Visual Subversion: The Purism Strategy of Western Modern Art
Abstract
In the early 20th century, the modernist revolution in the Western world had reached its peak, along with twice world-war, the world capital of art has been moved from Europe to America. In such a complex and unpredictable period, many artistic strategies were taken up, the purism strategy is one of the most radical and influential strategies, it marked the impeccable achievement of Western idealism. The practice of such a strategy initially happened in Europe and later was developed in the United States. However, in these two places, the strategy was practiced with different approaches, within the construction of Panofsky’s mechanism of vision, one focuses on visual identification and another focuses on visual perception. The two approaches not only mean different ways of seeing art but also imply different sensible orders, which need to be reflected and reexamined in a political dimension that has been settled between the United States and Europe after the 20th century.
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