Modernism

Historical Context World War I– The Great War: Technology of destruction Communism—Stalin’s industrialization of the Soviet Union: 20 million dead Social realism in the arts Fascism-Nationalism and racism: Hitler’s institutionalization of genocide Radio and film used for propaganda

Mass Media in the U.S. Documentary arts: Commercial film Radio programs Posters Photography

Science Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Quantum mechanics

Picasso Mastered traditional techniques “blue period” “rose period” Abandoned Renaissance tradition: new rules Les Demoiselles D’Avignon

Influences on Picasso Cézanne’s Bathers African and Polynesian masks Primitivism

Cubism Revolutionary departure from representational art. The area around painted objects became part of the abstract geometric forms. Presented the object from many angles simultaneously. Georges Braque

Stages of Cubism Analytical phase: browns and grays. Colors should not distract fromlines and planes Synthetic phase: collage

Abstraction Pure line, shape and color: non-objective Sculpture: Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space Brancusi’s Bird in Space Painting: Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie

Anti-Art Dada: rejection of reason and order in art Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades: L.H.O.O.Q. mobile sculpture, urinal Later influenced performance art, pop art

Expressionism Henri Matisse: fauvism The Blue Window, Issy-les-Moulineaux German Expressionism: Die Brücke Emil Nolde’s Dance Around the Golden Calf Der Blaue Reiter Wassily Kandinsky’s Improvisation 28 (Second Version) Paul Klee’s All Around the Fish

Freud The Interpretation of Dreams influenced the humanities of the Twentieth Century Psychoanalysis: freeing unconscious desires repressed by parental and societal taboos Georgio de Chirico’s The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street

Surrealism André Breton: automatism Surrealist painters sought to release the images of the subconscious Joan Miró’s The Birth of the World Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory

Modernism in Literature Poets discarded meter and rhyme: vers libre Prose: Virginia Woolf’s interior monologues or stream of consciousness reveal the characters’ inner thoughts. Mrs. Dalloway: A single day James Joyce’s Ulysses: A single day

Modernist Literature T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land New hero: ironic, frustrating, disappointing, self-doubting, anxious. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis Character becomes a giant insect

Music/Stravinsky Le Sacré du Printemps shocked the music world Russian folk tradition Diaghilev: artistic director Nijinsky: dancer-choreographer Stravinsky’s music introduced multiple meters, or polyrhythm, and multiple simultaneous keys or polytonality Creates disturbing dissonance

Music/Schoenberg Rejected the classical tradition of orchestral music Atonal music: not composed in a key: expressionistic Pierrot Lunaire Twelve-tone method: not popular with audiences

Modernist Architecture Bauhaus School (German) Walter Gropius: Clean, functional design Le Corbusier (French) functional glass and metal designs Art deco: sleek, simple shapes with decorative forms, like the “gargoyles” of the Chrysler Building

Bertolt Brecht Epic theater The Threepenny Opera The disparity between the ruling class in Germany and the working classes

Political Paintings Orozco, Siqueiros and Rivera: murals on public buildings in Mexico Rivera’s The Enslavement of the Indians: criticism of Spain’s oppression of the indigenous people Picasso’s Guernica: decimation of the town of Guernica by German bombs during Spanish Civil War

Cinema D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation Silent film: Charlie Chaplin Soviet film: Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin Montage technique: “Odessa Steps” Leni Riefenstahl’s The Triumph of the Will, Nazi propaganda

The U.S.A./ N.Y. Photography: Alfred Stieglitz Painter: Georgia O’Keeffe The Harlem Renaissance: Countee Cullen Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston

U.S.A/Other Artists Edward Hopper Nighthawks Willa Cather William Faulkner: Absalom, Absalom!

American Dance Modern Dance: freedom from classical ballet Isadora Duncan Modern Ballet: classical training/freer expression George Ballanchine Martha Graham

American Music Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Charles Ives’ Three Pieces in New England

Architecture Frank Lloyd Wright: incorporate nature “Fallingwater”

Jazz! Improvised melodies, “swing” rhythm African-American origins George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Rhapsody in Blue: concert music Large dance bands Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie “Bird” Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis