modern art and modernism

Modernism critizes art from the inside, whereas many other approaches criticize art from the outside. Rather than having a strong focus on color and composition, my take on Modernim is its focus on the process that the artist went through to reach the final product. In relation to painting: accentuation of brush strokes, placement of paint, movement of the artist's body, size of the canvas, and other art-making components are all important aspects of modern art, more so than a representation or an impression of something specific.
Clement Greenberg explains that Modernism uses art to call attention to art, which I love. I feel that Modernism gives way for the motion and movement that occurs during art-making. Greenberg also says, "The immediate aims of Modernist artists remain individual before anything else, and the truth and success of their work is individual before it is anything else."
So.
My take on Modernism is the importance of what an artist does personally to reach the final product.

In a small way, Modernism reminds me of the short video we watched at the start of the semester. In "The Gap" it is said that we are never truly pleased with our artwork. What we produce will never completely represent what we compose in our mind. In order to feel successful one must try again and again and again. Quit. Start over. Go with something different. Try a different angle. Repeat. Quit. Try again. This pull towards repetition refines our artworks (according to what we personally feel to be successful) yet also pushes us to pay closer attention to our approach, the process we go through to reach the final product. We begin to pay closer attention to how we create versus what we are creating. To me Modernism works in that way because, once again, the focus is on the process.