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formalism

(20th century)

A concept associated with modernism, especially by the British critics CLIVE BELL (1881-1964) and ROGER FRY (1886-1934), and the American CLEMENT GREENBERG.

In response to a developing interest in non-European art in the first decades of the 20th century, Fry and Bell attempted to formulate a semi-scientific system in which visual analysis of the formal characteristics of art took precedence over the artist's intentions and its social function.

Formalist approaches were also applied to post-World War II criticism, particularly by Greenberg, in relation to abstract expressionism. By the 1960s its importance as a critical concept gave way to alternative methodologies.

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