Poetry and Poetics

ENG 531Modernism and the Visual

ArtsDr. Pizzetta

Modernism and the Visual Arts

Poets inspired by artistic movements like Cubism, Dada, and Futurism

• William Carlos Williams• Wallace Stevens• Mina Loy• Gertrude Stein• Hart Crane• Marianne Moore

Influences of modern visual arts on poetry

• Insists that meaning be subordinated to technique (“Tender Buttons”)

• Derives, sums up, or challenges earlier stylistic developments

• Lays stylistic foundations for the next step, artist, or period

• Is self-referential• Emphasizes imagery, especially

visual imagery

Modernism and the Visual Arts

Cubism• Cubism was developed between about 1907

and 1912 in a collaboration between Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Their main influences are said to have been Tribal Art (although Braque later disputed this) and the work of Paul Cezanne. The movement itself was not long-lived or widespread, but it began an immense creative explosion which resonated through all of 20th century art.

• Both types of cubism were developed jointly by both Picasso and Braque. During the two artists' time of collaboration from 1907, their styles intermingled and they painted the same subjects, making their works at times closely resemble each other.

Cubism

• The key concept underlying Cubism is that the essence of an object can only be captured by showing it from multiple points of view simultaneously.

• Cubism had run its course by the end of World War I, but among the movements directly influenced by it were Orphism, Precisionism, Futurism, Purism, Constructivism, and, to some degree, Expressionism.

Cubism

• There are two main types of cubism, analytical cubism and synthetic cubism. Analytical cubism was the first to be invented, and can often appear quite complex and abstract, with dark, almost monochromatic earth-toned colours. Synthetic cubism was simpler and more colorful, and often made use of collage including the use of several two-dimensional materials.

Cubism

Les Demoiselles de Avignon, 1907Pablo Picasso

Analytical Cubism

Cubism

Analytical Cubism

Georges Braque

Violin

Cubism

Analytical Cubism

The Guitar Player, 1910Pablo Picasso

Cubism

Guitar, Sheet Music and Glass 1912Pablo Picasso

Synthetic Cubism

CubismBraque Duchamps

CubismPicasso

Cubism and Architecture

Falling WaterBuilt 1935Frank Lloyd Wright

Dada

Dada is an early twentieth century art movement that-

• ridiculed contemporary culture and traditional art forms,

• was formed to prove the bankruptcy of existing style of artistic expression rather than to promote a particular style itself,

• was born as a consequence of the collapse during World War I of social and moral values which had developed to that time, and

• produced works which were nihilistic or reflected a cynical attitude toward social values, and, at the same time, irrational — absurd and playful, emotive and intuitive, and often cryptic.

Dada

• Less a style than a zeitgeist, Dadaists typically produced art objects in unconventional forms produced by unconventional methods. Several artists employed the chance results of accident as a means of production, for instance.

• Literally, the word dada means several things in several languages: it's French for "hobbyhorse" and Slavic for "yes yes." Some authorities say that the name Dada is a nonsensical word chosen at random from a dictionary.

• Many artists associated with this movement later became associated with Surrealism. Many other movements have been influenced by Dada, including Pop Art and Fluxus.

DadaFountain, 1917Marcel Duchamp

Bicycle Wheel, 1913Marcel Duchamp

DadaDada Movement, 1919Francis Picabia

DadaDada Head, 1918-19Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Return to Reason, 1921Man Ray

Futurism• Began with manifesto published by the poet Filippo Marinetti on

the front page of the February 20, 1909, issue of Le Figaro.

• Major principles of the Futurists: Celebration of the technological, future era. The car, the plane, the industrial town represented the motion in modern life and the technological triumph of man over nature.

• The use of modern materials and technique, were taken up later by Marcel Duchamp, cubists, constructivist, and dadaist.

• Futurism was inspired by the development of Cubism.

• In painting the rhythm of repetitions of lines, breaking motion into small sequences and using a wide range of angles within a given time-frame aimed to incorporate the dimension of time in the picture.

• Brilliant colors and flowing brush strokes also created the illusion of movement. Futurism influenced many other art movements, including Art Deco, Vorticism, Constructivism and Surrealism.

Futurism

  Wladimir Burliuk, Portrait of Velemir Khlebnikov, 1913

The cover of the last edition of BLAST, journal of the British Vorticist movement, a movement heavily influenced by futurism.

Futurism

  A perspective drawing by Sant'Elia, 1914

Abstract Speed + Sound by Giacomo Balla.