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