Posted on 11/16/2025 1:55:04 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
While many argue that "modern art" began in the 1800s, could it actually have started with Joseph Wright of Derby's An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, nearly a century before?
What is "modern art"? It seems like a simple question, but critics and art historians have quarrelled about it for decades without agreement. Nor is there any consensus about which artwork marks the turning point between "traditional" and "modern".
Many point to the 1800s – and paintings like Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1863) by Édouard Manet, Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844) by JMW Turner, and The Third of May 1808 (1814) by Francisco Goya, who was described by the art critic Robert Hughes as "the first modern artist and the last old master".
A new exhibition at the National Gallery in London reminds us that there is another contender in the ring. It's a painting that has some of the key ingredients of modern art, decades ahead of its time: Joseph Wright of Derby's An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768).
At the centre is a scientist with one hand on the valve which allows air in and out of the glass container. On the table is the air pump. The spectators react to the spectacle of the suffocating bird in different ways. On the left, a young couple seem more interested in checking each other out than the experiment. On the right, two young girls react in horror at the act of animal cruelty. The men nearest us seem able to control their horror. A young boy in the back lowers a curtain to block out...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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Goya. That’s a creepy [redacted] painting, but given the prevalence of horror movies, probably resonates with a younger modern crowd.
Goya also kinda invented the pinup.
Here she is fully clothed:
https://www.franciscogoya.com/clothed-maja.jsp
Here she is, uh, well, HERE SHE IS:
Paul Johnson, “Art: A New History”, said that, ‘Art is anything that appeals to our sense of the sublime’.
Almost all ‘modern art’ is not art. It is degeneracy.
I have spoken.
That’s it. Saturn eating his own.
We got the Bosch print (small) in the hallway. No Goya.
The Goyas in the Prado are scattered. Boy, that guy had some life.
Goya. That’s a creepy [redacted] painting, but given the prevalence of horror movies, probably resonates with a younger modern crowd.
............
Most don’t even know the meaning behind that painting...
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Thanks. Being a guy & an art aficionado I searched on “Unclothed-Maja” figuring it might be a series.
Warning for the less sophisticated. You don’t want to do that. Instead of Modern Art, I got modern nudity.
No worries, I’ve recovered from the shock. ;-)
While I was looking for the pinup, I noticed his known body of works exceeds 400.
The 19th century painter Bouguereau had at least 822. Even current day hacks who fob stuff off as art don’t necessarily approach that number.
https://www.google.com/search?q=William+Adolphe+Bouguereau&udm=2
I’ve got Goya, but its the canned food.
I love the Grecos lining the entrance hall of the Prado. It’s religious, ethereal.
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/artist/el-greco/b031da57-6a7e-43f2-a855-293275efc340
https://search.brave.com/images?q=el+greco
😎
For me, you just can’t top a nude on velvet, sorry.
Of course it’s absolutely modern. Why, Henry Winkler is right there in the center operating the air pump.
Thanks
Fond memories
Nothing beats this as Modern Art!..................
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