The Modern Age

Industrial Revolution to World Wars

Industrial RevolutionBritish and Dutch have highest standard of living in the world.British farmers could produce more food cheaper, while still making a profit.More workers not needed for food production.British government inexpensive, low tax burden.More money available for investment and spending.

Britain Takes the Lead

Free enterprise, initiative encouragedCotton gained importance as it was cheaper and easier to be worked by hand.Mechanization of cotton pushed investment and invention in other areas.Steam engine, coal mining, steel productionBritain had the means to produce goods and then export them around the world.

Social Consequences

People flocked to the Industrial Centers.They overwhelmed the city’s capacity.So, shantytowns became very common on the outskirts of towns.Children were brought into the labor force as a cheap alternative to adults.Despite this, the living conditions of the laboring poor improved in England.

Friedrich Engels

German SocialistThe Condition of the Working Class in England (1845)Showed the sharp divisions between the rich and the poorDisliked capitalism and hailed a Socialist Revolution

Karl Marx

German PhilosopherHated the fact that millions were working and starving so a few thousand could wallow in luxuryDas Kapital – criticized capitalismThe Communist Manifesto (1848)

Marxism

Popular in countries where industrialism was just starting and agriculture was still the main industry. Russia –1917 China – After WWII

Technological Advances

Crystal Palace – Great Exhibition in London 1851 Seen as an engineering marvel and as

optimistic of the future

RailroadSteamshipTelegraphTelephoneElectricity

LiberalismLiberals believed that the sufferings of the poor were a small price to pay for the benefits of industrialization.Believed if people were able to follow their own self-interests, would benefit all.State shall interfere as little as possible with the economy.Policy of Laissez-faire—leave alone

Reform Movement

1830s and 1840s: public opinion pushes British government to do something about abuses of industry.New breed of liberals push to gain better working conditions.See government as mediator/protector to prevent oppression from owner to worker.Vote seen as a privilege for all.

Utopian CommunitiesCritics of industrial economy see evils of industry come from private property.Seek to establish communities where the property is owned by all who work and live there.Thought that basic industry and essential services should be operated by the community for the good of all.Charles Fourier devised a utopian community where each did the work they were best suited for and all shared in the profits.

Women’s RightsSeneca Falls Convention Women meet peacefully in upper New

York Wanted to organize themselves to fight

for more rights Moved from abolitionist movement to

gaining the vote for women Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,

Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony Drew up the “Declaration of Sentiments”

12 resolutions including right to vote

John Stuart Mill

Eloquent advocate for women’s rightsWrote The Subjection of WomenSon of John Mill an early liberalWriter, member of ParliamentOpposed slavery and oppression of the poor

Voting Rights

1917 gain the right to vote in Canada1920: US1928: EnglandNot until after WWII in FranceEven after voting rights won, still much discrimination against women

Realism and Beyond

Art and architecture needed to change with industrialization.Architects struggle to define a style for the 19th century.New functions, needs, and materials pose new problems and need new solutions.

The Crystal Palace: Great Exhibition of London 1851

Need for an exhibition hall one-third of a mile long presented many problems.Joseph Paxton proposed a modular glass box made of cast and wrought iron framing and glass.Prefabricated parts shipped by rail were erected in Hyde Park.Lighted naturally, cooled by louvered windows that opened mechanically.

Problems for Architects

Limited land, money, and timeNeed for adequate space and lightThe tall office building provided the solutionNow possible due to elevators, fireproofing, and perfection of iron and steel framingWhat should a skyscraper look like?

Chicago Fire 1871

Architects must try to rebuild city.William LeBaron Jenney designed the Home Insurance BuildingEntire surface hangs on its steel and iron frameWorked with Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham to innovate the building

Commercial Style

Louis Sullivan: influential Chicago architectIn partnership with Dankmar Adler produced series of buildingsVerticality should be emphasizedWainwright building in St. LouisEntire structure is built on a fire-proof steel frame

Burnham and Root

Reliance Building in ChicagoUsed a self-supporting metal cage with glass infillSimple to erect and maintainWalls are great expanses of glassClear expression of its function: tall, economical, and usefulNo classical orders, no pointed arches

What should they paint, for whom and how?Some used industrialism itself for subject matter.J. M. W. Turner: Rain, Steam and Speed Tried to illustrate what he had witnessed

during a storm while riding on a train.

Not accepted by the public, wanted smooth surfaces and academic perfection

Painting: Realism

Gustave Courbet

French painter: The StonebreakersConsidered himself a realist: to translate the customs, ideas, and appearances of his epochArtists painted what they sawLower classes more important than upperDepicted the harshness of peasant lifeSketched out-of-doors, painted in the studio

Ford Madox Brown

English painter: WorkWorked out-of-doors, drawing subjects from natureWanted to create an intensified illusion of realityFilled his paintings with detailSubjects had social or philosophical relevance

Thomas Eakins

American painter: Max Schmitt in a Single ScullInfluenced by VelazquezCreated intense, ordered, and descriptive paintingsStudied lightTried to capture a moment in time

Photography

Could capture more detail and information than the eye could.If realism is defined as recreating what was seen, then could be replaced by camera.If realism is an attitude of honesty of subject matter and everyday life, then not as threatening.Artists will combine these philosophies.

Realism in Literature

Philippe Duranty said it was the process of recreating “the exact, complete, and sincere reproduction of the social milieu in which we live.”Saw the novel as the best way to represent the varied dimensions of society.

Reasons for Success

Increase in literacy among middle and lower classesIncrease importance of journalismNovels published in serial form in cheap and accessible newspapers and journals.People wanted to read about others like themselves in similar circumstances.

Realist WritersFrench realists: Stendhal: The Red and the Black Honoré de Balzac: The Human Comedy Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary

England: Charles Dickens, George Eliot, William

Thackeray

US Henry James, William Dean Howells,

Stephen Crane

Characteristics

Belief in an objective realityMaterial and psychologicalUses words to depict the way things look and feel, and the way that people act.Realistically motivated characters who do not act in unexpected ways.Pay close attention to detail

Naturalism

Human character is a result of the material and social environment into which man is placed.Interested in Darwin’s theories of evolutionBelieved certain conditions in the environment will produce certain traits in a person.Emile Zola, Theodore Dreiser, Richard Wright

Poet and the City: Baudelaire

French poet and art criticTried to portray outward reality through an inner spiritual visionLes fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil): shocked the bourgeois publicPoems about life in Paris present a haunted view of urban lifeInfluenced T. S. Eliot in The Waste Land

Late-Nineteenth-Century Thinkers and Writers

Victorian AgeIndustrialism prevails, increased materialismSaw a time when progress of industry would create a world where everyone would be surrounded by mechanical comforts.

Charles Darwin

Origin of the Species, The Descent of ManPublished his evolutionary theoriesShowed that humans were a species that had evolved from primatesHuge protest against his theories from religious groupsSaw life as a continual struggle: Nature red in tooth and claw

Herbert Spencer

Proclaimed the doctrine of agnosticism (impossibility of knowing the existence of God)“Social Darwinism”—Survival of the fittestBelieved government had no business interfering in the “natural” economic process or protecting the weak and unfitVery popular with the “robber barons” of the US

Friedrich Nietzsche

German poet and philosopherDeveloped theories very different from SpencerDenounced hypocrisy, morality, and rationalism of societySaw evolution in human nature, but an evolution that was spiritual and intellectual not physical

Influences and Ideas

Wanted a revolt against the limits of reason and a return to greater power in the irrational and mythMoral values of Jews and Christians were the expressions of weaklings or slavesIdea of a “superman” used by the Nazis as basis for belief in the superiority of the Aryan race

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Russian writerBegan as a socialist, arrested by the tsarist regime and sent to SiberiaWrote The House of the DeadConverted to the mystical Russian OrthodoxyPortrayed characters in the extremes of moral degradation and spiritual enlightenment

Beliefs

Praised the extremes of human existenceBelieved that humanity could be saved through faith in ChristCrime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, The Brothers KaramazovIdeas are given flesh and blood through the complexity of his tortured characters and their miserable settings

From Realism to Symbolism

Realism is seen as a limitationNovelists and poets see reality as beyond the grasp of “realism”Began experimenting with new ways“Impressionists” developed from this shift in thoughtPainted outdoors, experimented with light, brushes, colors, and art of Japan

Edouard Manet

Transitional figure used the subject matter of the realists, but with different tools.Influenced by Velazquez, Japanese art, and photographySet his subjects in a strong harsh light to flatten them into their backgroundUsed contrasts of light and dark to give a sense of 3D

Olympia

Exhibited in the Salon of the Refused in 1863—countershow to the government sanctioned SalonParis was shocked by the bold young lady who engaged the viewer with her direct lookNo Venus, too present and familiarElimination of detail, the surface textures create the sensation of a scene glimpsed for an instant

Olympia

Degas

Considered himself a draftsman like IngresConcentrated on human subjects, particularly ballerinasInfluenced by Japanese art and photography, like ManetTried to express a sense of fleeting, momentary time, like a picture glimpsed through a window

L’Absinthe

Painted in 1876, example of Degas’s scenes from café lifeShows the isolation and misery of the anonymous lower-class workersColors are light, muted, cool colors: life through a smoky hazeDegas later would use pastels—used color in a way to create the patterns and surfaces that interested him

Impressionism

Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissaro—chief creators of impressionismPainting landscapes out-of-doorsCommitted to recording the effects of sunlight on objects

Radical Use of Color

Experimented with color: Eliminated black, brown, and gray from

their palettes Hues of the spectrum: red, orange,

yellow, green, blue, and purpleColors made more intense by mottling combinations of the color and its componentsAlso realized colors reflect into objects near themShadows are the contrasting color of light on the object

New Techniques

Brush strokes should be fragmented and shortUsed commas, dots, and dashesThis gives the painting a sense of immediacy and tensionMonet’s Impression: Sunrise gave the movement its name

Public and Critical Response

First impressionist exhibition held in 1874Received a hostile receptionPaintings seen as “crude and unfinished”Today seen as monuments to the splendor of the natural worldMonet remained most true to the impressionism’s ideal, numerous paintings of water lilies show the effect of light and the seasons on nature.

Postimpressionism and Symbolism

From 1870 on, segment of artists, poet, and musicians saw that the function of art was not to represent or interpret the everyday world, but to create its own world and meaning: art for its own sake.Began in France, art as a new religionGrouped together under term “postimpressionists” for artists, and writers “symbolists”

Major Talents

Musicians: Claude Debussy and Maurice RavelWriters: Oscar Wilde and Aubrey BeardsleyPainters: Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul CézanneMovement not as important in US until early 20th century

Vincent Van Gogh

Dutch painter who came to Paris to make a careerMoved to Arles in southern France to escape the materialism of ParisWanted to paint pictures that would be comforting and upliftingUsed strong, pure colors and a vigorous brush stroke

Paul GauguinLeft France for Tahiti to discover a natural, instinctive culture free of inhibitions and greedGave him unfamiliar subject matter to paintSpirit of the Dead WatchingConcern with line, color, and form to present a personal view of truth helped set the stage for the formal abstract elements of art to follow

Paul CézanneOlder than Gauguin and Van Gogh, but his work matured at the same time as theirsGoal was to formulate a painterly language that would give an account of natureDistrusted the subjectivism and emotionalism of Van Gogh and GauguinFelt impressionism created ephemeral worksWanted art to be independent, timeless and universal

Technique for the Future

Painted many versions of Mont Sainte-Victoire in southern FranceUsed bright, intense colors applied in various thicknessesNo consistent single point perspectiveNo consistent shadow patternPainted surface is blocks of color: abstract arrangements of color and form

A Culture in Self-DoubtA radical break with tradition occurred with the new century.Radical changes in art developed under the term: modernism.New discoveries in science altered the picture of the natural world.Max Planck’s discovery that atoms emit energy in separate units, not continuously, altered perception in science.

Scientific Discoveries

Max Planck: atoms emit energy in separate units, quantum mechanicsAlbert Einstein: theory of relativity—space, time, and motion are not absolute, but relative to the observer’s positionUniverse measured at the speed of light

Differences from the Past

Past scientific revolutions were easier to understand for non-scientists.New physics proposed a world without continuity or absolutes, nothing is for certain.Nothing is as it appears to be to the human senses.

Social Sciences

Developments in anthropology showed the relativity of cultural values.Pavlov’s theories showed that humans are conditioned to give certain responses, not governed by reason.Freud’s theories that our actions and behavior are rooted in the subconscious, not conscious mind.

RacismPseudoscientific racism grew rapidly during this period.Concept of the “races of man” became popular.Social Darwinism: white people regarded as the most fit, mental capacity is linked to size of the brainLynchings and segregation increase dramatically

Colonialism and Imperialism

Portuguese, Dutch, French and British are locked in a race to control oversees territory and trade.Push into new territories in Africa, S. Pacific, and SE AsiaNew powers begin competing: Germany, Russia, Japan, and the USAll want to build their own empire.

World Trade

Capitalism is entering the monopoly stage, need new “fields of investment.”Forced to compete by creating colonies to reserve those markets for themselves.Increasingly bitter competition for trade led to conflict between European nations.

Situation in AsiaEuropeans lack resources to govern on their own have to get the local population to help them.Japanese revolt in the seventeenth century against Western intrusion.Limited trade to one Dutch ship per year.1850s US Commodore Perry forced his way into Tokyo Harbor.

Changes in Japan

Meiji Restoration of 1868 reflected the triumph of those who favor modernization to keep Japan alive.Japan built an army and navy, and an industrial system dominated by military requirements.Quickly became dominant in the area

Japanese Imperialism

Defeated Russia 1904-05Occupied KoreaNow a world power of its own before WWIThis kept them free from Western domination.

Situation in China

China, India slower to revoltChinese had suffered from 2 wars and other experiences with the West.Carved into spheres of influenceBoxer Rebellion, Western nations insist on large payments for their losses.1911 Dr. Sun Yat-sen overthrows Manchu dynasty

Situation in India

Directly ruled by Great BritainEducated middle class push for a separate nationIndian National Congress founded in 1885During WWI to keep India loyal, British promise self-government and dominion status

GhandiBritish delay of implementing promised self-government led to revolt.Mahatma Ghandi, an English trained lawyer and religious guru, led the Indian freedom struggle along a nonviolent path.British could crush violence, but Indians were unarmed and British allowed for nonviolent protest

World War I

All of the international competition erupts into war in 1914.Muddy war fought in trenches with long periods of waiting alternating with sudden attacks.New technology: tanks, machine gun, airplane, poison gas, all increased the cost of lives.

Countries Against Each Other

Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and TurkeyOppose the Allies: Great Britain, France, and RussiaItaly joins the Allies in 1915, Russia leaves the war in 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution, US replaces1918, Allies are victorious

Cost of WarLosses of human life, land, and property are enormousVersailles 1919, peace settlement is worked outFrance and England want to cripple Germany so it can never bring war againGermany lost territory, democratic government is created: The Weimar Republic

New Problems CreatedWeimar Republic given huge fines to repay, weakened the governmentRestrictions are placed on the German armyNew countries created from the break up of the Austro-Hungarian empireLittle popular support for these new countries in their own lands made for more political instability

League of NationsWoodrow Wilson drew up a covenant at Versailles for an international organization designed to defend the independence of every member nationJanuary 1920, at Geneva, League of Nations is createdWeakened by the refusal of the US to joinFurther problems erupt over conflicting interpretations of its purpose, and its inability to take decisive action

Decline of EuropeOtto Spengler writes The Decline of the West, Europe is in its old ageNew governments formed from the defeated states are unstableCooperative spirit between bosses and workers is gone: increasing social conflictUSSR sets up a communist statePossibility of a class war seems real

Sigmund Freud

Depth psychology: furnished a key to the unconscious mind, which gives knowledge of the conscious mindUsed free association: patient in a relaxed state is told to say whatever comes to mind, regardless of how futile, absurd, embarrassing, or offensive it was

Parts of the Mind

Believed there were three parts to the mind: Ego: the conscious part of the mind Id: the unconscious, repressed

material and drives Superego: the watchful, judging,

punishing part of the mind

Psychoanalysis

Main parts of depth psychology were Freud’s dream theory and his theory of parapraxis (faulty behavior, slips of the tongue)These theories were presented in: The Interpretation of Dreams 1900 The Psychopathology of Everyday Life

1904

DreamsTheory of Dreams: dream chooses a trivial event of the day that shows some relationship to a childhood memory—one foot in the present, one in childhoodOedipus Complex: son rival of the father for mother’s attention wants to get rid of his father—frightened of his rival and of castration for the incestuous feelings for his mother

More Dreams

Electra Complex: little girl desires her father, wants to kill her motherDream: a fulfillment of a repressed, sexual wishWhen controls of the consciousness are relaxed waking acts can reveal repressed wishes and desires through slips of the tongue, acts of clumsiness, forgetting proper names, mistakes in writing

Pleasure Principle and Instincts

Pleasure Principle: Person’s constant attempt to achieve pleasure and to avoid painInstincts: 2 parts: Eros—sexual instincts, self-preserving impulses, drives and forces that unify life Thanatos—tendency to self-punishment, impulses that deny lifeBelieved this was an innate tendency that overrides the pleasure principle: “death wish”

Freud on Religion

1907: Religion was a universal obsessional neurosis and that obsession was individualized religion.1927: Religion is an illusion inspired by an infantile belief in the omnipotence of thought, a universal neurosis, a kind of narcotic that hampers the free exercise of intelligence, something that humanity will have to give up.

Freud on Art and Literature

Beneficial to humanityFreud sees the work of art as the expression of a wish and the artist as a neurotic.Like a neurotic, artists yearn for honor, power, wealth, fame, and love; however, they cannot gain these goals, so they turn their back on reality, transferring their interests to the expression of art.Art then is a public dream, an occasion to contemplate the unconscious.

Civilization and Its Discontents

1930 essay, applies psychoanalytical methods to the study of civilizationAll societies put restrictions and taboos on behaviorEros, the drive for happiness, also pushes people to bond together in families and then groupsThanatos, death wish, aggression that threatens the destruction of the self and society: wars

Roaring TwentiesPostwar US: optimistic, Europe: gloomyUS asserts its economic dominanceCredit: generous policy of lending against future earnings led for expansion of productionPeople begin buying previous luxury items on installment plans, now necessitiesCountries also begin borrowing funds1929: Panic strikes, Great Depression has struck

Communism and Fascism

Collapse of world economy dramatically affected western Europe and the USBreadlines, homeless, starving familiesFascism: radical right, proposed as a solution—stressed values of thrift, industry, national traditions, and loyalty to the countryCommunism: radical left, totalitarian, sees individual as having life only in terms of the larger group—class

Communism vs. FascismCommunists view class conflict as inevitable, fascists see struggle between national willsNational wills are defined in their conflict with other nationsCommunism plays down the importance of the leader, fascism the leader is the person who best realizes the national will of the people and can direct the nation

German FascismTook on a racial biasAdolf Hitler saw German nationalism as the superiority of the Aryan cultureDespised the Jews, saw them as cultural parasites, enemies of societyMein Kampf called for state action to eliminate racial corruption, and build a master race by removing mental & physical handicaps through birth control

Europe after 1933Hitler seizes powerProceeds in his plans: massive sterilization campaigns, concentration campsDemocratic governments in Europe too weak to stop HitlerBenito Mussolini used threat of communism to establish fascist state in Italy after WWI

Why Germany?6 million unemployed, 40% of populationHitler and National Socialist party used choice between communism and the forces of order in the election of 1932Nazi attacks on the Jews as the reason for the Depression and problems in Germany1932, Hitler and Nazi party win plurality in the popular assembly, Hitler appointed chancellor

Germany Builds Up for War

Political opposition was quickly wiped outMid-1930s concentration camps were in operationBegan to undo the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles

Spanish Civil WarTrial war between fascism and communism1936 revolt against Spanish republican government to prevent reforms against the landownersFranco leads the Nationalists, asked for aid from Italy and GermanyLoyalists, supported by Russia and volunteer groups from US and EuropeWestern democracies remain neutral

Spain at WarWar lasted almost 3 yearsVicious cruelty on both sidesGerman and Italian air forces were used for merciless bombing of the cities occupied by the enemy1939 civil war ends with Nationalist victorySpain ruled by a dictator; 17 European nations of 27 total

Europe 1939League of Nations is powerless to enforce international law and agreementsGermany and Italy increasingly aggressive toward remaining democratic governmentsGermany and Russia sign a non-aggression pact in Aug 1939Great Britain and France only countries left to stop the Axis powers

Situation in Asia

Japan holds most of the eastern part of China; alliance with Axis powers sets upon Pacific islands and s. AsiaChina’s government under Sun Yat-sen unstable, problems with local warlords over control, made China vulnerable to Japanese advancementChinese turn to help from communist Russia in 1924, unify country under Chiang Kai-Shek

Situation in ChinaSplit develops between more radical and conservative members of the party1927, Civil War erupts between Nationalists and Chinese Communist partiesJapanese invade in 1931, move deep into Chinese territory by 1939League of Nations is powerless to stop the aggression

Modernist Period in Art and Lit

1900 – 1930New forms of the period included jazz, the motion picture, modern danceParis gained a renewed importance in art

Modernist Painting

Two important trends Figurative – the human body and

visual items form the basis for art Matisse Picasso

Non-figurative -- a rejection of the visual world Mondrian Kandinsky

Henry Matisse

1869 – 1954Used large brush strokes and thick paintPaintings show areas of strong, contrasting colors to create and sense of space and lightPicasso considered him his only rivalNear the end of his life he was confined to a wheelchair due to cancer

Portrait of Madame Matisse

1905Portrait of his wifeUses the colors to show vividness while expanding on the traditional portrait styleHas highly visible brush strokes

The Joy of Life

1905 – 1906Very optimistic and joyfulCombines his large brush strokes with flowing contours and colors

Beasts of the Sea

Completed near the end of his lifeWhen he was too weak to paint, he cut pieces of paper to form this workShows an underwater scene with fish and other creatures

Pablo Picasso

Not as joyful or optimistic as MatisseEarly paintings would show clowns, acrobats, etc. in a dreary wayInfluenced greatly by Cezanne and art of Africa and S. PacificTried to find the essence of his subjects rather than simply painting them.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Les Demoiselles d’AvignonShows influence of Cezanne and African artAfrican artists had own way of perceptionInfluences on perception: Perceive what we focus on What perceived depends upon length of

time we focus Manipulate the objects within our frame

of reference We perceive by filling in info based on

what we know

Picasso and BraqueFreed paintings from traditional dependence on form; worked together for about 4 yearsFlat canvas became an imaginary grid with squares of equal size: no more top, left, bottom, etc.: all directions importantRemoved all bright colors—colors can be emotionally powerfulEliminated the traditional 3D perspective: objects or fragments of objects could be placed anywhere on the canvas: backs and sides arranged at will

CubismGives us a construction, an arrangement of shapes, colors, textures, spaces, and weightsInvites us to participate in the process of seeing and knowingMakes viewer become more familiar with the formal qualities of painting: balance, harmony, texture, contrastEnjoy the painting for itself, not the subjectCalled cubist by a hostile critic who noted the facets or planes that intersect and seem cube-like

CollagesBraque and Picasso continue to experimentTry adding materials like sand, pasted paper, or rope to the canvas & paintingsCalled collages: pasting or gluing in FrenchGave humor and irony to art

Three MusiciansPicasso added color and simplified the grid for these early picturesSimple, vivid colors, intersecting forms of the musicians and their instruments create a rhythmic movement that echoes the beats of jazz

Guernica

GuernicaDepicts the horror of warDid not attempt to depict the bombing of the village itselfCreated images that evoke the terror and destruction of warWas kept at the Museum of Modern Art in NY until the elections of 1981, after Franco’s deathHangs now at an annex of the Prado

Nonobjective Painting

Wassily Kandinsky, Piet MondrianPaintings free of any reference to ordinary, familiar objects and activitiesArrangements of line and color“A new world” capable of speaking to our conscious and unconscious minds

Wassily KandinskySettled in Munich and began experimenting with paintingBelieved in the power of art to speak to the intellect and intuition of people without regard to the familiar objects of the material worldFelt western people had become desensitized by the materialism in society

Kandinsky’s Views on Art

Only by freeing painting from the material world could the painter respond to the unconscious, spiritual, and human longings.Would also create a more universally understood language.Built on Einstein’s theories of the relativity of time and space

Kandinsky:Composition #31(Sea Battle)

Expressionism

In Munich, Kandinsky formed group: Blue RiderMembers became known as expressionistsDrew on the powerful emotional quality of Van Gogh combined with the bold color and line of Gauguin and MatisseArt of self-expression and subjectivityDrew on Freud’s theories of the deep, hidden drives of humans

Mondrian and PurismGroup centered in HollandCelebrate the spirit of progress and humanity’s rational and reasonable sideStressed need for abstraction and simplicity, clarity, certainty, and orderLed by Piet MondrianRemoved all references to the familiar visual wordConcentrated on the “pure” reality of the formal, plastic elements of art

Mondrian’s views on art

Confined his canvasses to a linear black grid imposed on a white groundUsed red, yellow, or blue: primary colorsCreated contrasts that were resolved in harmonious balanceComposition with Red, Blue, and Yellow

Dada1915 group in Zurich, Switzerland meet to create a movement that sought the fantastic and absurd in art, literature, and musicLife is random and uncontrolled: so is artConcerned most with poetry and musicMarcel Duchamp—artist most representative of this: Nude Descending a Staircase

Marcel Duchamp:Nude Descendinga Staircase,No. 2

Nude Descending a Staircase, #2

Expressive image of a figure walking down the stairsDuchamp saw painting as a process, doomed to endWould reduce his subject to the components of a fantastic machineChose everyday objects, even a urinal

Art After WWI--Surrealism

1915, New York becomes new centerStieglitz’s 1921 galleryWork there would define surrealismWriter Andre Breton identified the unconscious mind as the source for a combination of the unpleasant concrete world with the world of dreams and fantasyGoal was to free creativity to respond to this conflict between the rational and irrational

Techniques of Surrealism

CollageAutomatic drawingPhotographic montage of imagesResults are a dreamlike or hallucinatory juxtaposition of images and objectsStimulates free association and intense emotional responses

Marcel Duchamp:Bride Stripped BareBy Her Bachelors, Even

Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even

Main example of surrealist workOver years, accumulated images that he transferred to a sheet of plate glass where dust, allowed to collect, had been glued into placeThe frame, cracks in the glass, also part of the workImages reflect the mechanization of persons and the sexual act

Influences of Surrealism

Other artists learned from surrealist techniques how to contradict the familiar view of reality and expressed in other art forms: Sculpture Graphic arts Poetry Motion pictures

Salvador DalíSpanish surrealist artistDescribed his art as visionary reality created from visions, dreams, and memories with pathological or psychological distortionsHis work depended on the free association of imagesTook familiar objects and either multiplied them obsessively, or fragmented and distorted themCreated a frightening sense of reality in harsh, intense, and luminescent colors

Painted in 1931, displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, NYOne of the most famous paintings of this periodShows watches collapsing, twisting, melting, and decayingDalí was famous in the US, designed jewelry, theatrical sets, set for Alfred Hitchcock film

The Persistence of Memory

Modern SculptureConstantin Brancusi: Romanian work parallels the cubists more than influenced by itWanted to reduce forms to their barest essentialsBird in Space 1924: reduced to the bird’s wing, its power and gracefulnessPolished chrome appeals to our tactile senses

Constantin Brancusi:Bird in Space 1924

More Modern SculptureJacques Lipchitz: contrasts to Brancusi’s workMore directly influenced by the cubist paintersMade low reliefs in stone similar to paintings and collages of PicassoFigure 1926-30, suggest totemic power of African figures, but juxtaposes side and frontal views that occurs when moving around the figure

Modern Painting in USMost American artists were hostile to the art of Paris, Munich, and Berlin“Ashcan school” remained loyal to the work of Thomas Eakins: more reportorial and concerned with life and times of the cityJohn Sloan: took subject matter from the ordinary, the poor, the immigrantsSunday, Women Drying Their Hair displays this attention to city life

Steiglitz and Georgia O’Keefe

Married to Stieglitz, a photographer who owned a gallery on 5th Ave. and helped promote modern artActive as a painter until the 1970sAssociated with scenes of the American SW and objects like flowers that occupy the entire canvasDidn’t receive the critical status deserved, art seen as “women’s art” and not as important

Georgia O’Keefe:Red, White andBlue

Modern Architecture—Frank Lloyd Wright

Pupil of Louis Sullivan, Chicago architect who designed skyscrapersCreated single-family dwellingsUnusual homes that were suited to the family, site, and needs of community: Early homes in Oak Park, IllinoisAnother example is the Robie House

Prairie Style HomesEconomical to buildDependent on use of wood, glass, brick, and stuccoMade for owners neither eccentric or richFamilies loved them

DesignWhen he created a home designed the furniture, linens and plates to go into the homeAll were designed to meet the needs of the family and the site the home is onHome is part of the land itselfCombined the best of both worlds: technology and the machine, people and their imagination

Falling Water

Home built on a river in Pennsylvania

A New Art FormPhotography: discovered in France in 1830sCourbet, Degas, Eakins, all used photographs as an inspiration for their paintingsBy 20th century had become its own art formEdward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz are the 2 most influential in developing the art form

PhotographyPhotographers took their own pictures and developed their own film to control many variables in photography

Stieglitz showed photography at his 291 gallery with paintings and sculptureHe and Steichen chose subjects from everyday life, and memorable portraits of friends and notables

Dorothea LangeWith the Great Depression, photographers like her traveled through the rural South and Midwest for the Farm Security Administration documenting the devastated farm economyTook pictures of the migrant workers and their living conditions displaced by the Dust Bowl

Dorothea Lange:Migrant Mother

Ansel Adams

Photographers in California formed a group called F/64Ansel Adams was a member of this groupFamous for photographs of the American WestMany of his photographs are of Yosemite National Park sites

Ansel Adams:Bridal Veil Falls

Motion PicturesThe second art form to emerge from this centuryCultural form of recorded memoryNew technology and sound recording made ability to save words and images, with actions, sights, and soundsEvolved from film clips to shorts to silent movies

Early Movie Stars

Charlie Chaplin Silent film star His characters are baffled by modern

civilization—comic hero for the time

Orson Welles Director and actor Famous for Citizen Kane War of the Worlds radio broadcast

Pictures of Welles & Chaplin

Motion PicturesPresents an entire drama, comparable to theater—playRecording a play on film creates a permanent and reproducible record, also allows for montage, or editing, can remove and replace sequencesDisadvantage is the sense of immediacy is lost and the communication between the performance and the audience is gone

Modern Music—Igor Stravinsky

Represents a main factor in the revolution of Classical musicRussian composer worked with ballet dancer & choreographer DiaghilevSt. Petersburg now becomes main center for balletPublic is very angry at the ballet of Rite of Spring—riot starts

Rite of SpringStravinsky was inspired by his native land of Russia, folklore traditions, & violent Russian spring timeSubject of the ballet was the ritual of human sacrifice to appease the angry gods in spring; 2 parts: Adoration of the Earth The Sacrifice

Differences from beforeUsed strange chordsMusic played very LOUDIrregular and jagged rhythmsNo sing-able melodiesBassoon played “too high”Discards harmony, melody, & rhythm

Why?Not ignorant—well trained in the classicsConscious decision of a masterChanges in values demand changes in artistic expressionHis irregular series of pulses and changing meters are similar to jazz rhythms

Modern Dance—Isadora Duncan

American womanDesigned a new approach to danceWanted to free dance from restrictions of steps, poses & attitudesUsed her native California for her inspiration

Modern Dance Innovators

Share desire for freedom of expressionExperimental attitude towards use of elements like space, texture, & timeNeed to return to primitive modes of expressionAll of these are the same as other modern innovators in art, music, poetry, etc.

Other Leaders in Dance

Ruth St. Denis & Louis HorstSought to recapture primitive expressivity of the body Stress relationship between dance and religion

Modern Dance vs. Ballet

No traditional steps, no en pointe, no tulle costumesWomen portrayed as earthy, passionate, and complexMartha Graham important in thisDeveloped a technique of contraction and release of the muscles