MODERNISM “Modernism released us from the constraints of everything that had gone before with a euphoric sense of freedom. ” Arthur Erickson “War is the highest form of modern art.” Tommaso Marinetti, founder of Futurism “In general, modern art... has been inspired by a natural desire to chart the uncharted.” Herbert Read “On or about December 1910, human character changed….” Virginia Woolf “Modern music is as dangerous as cocaine.” Pietro Mascagni “The impulse of modern art is the desire to destroy beauty. ” Barnett Newman “And yet what is Modernism? It is undefined. ” John C. Ransom Science: An Indeterminate Universe Quantum Physics – Max Planck Energy is not continuous, but comes in small but discrete units. The elementary particles behave both like particles and like waves. The movement of these particles is inherently random. 3 Principle of Uncertainty – Werner Heisenberg It is physically impossible to know both the position and the momentum of a particle at the same time. Theory of Relativity – Albert Einstein E=mc2 Energy = mass x speed of light squared Psychology: Whither the Self? Sigmund Freud Karl Jung Psychoanalysis and Dream Analysis – the Unconscious Mind Psyche: o Collective Unconscious o Psyche: Id Ego Superego Oedipal Complex Repression and Sublimation Civilization and Its Discontents o Persona o Animus/Anima o Shadow o Archetypes: primal patterns o o o o The Hero The Trickster The Great Mother The Sage o Myth, dreams, folklore Motifs and Movements Fragmentation: Cubism Precision: Imagism Speed: Futurism Alienation/Angst: Expressionism Color: Fauvism Technology: Constructivism Functionalism: Bauhaus/International Style Protest/Propaganda: Social Realism Chaos/Irrationality: Dadaism The Subconscious: Surrealism Form: Abstraction Fragmentation: C U B I S M Georges Bracque Woman with a Guitar, 1913 Juan Gris, Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1919 Primitivism: African Influences Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 Poetry: Imagism Discordant Abstract Open Verse Imagists: Ezra Pound Amy Lowell H.D. Heat by H. D. O wind, rend open the heat, cut apart the heat, rend it to tatters. Fruit cannot drop through this thick air– fruit cannot fall into heat that presses up and blunts the points of pears and rounds the grapes. Cut the heat– plough through it, turning it on either side of your path. Imagism “It is essential to prove that beauty may be in small, dry things. The great aim is accurate, precise and definite description.” – T.E. Hulme IN A STATION OF THE METRO The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet black bough. Ezra Pound William Carlos Williams “The Great Figure” Among the rain and lights I saw the figure 5 in gold on a red fire truck moving tense unheeded to gong clangs siren howls and wheels rumbling through the dark city Charles Henry Demuth (18831935), I Saw the Figure Five in Gold Speed: Futurism “The cry of rebellion which we utter associates our ideals with those of the Futurist poets. These ideas were not invented by some aesthetic clique. They are an expression of a violent desire, which burns in the veins of every creative artist today. ... We will fight with all our might the fanatical, senseless and snobbish religion of the past, a religion encouraged by the vicious existence of museums. We rebel against that spineless worshipping of old canvases, old statues and old bric-a-brac, against everything which is filthy and worm-ridden and corroded by time. We consider the habitual contempt for everything which is young, new and burning with life to be unjust and even criminal.” Filippo Tomaso Marinetti, The Futurist Manifesto, 1909 Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 Vorticism The cover of the first edition of BLAST, 1914. The cover of the second edition of BLAST, 1915. Alienation Angst Expressionism Emil Nolde Maskenstilleben (Masks Still Life) 1911 Theatre: Questions of Identity Pirandello: Naked Masks Dramatic illusion What is real? What is identity behind the social mask? Impossibility of authentic communication Leads to Beckett’s Theatre of the Absurd Samuel Beckett, Endgame La femme au grand chapeau (Woman with large hat) by Kees van Dongen, 1906 Woman with a Hat by Henri Matisse, 1905 Color: Fauvism Fiction: Stream-of-Consciousness “Let us record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall, let us trace the pattern, however disconnected and incoherent in appearance, which each sight or incident scores upon the consciousness. Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought big than in what is small” – Virginia Woolf “Modern Fiction” Stream of Consciousness James Joyce Virginia Woolf William Faulkner Dorothy Richardson Technology: Constructivism Ilya Golosov, Zuyev Workers' Club, 1927 Moscow Functionalism: Bauhaus/International Style Walter Gropius, The Bauhaus Building in Dessau, Germany Commentary/Propaganda: Social Realism Isabel Bishop, Office Girls, 1938 Aaron Douglas, God’s Trombones, 1926 Strakhov, Emancipated Women Build Socialism, 1920 Rivera, The Arsenal, detail, 1928 Leni Riefenstahl, The Triumph of the Will, 1934 Charlie Chaplin,1940 Film: Propaganda and Satire Photography and Photo-journalism Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother Epic Theatre: Bertolt Brecht Socially Conscious Didactic Dialectic Theatrical Borrows from Cabaret Mother Courage and Her Children, 1934 PROTEST: Picasso, Guernica Photograph of Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain“. ready-mades Chaos/Irrationality: Dadaism Marcel Janco recalled, We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the "tabula rasa". At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order. Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarchopolitical uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism. -Marc Lowenthal The Subconscious: Surrealism Film: Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, Un Chien Andalou, 1929 http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YAiIUdWk1N g&feature=related Rene Magritte, Attempting the Impossible, 1928 Form: Abstraction Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43 Abstraction Cycladic Influence on Modern Art Constantin Brancusi Cycladic Statue Amedeo Modigliani Music Sound Experimentation Ragtime, Blues and Jazz Arnold Schoenberg: Atonality 12-tone system: serialism Song cycles: Sprechstimme Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps: dissonance and heavy rhythm Eric Satie: Incorporation of “work” sounds Alban Berg Operas: Wozzeck and Lulu o Roots in African-American work songs, gospel, drumming, parade music o Moved from New Orleans up the Mississippi to St. Louis and Kansas City on to Chicago, NYC and LA – wildy popular in Europe o Ragtime: Scott Joplin o Opera: Treemonisha o Blues – emotive lamentation using blues scale o Jazz – improvisational, ensemble Dance: Ballet Diaghilev: Ballet Russe Choreographers: Fokine, Nijinsky Dancers: Pavlova, Nijinsky, Karasavina Designers: Picasso, Bakst Composers: Ravel, Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky L’apres midi d’un faune: The Afternoon of a Faun, 1912 Music by Claude Debussy Choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky Design by Leon Bakst Le sacre du printemps :The Rite of Spring, 1913 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo4sf2wT0wU Music by Igor Stravinsky; Choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky Modern Dance: Isadora Duncan freedom of movement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPlN_gO5TOM Modern Dance: Denishawn – Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn international influence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Hc6pvnI8A&li st=PL2BAF1DD92407A23B Modern Dance: Katherine Dunham Afro-Caribbean Influence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vyx6ue7K6o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23MYjH92co