Remodernism

Remodernism is an artistic and philosophical movement aimed at reviving aspects of modernism, particularly in its early form, in a manner that both follows after and contrasts against postmodernism.

[5] In 2008, London Evening Standard critic, Ben Lewis, applied the term to three Turner Prize nominees and saw them amongst a movement which was reviving the formalism of the early 20th century; he advocated values of an aesthetic informed by modesty, generosity and genuine emotion.

[2] Their Remodernism manifesto was published on March 1, 2000 to promote vision, authenticity and self-expression, with an emphasis on painting, and subtitled "towards a new spirituality in art".

It has a short introduction, summing up: "Modernism has progressively lost its way, until finally toppling into the bottomless pit of Postmodern balderdash."

This is followed by 14 numbered points, stressing bravery, individuality, inclusiveness, communication, humanity and the perennial against nihilism, scientific materialism and the "brainless destruction of convention."

"[11] In June, Thomson and Childish gave a talk on stuckism and remodernism at the Salon des Arts, Kensington, promoted by the Institute of Ideas.

[citation needed] In 2001, Thomson stood in the UK general election, stating, "The Stuckist Party aims to bring the ideas of Stuckism and Remodernism into the political arena.

At an artists' talk, Kevin Radley, an art professor at the University of California, Berkeley said, "Remodernism isn't about going backwards, but about surging forward.

[citation needed] Stuckist artist Bill Lewis, interviewed by the BBC at the 2004 Liverpool Biennial, said that remodernism was "not a movement as such",[3] but a return to the start of modernism in order to move forward with an art for a new paradigm.

It all started when rockers like Television, the Ramones and Patti Smith launched a frontal assault on the monolith of corporate rock 'n roll.

"[23] In May 2007, with punk singer Adam Bray, he created the Mad Monk Collective in Folkestone, England, to promote remodernism.

[24] In January 2008, London Evening Standard critic, Ben Lewis, said the year would see "the invention of a new word to describe the modernist revival: 'remodernism,'"[25] which he applied later in the year to Turner Prize nominees Mark Leckey, Runa Islam and Goshka Macuga, as "part of a whole movement reviving early 20th-century formalism", praising Macuga for her "heartfelt, modest and generous-spirited aesthetic", of which he said there was more needed today.

[6] In April 2009, he described Catalina Niculescu, a Romanian artist using "nostalgic"[26] 16mm film, as among a significant trend in art of fetishising the offcuts of modernism: "Let's call it Remodernism.