Modernism

1
Modernism
1900 -1930
2
Definition of Modernism

• Rather than an artistic style, modernism was a
  rebellious state of mind that questioned all
  artistic, scientific, social, and moral
  conventions.

3
Characteristics Challenging Conventions

• by embracing nihilism
• by rejecting every system of belief
• by believing in the self-sufficiency of each
  individual work of art
• by adopting primitivism
• by exploring perversity
• by focusing on the city rather than nature

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Nihilism The Belief in Nothing

• Modernists viewed the world, and especially human
  existence, as being meaningless.
• Modernists rejected the belief that morality and
  organized religion provided the means for social
  evolution and/or the betterment of man.

5
Rejection of all Systems of Belief

• Modernists questioned all accepted systems
• the sciences
• political/social/economic paradigms
• the arts, especially the Academy

6
Self-sufficiency of a Work of Art

• Art was not to be judged on the old standard of
  mimesis, the literal representation of reality.
• Art needed to be judged on an individual basis.
• Art should be judged on the basis of how well an
  artist is able to communicate the purpose of the
  work as well as the relationship between meaning
  and form.

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Modernists Rebelled Against the Dictates of the
Academy

• Each country had its Academy, an institution that
  judged what was proper and what was not in the
  depiction of reality.
• The Academy saw its task as the education of
  artists in the practice of an idealizing art in
  the classical (or classicizing) tradition.
• The Academy was a school as well as a regulatory
  body.

William-Adolph Bouguereau. Dawn (1875). Oil on
canvas.
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Judges of the French Academy in 1903
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What Was Acceptable?
Gustav Klimt. Idylle (1884). Oil on canvas.

• Goal of the artist was to achieve perfection
  through the following
• a highly polished style
• use of historical or mythological subject matter
• a moralistic tone

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The Modernist Artist

• systematically and deliberately developed an art
  that testifies to all that is strange, unknown,
  and unlabeled in the self
• created a new language of images that described
  the inexpressible
• expected the viewer/reader to interact with the
  work

Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles dAvignon (1907).
Oil on canvas.
11
Primitivism

• Modernists rejected technology and the rigidity
  of society and its institutions.
• Modernists embraced the natural primal roots of
  primitive man.
• Modernists embodied the pursuit of personal and
  artistic freedom.

Pablo Picasso. The Dryad (1908). Oil on canvas.
12
Perversity

• Modernists explored the uncivilized nature of
  man.
• Modernists suggested that being civilized was
  merely a veneer that quickly vanishes.

Emile Nolde. Saint Mary of Egypt Among
Sinners (1912). Oil on canvas.
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Focus on the City
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Street in Dresden (1907).
Oil on canvas.

• Modernists shifted away from nature.
• Modernists explored the city as a place of lonely
  crowds and marginalized individuals.

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Forces that Shaped Modernism

• technology and the new science
• the new philosophical paradigms
• F.H. Bradley
• Alfred Whitehead
• Albert Einstein
• the new psychological paradigms
• Sigmund Freud
• Carl Jung
• Henri Bergson
• the new geo-political paradigms

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Technology and the New Sciences

• generated optimism
• created dynamic industrial and urban growth
• accelerated the way life is experienced
• shrank distances through new communication and
  transportation systems

Switchboard operators
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The Modernist Philosophical Paradigms

• The New Perception of External Reality

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Relativity Space, Time and Light

• Modern thinkers broke with the belief in
  classical mechanics.
• Newton had asserted that space and time were
  absolute.
• Modernists, on the other hand, questioned
  objective reality.
• Instead, the modernists embraced subjectivity.
• Observations about reality are observer-dependent.

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F. H. Bradley Appearance and Reality

• Reality is not absolute.
• An objects appearance varies depending on from
  what angle it is being viewed.
• To really understand an object, one has to view
  it from several points of view.

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Alfred Whitehead Process and Reality

• Reality is not static but in a state of flux,
  always in the process of becoming.
• No object exists in a vacuumrather there is no
  element whatever which possesses this character
  of simple location.
• Each object is relevant to its surroundings in
  that it is in the process of becoming another
  object.
• Matter, space, and time are all interrelated.

Alfred Whitehead (1861-1947)
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Albert Einstein (1879-1955) revolutionized the
way that modern man experienced reality.
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Albert Einstein The Special Theory of Relativity

• Space and time are relative only the speed of
  light is constant.
• There is no such thing as a favored point of
  view.
• Color is relative.
• A universal present moment does not exist.

Clocks positioned farther away from the mass of
the earth run faster than clocks closer to the
earth.
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Albert Einstein The Special Theory of Relativity

• Only local time exists.
• Moving clocks run slower than stationary clocks.
• Two perfectly synchronized clocks would differ
  according to their respective speeds.

Clocks positioned farther away from the mass of
the earth run faster than clocks closer to the
earth.
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Albert Einstein The Special Theory of Relativity

• Time slows as one approaches the speed of light.
• The present moment expands from a narrow sliver
  until it encompasses both the past and the
  future.
• At light speed, time ceases to change because it
  contains all change.

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Albert Einstein The Special Theory of
RelativitySpeed Dilates Time
A train moving away from a clock tower at 5 mph.
After a minute passes, the observer on the train
notes that the time on the clock is 1201.
A train moving away from a clock tower at the
speed of light. After a minute passes, the
observer on the train notes that the time on the
clock remains 1200 oclock.
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Albert Einstein The Special Theory of Relativity
View of a house from a train traveling past it at
5 mph
View of a house from a train traveling past it at
93,000 miles per second
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Albert Einstein The Special Theory of Relativity
Traveling at the speed of light

• Creates the illusion that perspective has
  flattened
• Space between objects is truncated
• Figures begin to look two-dimensional

An infinitely thin slice of compressed
countryside as seen from the side windows of a
train traveling past it at the speed of light
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the Modernist Psychological Paradigms

• The New Perception of Internal Reality

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Sigmund Freud

• expanded the definition of sexuality
• defined the major components of personality
• created a dynamic psychology based on the
  interaction of the id, the ego, and the superego
• defined the importance of the unconscious
• created psychoanalysis, a science that uncovers
  the personalitys secrets

Sigmund Freud (1856 1939)
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Carl Jung

• based psychology on the collective unconscious,
  the inherited memories of the race
• developed archetypes to explain human behavior
• explained how archetypes are expressed in fairy
  tales, myths, and artistic endeavors

Carl Jung (1875-1961)
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Henri Bergson

• defined human experience through duration,
  psychological time consisting of the constant
  flow from the past into the future rather than a
  succession of chronological instants
• believed that reality is a past that constantly
  becomes something new
• held that intuition is the most trustworthy guide
  to understanding

Henri Bergson (1859 1941)
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The New Global Economy

• industrialization
• social and psychological fragmentation
• alienation
• class warfare
• economic interdependence
• colonialism
• cultural cross-fertilization
• nationalism
• war