Modernist Assault on Tradition
Dec 17, 2015
Modernist Assault on Tradition
Medicine
Travel
Work load
Communication
19th century London
Inventions
Inventions
Inventions
Inventions
Self destruction
End of 19th Century
• Relatively peaceful
• Contrast between rich and poor
• Contrast between democracy and totalitarianism
• Fight for supremacy
Great War
New Physics
• 200 years based on Newton’s Principia– First law of motion– Second law of motion– Third law of motion
• Two distinct realms– Atomic particles– Space
Atomic Particles & Space
Max Planck
• 1858-1947
• Early work – thermodynamics & radiation processes
• 1900 – quanta
• Bio
Albert Einstein
• 1879-1955
• Biography
• 1916 – Theory of relativity
Werner Heisenberg
• 1901-1976
• Position & Momentum = Uncertainty relation (1927)
Applications of New Physics
• Practical– Technology– Atomics
• Theoretical– Uncertainty– Inaccessible
20th Century Poetry
• Change from 19th Century
• Style in 20th Century– Conceptual language– Abstraction– No fixed meter– Use of imagery
Ezra Pound
• 1885-1972
• American Ex-patriot
• Huge contributor to American poetry
• Imagist Manifesto (1913)– Free verse rhythm– “Make it new”
Robert Frost
• 1874-1963
• Popular & beloved poet
• Lyric Poetry
• Style– Metered verse– Plain speech
20th Century Art
19th Century Art
Impressionist Art
Modern Life & Art
• Industrialism
• New technology in art
• Avant garde
• Stripped down style
• Unconventional techniques
Pablo Picasso
• 1881-1973
• Major artist of 20th century
• Biography
• Art described as overlapping periods
Blue Period
• 1901-04
• World of the poor
• Melancholy
Rose Period
• 1905-6
• Lighter palette & lyricism
• Subject matter drawn from circus life
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Cezanne
African Masks
Picasso, Les Demoiselle d’Avignon, 1907, Modern
Western Art
Cubism
• Geometric & abstract forms most important
• 1907-1914
• Influential – Picasso & Braque
• To 1912 – Analytical Cubism
Synthetic Cubism
• Second phase
• Decorative shapes, stenciling, collage & brighter colors
• Collage
• Starts with Braque
Braques, Still Life on a Table, 1914, Synthetic Cubism
Picasso’s Guitar
Futurism
• “Make it new!”
• Technology & art combined
• Founded in 1909 in Italy
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
• Futurist manifesto
• Violence & conflict
• Very aggressive & meant to inspire anger & controversy
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
• Umberto Boccioni
• Speed & force
Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912, Futurism
Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase #2, 1912, Modernism
Fauvism
• Color has primacy
• 1905
• Matisse – forerunner of movement
Madame Mattisse (the Green Line), 1905
Abstraction in Sculpture
Brancusi, Bird in Space, 1928, Abstract
20th Century Architecture
• 2 new materials
• Ferroconcrete
• Cantilever
Frank Lloyd Wright
• 1869-1959
• Unprecedented style
• Combined steel & glass with aesthetics of Asian architecture
Prairie Style
Wright, Fallingwater, 1936-1939, Modern
More images
Bauhaus & International Style
• Walter Gropius – 1918
• Form follows function
• Classical forms with no extraneous ornaments
Music
• 19th century example
• Radical changes in 20th Century
• New Techniques– Polytonal– Atonal– Polyrhythmic
Arnold Schoenberg
• 1874-1951
• Short statements of single extreme musical state
• Opus 22
Igor Stravinsky
• 1882-1971
• Biography
• Ballet composer
• The Rite of Spring, 1913
Modern Dance
Vaslav Nijinsky
• 1888-1950
• Choreographer & dancer
• Sergei Diaghilev’s protégé
• Controversial ballets
Martha Graham
• 1894-1991
• Very influential
• Created one of oldest dance troops in America
• Biography