Classicism Romanticism Modernism
Transcript of Classicism Romanticism Modernism
JACKSON POLLOCK – “Lavender Mist” (1950)
Modernism
Modernism o A comprehensive
but vague term for
a movement (or
tendency) which
began to get under
way in the closing
years of the 19th c.
o Rejected
positivism – belief
that science could
explain everything,
inc. human nature
PIET MONDRIAN – “Composition
10” (1939-1942)
Modernism pertains to all the creative
arts, especially poetry, fiction, drama,
painting, music and architecture…
“Persistence of Memory” – Salvador Dali
General Tenets of Modernism
• Challenged
tradition and the
status quo
• Fascination with
(w/) the new, the
modern, the
mechanical
• Focus on form and
stylistic
experimentation
• Exploration of
perception and
representation
• Critique of
mimesis or realism
in how we
represent the
world
–RENÉ MAGRITTE
“The Treachery of Images” (1929)
Modernism was largely brought about by the convergence of several
factors:
• The devastation caused in Europe after World War I, when the most enlightened and advanced nations on the earth came together to kill each other in staggering numbers.
War and the New World Order
• World War I – first “total war”
• Mechanization/machines of war utter, heartless destruction
• Est. 8,500,000 deaths of soldiers from wounds/disease
• Est. 13,000,000 civilian casualties
– Disease
– Starvation
– Massacre
Loss…of Everything
• Enormity of war undermined
humankind’s faith in Western society
and culture
– Re-examination of traditional belief systems
(gov’t, religion)
– Sense of hopelessness
– Lost Generation
• The wholesale urbanization and industrialization that took place during the nineteenth century.
• The fragmentation of belief in the unified individual that occurred as the result of the work of several scientists and philosophers.
Additional factors:
Karl Marx Asserted that human
moral, cultural, and
religious values were
caused not by any
inherent sense of
good or evil but by
the requirements of a
particular system.
Charles Darwin Discovered that the
evolution of species
was the result of
“natural selection”
and competition
rather than through
any special act of
purposeful creation
(vs. G-d).
Friedrich Nietzsche Identified the moral and
cultural crises facing
Western civilization.
Viewed artists as purveyors
of culture.
Dismissed Christian
morality (“God is dead”)
and profferred the morality
of the Superman and the
Slave.
Warned of the dangers of
embracing nihilism.
Sigmund Freud
Asserted that most elements of the human personality were the result of various psycho-sexual traumas experienced in infancy and early childhood and stored in the subconscious mind.
Anti-Realism
• Art for art’s sake
• Allusion over description confusing, but purposeful, reflects confusion of new world
• Subjective no absolutes
• Questioning of conventional—”real”---view of the world
• Literature and art rely heavily on
– Myth
– Symbol
– Archetype (“primary image” inherent, not societal)
– The Unconscious
Aesthetic Characteristics of Modernism
• Abandonment of traditional “rules” for creating art, music, and literature
MARC CHAGALL
“I and the Village” (1911)
• Fragmented representations of time, meaning, and human nature
VINCENT VAN GOGH – “The Starry
Night” (1889)
MARCEL DUCHAMP
“Nude Descending a
Staircase, No. 2” (1912)
PABLO PICASSO
“Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”
(1907)
• Sense of loss, alienation, abandonment, and disillusionment
EDVARD MUNCH – “Evening on Karl Johan” (1892)
“The Lovers II” – René Magritte
Modern Fiction
o Art no longer to teach (no didactic function)
o Writers questioned the moral and artistic purposes
of literature.
o Culture fragmented and individualized
Language itself was seen as an unreliable medium,
with an uncertain relationship to reality; the very
notion of clear, straightforward communication
between people was brought into question.
“That’s not it at all, that’s not what I meant at all.”
–T.S. Eliot
o Influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud,
authors made the interior their stage
emphasized the individual and the subjectivity
of perception.
o Experimented with new uses of language and
imagery and new narrative structures:
o stream-of-consciousness narration
o multiple points of view
o fragmented, nonsequential plots.