art as form

• The rise of photography challenged the mimetic (imitation) conception of art.
• Early in the 20th century, artworks lacked clear subjects and had the sole objective of being void of any reason or logic.
• These artworks challenged our traditional notion of what art should be.
• At this point, it seemed that objective reality no longer belonged to the artist, hence, they needed to reinvent themselves and, at the same time, art.
• Artists needed to show the world something it had not seen before - their own subjectivity.
• It would be the first time that the world would see artworks that were nonrepresentational/nonimitative.
• A new conception of art needed to be developed to account for this new development in human history.
• The modified conception was that something is a work of art if it possessed Significant Form.
• Significant Form in this context refers to the specific elements and principles of art such as lines, colors, shapes, volumes, etc.