensity is the greatest, is the latest depiction of modernism among these three panels. The rooster is looking at itself in the mirror, which suggests that the rooster has self-awareness and is able to recognize itself in its reflection. This is not common as animals usually do not have such high levels of self-awareness to recognize themselves in their reflection. This shows that modernism is able to know its place in the creative world and artists are self-aware of what modernism is trying to portray. Not only that, since the rooster is at the top of the stairs, it suggests that modernism, as depicted by the rooster, has achieved its goals.

There seems to be a deep meaning in each of the panels despite the illogical actions of the characters portrayed. This contrast highlights the meaning of modernism in different eras and helps audiences to understand the development of modernism. However, I believe that the paintings are very abstract because it may be difficult for audiences to understand the meaning of the paintings at a first glance. Further research and thinking may be needed in order to process the meaning of the paintings. Despite that, the artist did a very good job in creating the paintings as there are not any elements in the paintings that do not contribute to delivering his message about the depiction of modernism.