Technology's Influence on Styles

An artists' style is record of their problem solving thinking process, and by looking at how artists styles change after their culture has been introduced to new technologies we can see how those technologies are changing the thinking aspect of how a culture takes on new challenges. In the 19th century, photography became a huge impact on how the western world created images. The idea of a "snapshot of life" became artful and inspirational. Now paintings of everyday life were flooding canvases. The snap shot along with Japanese prints allowed for women artists to show the domestic sphere without question. Painters also began to show the modern world through the images they created such as the trains that went through Europe.  

By looking at the Japanese woodblock technology, Monet began to change his brushstrokes to deeper more etched in color. Also the new development of cheaper paints made the artists style more reliant on the texture of the brush strokes because the paint held the texture of the brushes. Many other artists, such as Cassatt, took the same inspiration and created blocks of solid color. Japanese woodblock's solid colors also paved the way for a whole new way of poster advertisement that was modern and unique. 

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Purdue University College of Liberal Arts