HUMAN EMOTION IN MODERN ART

Our presentation is intended to reveal both human emotion and modernist elements within the most representative art domains, namely painting, architecture, music, photography and dance. Moreover, emotion is transposed by means of distinctive methods, such as motionless frames in painting, architecture and photography or sound frequencies and rhythmical vibration in music and dance. In addition to this, we also encounter unity in diversity, due to the multiple languages used by the creators: language of colour, sound and motion.

OVERALL PERSPECTIVE

“Every jest is an earnest in the womb of time”. (The Quintessence of Ibsenism - George Bernard Shaw)

Irrespective of its being Renaissance, Enlightenment, Classicism, Romanticism, Victorianism or Modernism, art is permanently caught in between tradition-innovation, acceptance-rejection. The idea of change is initially perceived as a joke, being laughed at or even unconsidered, but eventually it is rendered conventional and accepted as the norm. Consequently, today’s renewal will undeniably become tomorrow’s tradition.

MODERNIST ART

Modernist art started as an experiment, because it questioned all things, tackled taboo subjects, such as reality, conflicts and social issues. At the same time, the artistic faith was conceived as the artist’s duty to express himself, to create himself an identity, succeeding in plunging as deep as possible into human emotion with a view to offering a path to essence, a spiritual reality beyond appearance.

“A work of art can only come from the interior of man. Art is the form of the image formed upon the nerves,

heart, brain and eye of man.” (Edvard Munch)

In a modern world, where art is no longer a mirror of reality, but a construct of the mind, achieved by means of “nerves…brain and eye of man”, emotion “heart” comes to complete the whole creative endeavour rendering a totally new and deeper meaning to the creation. Taking into account that each and every person is a unique entity, whose essence lies in one’s inner impulse, an art producer may convey a meaning which becomes relative, due to the fact that the receiver may interpret it in many different ways according to one’s own perception.

     

“There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.” (Arnold Bennett)

HUMAN EMOTION IN MODERNIST PAINTING

In as much as painting is concerned, we should enlarge upon modernist features and highlight the main artistic currents (impressionism, post-impressionism, expressionism, modern style, cubism, futurism, surrealism) that overshadowed the artistic period between the 19th century and the 20th century.

IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING

Regarding the impressionist movement, we should mention as its most representative features the tendency to break the rules and to use colours which give the impression of melting into each other, along with creating works which looked unfinished or unpolished. The impressionists approached subjects found in real life, trying to capture the invisible from the visible, therefore providing an original vision.

“Camille Monet, sur son lit de mort” (Claude Monet, 1879, oil on canvas)

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. To such an extent indeed that one day, finding myself at the deathbed of a woman who had been and still was very dear to me, I caught myself in the act of focusing on her temples and automatically analyzing the succession of appropriately graded colors which death was imposing on her motionless face.“ (Claude Monet)

In his attempt to nourish his profound artistic passion, Monet succeeds in seeing, even in the death of his beloved, an opportunity to capture the impossible in an artistic creation that aims to seize the remaining moments of life. Therefore, the art of creation goes beyond any human power of understanding. Approaching the death subject, his painting reveals contradictory feelings, joy of fulfilling his artistic faith and torment of mourning the person he deeply loves. This aspect is further enhanced by his technique of using certain colours, such as grey, blue, white and black. Grey suggests desolation and depression, while blue nuances evoke opposing inner states: sadness and artistic fulfilment. The non-colours, white and black, may allude the idea of purity in love and the darkness of immanent separation. Consequently, the invisible (deep and profound love) becomes visible in the act of creation (the dead woman’s face).

“Femme à l’ombrelle tournée vers la droite” (Claude Monet, 1886)

“Paint what you really see, not what you think you ought to see; not the object isolated as in a test tube, but the object enveloped in sunlight and atmosphere, with the blue dome of Heaven reflected in the shadows.” (Claude Monet)

The painter filters reality through his own consciousness, enveloping the creation in subjectivity, in order to emphasize his own artistic standpoint. This painting presents a subject found in real life, in the middle of nature and the focus is not put on the individual’s face, but on the scenery as a whole. Nature witnesses and reflects the woman’s inner turmoil and this is made visible by means of the wind blowing, clouds moving and flowers blossoming which suggest the idea of change and uncertainty regarding the future.

The shadows which veil her face transmit a possible loss of identity or the artist’s interest in revealing her inner thoughts. On the opposite, the sunlight creates an atmosphere of serenity and divine protection.

“Psyché” (Berthe Morisot, 1876)

“The paintings and sculptures are but mere reflection of the inner spirit. How can we ever come close?” (Berthe Morisot)

The emotion of the inner universe is perceived on the girl’s face, through the medium of a material device, the mirror, and transmitted to the viewer as a double introspection in the human soul.

The title is significant, because it points to the psychological turmoil inside the human personality and to the human hidden nature. The artist’s canvas transposes, to the eyes of the receiver, the abyss of the human mind (the unconsciousness) by “mere reflections of the inner spirit”.

Her rhetorical question is open to multiple perspectives, having at its core the effort of the artist, in general, to render an insight into the complexity of the human mind.

POST-IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING

Post-impressionism appears as a reaction against Impressionism and its artistic creed has as its main core the desire to unveil the unknown, to reach abstraction and to give the artist the possibility of aspiring to inner depth.

“Champs de blé aux corbeaux” (Vincent van Gogh, 1890)

“In both figure and landscape … I want to get to the point where people say of my work: that man feels deeply, that man feels keenly.” (Vincent van Gogh)

Van Gogh’s ambition is to make the receiver feel that his works of art are pieces of the author himself. The paintings are imbued with vivid emotion that trespasses the canvas touching the viewer’s heart.

The symbolism of colour in Vincent van Gogh’s artistic creations is fundamental. At this level, we may distinguish two main plans: that of cold colours (dark blue, black and dark grey) and that of warm colours (different yellow nuances). The former may suggest sadness, damnation, desolation and eventually death. The latter may be associated with God and divine light, while the three paths, going practically nowhere, imply the uncertainty of life and the difficulty of making the right choice. The crows connect the two worlds, symbolizing evil predictions, death approaching.

EXPRESSIONIST PAINTING

The expressionist current focuses on language, as means of expressing emotion at its deepest level. Moreover, the technique adopted by the Expressionists consists of aggressive colours and deformed shapes, aiming at finding a consensus.

“Two nudes (Lovers)”(Oskar Kokoschka, 1913)

“The life of the consciousness is boundless. It interpenetrates the world and is woven in all its imagery... Therefore, we must hearken closely to our inner voice.” (Oskar Kokoschka)

Kokoschka’s painting tries to reveal the unconscious drives of a couple of lovers and we are presented with the return to the primordial origins where the lovers seem to be engaged in a process of achieving primal unity. Moreover, they can be perceived as the Adam-Eve primordial couple, after being banished from the Eden garden. They are overwhelmed with remorse, fear and desire of redemption.

In as much as the colours are concerned, they appear aggressive creating a veil around the pair, expressing deep emotion at the level of the unconsciousness.

Taking everything into consideration, the advice of the artist himself is always, when painting, to follow his inner voice, namely to reflect a truth of his own personal thinking, his own true self.

MODERN STYLE

Modern style is a highly decorative and aesthetic trend, making use of various expressive materials.

“Lovers Embracing About to Engage in a Passionate Kiss ”(Gustav Klimt, 1895)

“Whoever wants to know something about me – as an artist which alone is significant – they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognize what I am and what I want.” (Gustav Klimt)

The work of art is the most representative for an artist, as

he is exquisitely expressed through it. Its highly decorative feature is represented by the use of the special frame with roses which makes the painting even more original.

The love of the couple is shadowed by the dark sides of the human soul which are embodied by the images behind the two lovers, namely phantoms, skeletons, dead people, revealing different stages of the woman’s inner spirit. On the other hand, they may suggest the dangers that could shade upon their affective relationship.

CUBIST PAINTING

Cubism challenged perception by its choice of monochromatic colours and dismantling form emphasizing thus an intellectual rethinking of art. Multiplication of angles of vision is by far the innovation brought to the fore by the cubists, presenting a multifaceted reality, praising a geometrical form. Cubism may be the object of many disapprovals, rendering the works highly abstract and fragmented. In addition to this, the cubist experimental tendency reveals itself once more in the so-called technique of collage.

“Weeping Woman”(Pablo Picasso, 1937)

“What I want is that my picture should evoke nothing but emotion.” (Pablo Picasso)

As the quotation reveals, Picasso’s art is oriented towards showing emotion, by a truly innovative technique (geometrical shapes) which is meant to have a strong impact upon the viewer, whose role is to provide a meaning to the artistic representation.

“Weeping Woman”, the chosen painting, confirms the cubist method and the intended multidimensional perspective. Abstraction and fragmentariness are the main striking devices whose main objective is to challenge our perception. Regarding the emotional charge, the painting consists of an overflow of feelings imprinted on the woman’s face such as: despair, fear, compassion, suffering. The strong colours enhance once again the feeling of guilt and sacrifice (red), sadness (blue), sickness or hope of redemption (green).

FUTURIST PAINTING

Futurism, as opposed to cubism, brings to the viewer’s eye dynamic images, by drawing on the impressive strength of perception and memory. Emotive expression finds itself as primary in their creative process.

“States of Mind I – Those Who Leave” (Umberto Boccioni, 1911)

“There is neither painting, nor sculpture, nor music, nor poetry. The only truth is creation.” (Umberto Boccioni)

The author states that, even though the artistic language differs, they find unity in the act of creation, highlighting one of the modernist predominant features, unity in diversity.

As the title depicts, the creation wants to capture the various states of the human mind, being it conscious or unconscious. The turmoil at the level of the mind is presented as an atmosphere of a general colour storm. Colours melt into each other in the attempt to play upon the viewer’s expectations and to capture different parts of the mind. The vivid colours add dynamism to the painting, expressing a feeling of anxiety and confusion.

SURREALIST PAINTING

Surrealism exploits the fusion of dream and reality, expressing high degree of psycho-pathology. Their works reveal psychic automatism in its pure state, the viewer being bestowed the opportunity to face a spontaneous creation. The surrealist obsession with time and duration discloses the opposition between chronological and personal time.

“Remorse or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand”(Salvador Dali, 1931)

“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” (Salvador Dali)

Surrealists are highly innovative, bringing a new vision to the fore. Their aim is to reveal the essence and to leave aside the constraints which limit our imagination.

The painting selected projects us in a world of dream which is always hunted by the harsh reality, suggested by the sharp rocks. The emotion which detaches from this work of art is helplessness, impossibility to escape the inner turmoil and, as the title suggests, remorse.

The reflection on the sand may refer to the unconscious state and its unpredictability.

HUMAN EMOTION IN MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE

GENERAL ASPECTS

Modernist architecture (Modern Style) combines the functional and the aesthetic obtaining an overall harmony. In addition to this, new techniques and materials are used due to the technological innovation, acquiring an international style, easy recognizable and intended to cross boundaries.

As far as the technique employed is concerned, it reveals itself as decorative, using curvilinear designs.

Another feature consists in the combination of faith in improvements of industrial society and rejection of stylistic eclecticism. Modernist architecture is characterized by the presence of exotic trends, the regional tradition not being sacrificed.

The Art Deco movement further brings into attention the desire to make art organic, using soft curves, angular shapes, free fluid forms, thus developing a strict symmetrical style.

“Architecture can't fully represent the chaos and turmoil that are part of the human personality, but you need to put some of that turmoil into the architecture, or it isn't real.” (Frank Stella, an American painter and printmaker, a significant figure in minimalism and post-painterly abstraction)

Being a human creation, the architectural achievement has to be always a reflection of the human personality. The human nature finds itself integrated in the spatial surroundings, and it automatically animates the living space.

Further on, we will enlarge upon the works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Louis Comfort Tiffany, trying to enhance the cooperation between human feelings and geometrical shapes in interior design. Comfort, serenity, vividness are some of the sentiments distinguished when seeing a Mackintosh or a Tiffany work of art.

Mackintosh White Wooden Chairs with furnished seat

Mackintosh Chairs (ash wood chair with furnished seat, cushion chair and wooden chair at Orsay Museum, France )

Mackintosh Style Coffee Table in Canadian Hard Maple with Mahogany inlaid squares and Mackintosh round table (1904) named after The Glasgow School of Art. Circular revolving “Lady Susan” centre section can be adjusted up to one inch in height, by means of a hidden lever, ash wood stained black and ash wood stained walnut.

Mackintosh Stained Glass Windows (I. Moonshine Leaded Lights), Redhouse Farm, Whitley Bay, England.

Mackintosh Stained Glass Windows (Rose and Stained Glass Window from Hill House writing cabinet, Glasgow, Scotland)

Tiffany’s Lamps (Dragon Floor lamp, Library lamp, Water-lily table lamp)

“A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.” (F. Lloyd Wright)

Organic architecture developed as a response to rationalism, praising emotiveness in the artistic process. The architect should be an artist that should follow his/her inner path and not give birth to a mere copy of every day reality.

The Art Deco creators try to achieve a harmonious synthesis of the work of art blending natural elements with artificial materials (developed due to technological innovations).

This feature is vividly embodied in the architectural works of F. Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, whose main concern was directed towards the exterior design.

Villa "Le Lac" in Corseaux, Switzerland, called the "Petit Maison" by Le Corbusier for his relatives in 1923 (a view from the garden towards the lake).

Cedar Rock House, in Kentuck Knob, near Pittsburgh

Rock House

HUMAN EMOTION IN MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY

“I prefer to photograph people and try to capture an emotion which can be universally understood. Photography is the language I use to translate other cultures.” (Tina Manley – photographer specialized in documentary photography of families )

Photography is a modernist innovation par excellence which, even though a still frame, succeeds in capturing the genuine essence of the human soul. It is endowed with an universally understood language, expressing emotions felt by each and every individual, irrespective of the cultural identity.

Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand and Man Ray are some of the most representative photography artists and we will have an insight into their emotive expression.

Equivalent (Alfred Stieglitz, 1929)

Hands of Georgia O’Keefe (Alfred Stieglitz)

"I wanted to photograph clouds to find out what I had learned in forty years about photography. Through clouds to put down my philosophy of life – to show that (the success of) my photographs (was) not due to subject matter – not to special trees or faces, or interiors, to special privileges – clouds were there for everyone…" (Alfred Stieglitz, "How I came to Photograph Clouds". Amateur Photographer and Photography)

Stieglitz is known by his passion for capturing the impossible by photographing clouds which reveal the calmness or chaos of the human sensations. His secret lies in the fact that he acquires during his experience in photography a philosophy of life, meaning seeing in simple and taken for granted things something worth to be transposed in an artistic manner.

The two previous photos reveal different aspects of the human inner flow of emotions, namely the darken clouds that predict a terrible storm may testify eternal unrest and the lead burdens of life, while the contorted hands express anger, suffering, despair or incapacity to change destiny.

Blind Woman (Paul Strand, 1917)

Silver Lining of the Blackout, Portsmouth (Paul Strand)

“I like to photograph people who have strength and dignity in their faces; whatever life has done to them, it hasn't destroyed them. I gravitate towards people like that.” - Paul Strand

As subjects of his artistic creation, Paul Strand decides to probe deep into the nature of things and of the individual, sustaining strongly his interest in seizing all stages of the human condition.

The “Blind Woman” photography, with its protagonist who, in spite of her poor condition and of her disability, succeeds in transmitting on the viewer human dignity and the power to overcome the difficulties of life, provoking a deep impression and a strong feeling of compassion. Whereas, in the other picture, the artist exploits the light effects, capturing the essence of a moonlight landscape. Melancholy embraces the art lover in his/her pursuit for a deeper meaning.

Prayer (Man Ray, 1930)

Jacqueline Goddard (Man Ray, 1930)

“I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence.” (Man Ray, Interview in Camera - Paris; reprinted in "Man Ray: Photographer", ed. by Philippe Sers, 1981).

This quotation emphasizes the main difference which could be outlined between photography and painting. The former is endowed with life and it is spontaneous and intense, while the latter has, as its main source of inspiration, the complex human inner world. Nonetheless, they are both striving to reveal genuine human emotions, despite the language selected.

The artist surprises a moment of deep emotion: when driven by the inner desire of praying, the individual returns to the primordial state of being, engaged in a completely humble and submissive behaviour. Nudity may suggest the nakedness of the body, as well as the bareness of the soul in front of Divinity. In addition to this, the body of the woman may lead to the idea of primordial force, of source of life, giving the impression of a foetus in a womb.

Achieved by means of a special technique, the technique of photograms, the photo reveals a woman’s silhouette. The woman appears to be deprived of identity, as the features of her entire body are not clearly distinguished by an external instance. The picture resembles a foggy night, where the moon is embodied by the woman who may offer a glimpse into the maze of the human mind, into the unconsciousness. Unexpectedly, the obscurity and confusion diffused by the picture give the impression of transparency of the human mind and, at the same time, they ease the viewer’s attempt to probe deep into the unknown of the human universe.

As an overall view, the modernist photography succeeded in rendering as fairly as possible, feelings and emotions that were transmitted until then, only by means of painting: joy, suffering, anger, fear, as well as melancholy or despair. Both of them have been exploited widely, so as to render possible the impossible, to reveal the unseen from the seen and to capture the human complexity. The renewal regarding photography consists in the fact that it has the capacity to surprise unique moments of our lives and another aspect, which is worth mentioning, is the fact that, even though it is a motionless frame, it still preserves the vivacity of the initial moment.

HUMAN EMOTION IN MODERNIST MUSIC

“Jazz is the vernacular of the human soul.” (Geoffrey Latham, an

American writer, photographer and musician)

Art uses different types of languages in order to express its artistic creed. In as much as music is concerned, its language is the genuine vernacular of the human soul, as emotion is woven deep in its structure, both in its rhythm and vibration. The musician transposes into words and sound his/her own heart beats echoing in the listener’s ears and heart.

GENERAL OUTLOOK

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form, which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. The style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.

As with many words that began in slang, there is no definitive etymology for jazz. However, the similarity in meaning of the earliest jazz citations to jasm, a now-obsolete slang term meaning spirit, energy, vigour and dated to 1860 in the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, suggests that jasm should be considered the leading candidate for the source of jazz. Other proposed origins include French jaser, meaning to chatter or chat, and French chasser, meaning to chase or hunt. Although they cannot be ruled out absolutely, such derivations lack empirical supporting evidence and must be considered provisional.

Early blues was commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern, a common element in the African American oral tradition. A form of folk music which rose in part from work songs and field hollers of rural Blacks, early blues was also highly improvisational. While in European classical music elements of interpretation, ornamentation and accompaniment are sometimes left to the performer's discretion, the performer's primary goal is to play a composition as it was written.

As the music has spread around the world, it has drawn on local national and regional musical cultures, its aesthetics being adapted to its varied environments and giving rise to many distinctive styles.

MAIN JAZZ STYLES

In New Orleans and Dixieland jazz, performers took turns playing the melody, while others improvised countermelodies. Some of the representative figures of this jazz trend were W. C. Handy and Louis Armstrong. By the swing era, big bands were coming to rely more on arranged music: arrangements were either written or learned by ear and memorized - many early jazz performers could not read music. Individual soloists would improvise within these arrangements. Although it was a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to 'solo' and improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very complex and 'important' music. Here the most striking figures were Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.

Later, in bebop, the focus shifted back towards small groups and minimal arrangements; the melody (known as the "head") would be stated briefly at the start and end of a piece, but the core of the performance would be the series of improvisations in the middle. Some of the representatives were Thelonious Monk (pianist) and Lester Young. Later styles of jazz, such as modal jazz abandoned the strict notion of a chord progression, allowing the individual musicians to improvise even more freely within the context of a given scale or mode. John Coltrane was one of the innovators in the domain. The avant-garde and free jazz idioms permit, even call for, abandoning chords, scales, and rhythmic meters. Keith Jarrett has been prominent in defending free jazz from criticism by traditionalists in the 1990s and 2000s. In the early 1980s, a lighter commercial form of jazz fusion called pop fusion or "smooth jazz" became successful and garnered significant radio airplay. Smooth jazz saxophonists include Grover Washington, Jr., Kenny G, Najee and Michael Lington.

“Jazz is a feeling, more than anything else. It isn't music, it’s language...” (Enos Payne, an American pianist and educator)

The cradle of jazz music is located deep inside the musician, where it ceases to be just music and it becomes the language of the soul, transmitting to the listener the inner feelings of the producer. Emotion is once more present in the act of creation, as well as in the act of interpretation. Taking everything into consideration, we may therefore say that jazz is timeless, as it is the language of the soul.

HUMAN EMOTION IN MODERNIST DANCE

"A shot can show you only one gesture, which is like hearing only one

note of a piece of music, or one word of a poem. The more painstaking the photograph, the more pointless the effect. You don't see the change in the movement, so you don't see the rhythm, which makes dancing. The picture represents a dancer, but it doesn't give the emotion that dancing gives you as you watch it."- Anonymous

As well as photography and painting, dance tries to express feelings, states of mind or even glimpses of an inner force. Painters, such as Degas with “The Dance Hall” or Renoir with “Dancing Pair”, attempt and succeed in seizing movements of the body which expressed intensely woven sensations and memorable feelings. Their interest in movement is brought to the fore, because the dance transforms itself into a form of expressing feelings and emotions. Therefore, if the painting succeeds in capturing one defining moment to transpose a feeling, the dance by means of its vivacity, rhythm and succession of movements is characteristic to a myriad of sensations and emotions developed during an entire dance.

The Dance Hall (Edgar Degas) and Dancing Pair (Pierre Auguste Renoir)

“I use dancing to embellish, extend or enlarge upon an existing emotion.” (Gower Champion, an American Theatre Director, choreographer and dancer)

Ballet is a type of performative dance, which was first encountered at the French courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, developing later on in England, Italy and Russia. Its name has the origins in Italian “balletto”, a diminutive of “ballo” which means “dance”. It is best known in the form of Late Romantic Ballet Blanc, a ballet in the romantic style and often considered the pure classical form of ballet. This name refers to the scenes in which the ballerina and the female corps of ballet all wear white, the traditional mid-calf length white tutu. “Les Sylphides” is an act romantic reverie, non-narrative ballet blanc, whose main character, the poet, dances with ghostly sylphs (nymphs, fairies) in a forest. Mikhail Fokine is the driving force behind the project, which evolve from a single number, Moonlight Vision, in 1907, growing to a larger work called Danse sur la musique de Chopin the following year, and finally expanding in 1909 to Chopiniana, the completed ballet's initial title.

It is one of the first plotless ballets ever presented in Europe and it was a great success. Fokine uses a number of celebrated orchestrators in fashioning Les Sylphides, including Taneyev, Lyadov, Glazunov, Tcherepnin and Stravinsky.

“Ballet is not technique but a way of expression that comes more closely to the inner language of man than any other.” (“That Thing

Called Ballet”, George Borodin, a Russian writer)

Dance is certainly a form of art that completes its nature by communicating non-verbally different spiritual states, beyond the potential constraints imposed by any technique adopted. Dance reveals an “inner language” brought to life by means of motion and soft gestures arouse from the human inner world, be it joy, anger, passion or freedom. A true dancer will always create, by means of his dance, a strong impression on the viewer, due to the fact that he/she transmits, by the ‘technique’ employed, inner states. In addition to this, the dancer is engaged in a permanent exchange of emotions with the audience.

OVERALL CONCLUSION

To conclude, our virtual tour through significant artistic branches aimed at revealing both modernist renewals and emotive expressions of the art creator. We all know that the modernist artistic creation praised the bond between the art producer and the art receiver to assign new meanings to the work of art. Therefore, we warmly invite you to craft your own meaning (s).