A Neomodern formalist approach, intentionality and freedom within structure.

Jude Barton

The Edge of Neo Modernism: A revitalization of form

I have a strong affinity with architecture, music, and geometric axioms. I refer to my work as Neo Modern Formalism which acknowledges process and materiality but confines those elements to a subordinate position. I see my work as a reassertion and revitalization of form. I believe that the attenuated thread of modernism has remained just under the surface of postmodern expression and is currently in a period of reemergence.

Neomodern formalism, in opposition to the postmodern aesthetic, acknowledges process and materiality but confines those elements to a subordinate position. While concept and context may purportedly be discerned by the viewer, it is only as an unintended result and the whimsy of the human mind. Geometric and minimalist art intrinsically asserts that art is about art and no interpretation beyond the intent of the artist is valid. This aesthetic is in part a repudiation of postmodern nihilism and a reassertion and indeed a revitalization of modernism. Clement Greenberg in his claim that there is no break in modernism may be true, but modernism has certainly been challenged and the forms of modernism have been attenuated to the breaking point if not indeed broken.