Modernism: Rejecting the Past AVI 4M1

The Backdrop: 1900: machines = good; humans were improving; Europe dominated the world; symbols of progress such as the Eiffel tower, the automobile and the airplane created hope for a bright future.

By 1918: machines and old ways of thinking had slaughtered a generation (W.W. I, “The Great War”) a golden future of prosperity had turned into a suicidal future of violence (more people have been killed by war in the past 100 years than in all the preceding years combined!) industrialization brought prosperity for some but pollution and urban poverty for many more.

There was a loss of innocence

To the Avant Garde, old ways = hypocrisy and death

Society’s only hope lay in new directions

new is good! old is bad!

Modernism Expressionism Cubism Dadaism Futurism Constructivism DeStijl International Style Bauhaus Various Expressionist movements Surrealism Abstract Expressionism Colour Field Modernism is an umbrella term for many different styles … All of these styles, and more, are referred to as Modernism.

Modernism has no single, recognizable visual style:

Modernism has no single, recognizable visual style. However, there are key characteristics of Modernist art.

Key characteristic #1: Shock of the New - Shock = good. New = good. - the breaking of rules to create new visions - extreme reactions to previous trends -traditional media was used in new ways Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907

Key characteristic #1: Shock of the New - acceptance of new media, such as photography and motion pictures, as equals to old established media. Rodchenko, Girl with Leica 1934

Key characteristic #2: Abstraction is Essential - all progressive art (that is, good art) employed some form of abstraction, or distortion of reality. This was a break from 500 years of tradition in Western Art. Boccioni, Elasticity, 1912

Key characteristic #2: Abstraction is Essential Modernists took different approaches to abstraction: -Emotional, or expressive abstraction - employed in all the various kinds of Expressionism Dix, War Cripples Playing Cards, 1920

Key characteristic #2: Abstraction is Essential Modernists took different approaches to abstraction: -Intellectual abstraction - used in Cubism Gris, Portrait of Picasso, 1912

Key characteristic #2: Abstraction is Essential Modernists took different approaches to abstraction: -Psychological abstraction - used in the work of the Dadaists and the Surrealists Dali, The Burning Giraffe,

Key characteristic #3: The Cult of the Genius -artists, and the artists alone, knew the truth of their own artwork and its importance. -“Bourgeois” society was too static, too old, too stale to appreciate Modernism. Picasso in his studio, 1907?

Key characteristic #3: The Cult of the Genius - artists began to see themselves as so avant-garde that they were separate from the rest of society Dadaist Handbill, Tristan Tzara -there was an increasing importance on theories and manifestos to explain the art -all new art had to have a theory.

Key characteristic #4: Honesty of Materials Matisse, Sorrows of the King, the materials from which one makes art should be visible and themselves, not pretending to be anything else…

Key characteristic #4: Honesty of Materials Raphael, Portrait of a Young Woman with a Unicorn, 1505 Since the Renaissance, artwork strove to be a “window onto the world”

Key characteristic #4: Honesty of Materials Pollock, Lavender Mist, with Modernism, a painting is not a “window onto the world” but merely paint on canvas; that’s honest.

Key characteristic #4: Honesty of Materials Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, 1935 Modernist architecture was the same: little or no decoration to hide the “integrity of materials” - concrete looks like concrete, wood looks like wood, glass looks like glass, etc.

These 4 characteristics of Modernism applied to all art forms: Fine art: Stella, Brooklyn Bridge, 1941

These 4 characteristics of Modernism applied to all art forms: Fine art: Dance: Dancers from Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’, 1913

These 4 characteristics of Modernism applied to all art forms: Fine art: Dance: Music:

These 4 characteristics of Modernism applied to all art forms: Fine art: Dance: Music: Film: Still from Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin”, 1925

These 4 characteristics of Modernism applied to all art forms: Fine art: Dance: Music: Film: Design: Marienetti, Futurist Manifesto, “Blast”, 1915

Modernism surrounds us today and is still influences artists, designers and architects. Mies van der Rohe, Toronto Dominion Centre, 1967