ABSTRACT
In the twentieth century, the idea was given currency by the critic Greenberg, who used it to characterise the formal and technical innovations deployed by the modernist artists he endorsed. Broadly dating from the late sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries, it was characterised by exaggerated, decorative and organic forms. It is associated with the ability to judge style and attribution, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. The movement was led by Vladimir Tatlin and Aleksandr Rodchenko; it later included Lyubov Popova and Varvara Stepanova. Typically meaning the twisting of the upper and lower parts of the body in different directions, it was widely employed by artists like Titian, Tintoretto and Correggio. Derrida sought to emphasise the instability of meaning within texts and culture. From the mid-nineteenth century it was understood as an attempt to show things as they actually appear. It challenges ideas of essential cultures and hierarchical cultural relationships.
