1. 1 Modernism: Art and Literature 1920s: From Gatsby to Picasso

2. 2 Essential Questions  Unit EQ: How and why do American values shift?  Today’s EQ: How were the political, economic, and social factors of the era responsible for hastening the art and culture revolutions of the 1920s? 2

3. 3 By the end of class today, students will be able to:  define Modernism (a relatively complex idea in the world of art) in your own words  learn some of the important Modernist artists  understand the link between Modernism, Gatsby, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Cubism  learn the names of some important artists  analyze modernist paintings (good luck--they’re wacky), and in so doing review some techniques of interpretation 3

4. 4 What is modernism?

5. 5 Some Characteristics of Modernistic Thought  Rejection of “tradition” as being outdated in a changing world (“Make it new!”)  Rejection of rationality, harmony, and coherence  Separation of the past as being “different” from the modern age  Recognition that the world is complex  Assertion that the old “final authorities” (God, government, science, and reason) were subject to intense critical scrutiny  Approval/Embracing of discontinuity

6. 6 Link to Unit EQ:  All of these notions were reactions to a rapidly changing, post-WWI America. 6

7. 7 Influences Contributing to Modernism:  The 1920s = the first time more people lived in urban areas than rural areas (in America) Characters move from the West to the East. West = Rural America: traditional spirit of hard work, self-reliance, religion, and independence. East = Cities and changes that threaten old values— Modernists say that life will never go back to “what it was”  Americans—because of communal living in cities as well as reactions to WWI—lose faith Eyes of Dr. Eckleburg Americans losing faith in God

8. 8 Influences Contributing to Modernism:  In the past, there was a belief that Americans were making steady moral progress. The horror of WWI and trench warfare blew this notion out of the water  Harsh, mechanical rationality of new technological weapons in WWI The fusion of the mechanical with the seemingly senseless slaughter of human beings left “morality” and “realism” pretty bankrupt Think of the “death car” in Gatsby

9. 9 FYI:  MANY Americans were NOT on board with Modernism!!  Art exhibitions, theatre, cinema, books, and even new buildings of this time all served to cement in the public view the perception that the world was changing, but Many reacted hostilely! People spat on paintings Riots organized at openings Political figures denounced modernism as “unwholesome” and “immoral” 9

10. 10 Dada  Begins in Switzerland during WWI and spreads– peaks during early 20s  Includes visual arts, literature, theatre, and graphic design  Was anti-war  Expressed anti-war politics through “anti-art”  Dadaists wanted to ridicule what they considered meaningless in the modern world.  Usually also anti-bourgeois and anarchistic  Basically, they were pissed off at a world that allowed WWI to happen. 10

11. 11 Dada  The Dada movement was not a movement  Its artists were not artists  Its art was not art  …because art (and everything else in the world) has no meaning anyway.  Even the name “Dada”—which some say means “hobby horse” in French and others just say is baby talk—was chosen because it was the catch phrase that made the least amount of sense.

12. 12 What the Dadaists did:  Used: Mild obscenities Weird humor Visual puns Everyday objects renamed as “art”  Examples: Painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa and scribbling an obscenity underneath Putting a toilet on display and naming it “Fountain,” and putting a fake signature on it

13. 13 Marcel Duchamp

14. 14 Marcel Duchamp

15. 15 Sophie Taeuber

16. 16 Man Ray “The Misunderstood”

17. 17 Man Ray– “A Night at Saint Jean-de-Luz”

18. 18 Francis Picabia– “Hera”

19. 19 Surrealism  Born out of Dada thought  Andre Breton, the “leader” of the surrealist movement, said Surrealism was a revolutionary movement.  Surrealist works feature: the element of surprise unexpected juxtapositions non sequitur  Most surrealists regarded their work as an expression of PHILOSOPHY--the work itself was merely an artifact of that philosophy 19

20. 20 FYI:  Andre Breton (the “leader” of Surrealism) served in a neurological hospital where he used the psychoanalytic methods of Sigmund Freud (more on him later) with soldiers who were shell-shocked.  Surrealism = defined as: Dictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation. Encyclopedia: Surrealism. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life.

21. 21 Andre Masson: Pedestal Table in the Studio 21

22. 22 Salvador Dali– “The Persistence of Memory”

23. Dali: “Rhinoceros Disintegration of Ilissus of Phidias” 23

24. 24 Dali– “Metamorphosis of Narcissus”

25. 25 Dali—”Soft Construction With Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)”

26. 26 Dali— “Accommodations of Desire”

27. 27 Max Ernst-- “The Elephant Celebus”

28. 28 Cubism  An earlier movement– 20s are “Late Cubism,” but it doesn’t emerge in America until then  Backlash to Impressionism, which focuses on light and color  In Cubist artworks, objects are: Broken up Analyzed Re-assembled in an abstracted form  Instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts multiple viewpoints of a subject in order to represent the subject in a greater context  Often, surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth  Space = shallow and ambiguous 28

29. 29 Pablo Picasso 29

30. 30 Pablo Picasso: “Le Guitariste”

31. 31 Picasso– “Three Musicians”

32. 32 Georges Braque– “Woman with a Guitar”

33. 33 Review and Discuss  Without looking at your notes! What is modernism? What is Dada? What is Surrealism? What is Cubism? How are Dadaist, Surrealist, and Cubist art works representative of Modernist thought? Why do these art forms flourish in America in the 20s?