The European and American artistic world that came about between 1890 and 1920

Professor Jeffery B. Cooks

IR376: History of Modern Europe

By: Rozelyn N. Parker

03 August 2008

The movement initially took place at the end of the 19th century and moved dynamically into the 20th century. Angered by the industrial revolution, the intellect artist, musicians, philosophers, and architects rebelled against historical traditions and embraced the new economic, social, and political aspects of the emerging world.

Why did the artist rebell

against industuralism

?

The change to

society due to the

industrialism and

new technology

sparked the anger of

modernist. The

modernist were focus

on individualism and

against racism,

slavery and

imperialism. Angry

about tradition

teachings artist

found freedom to

express their

thoughts through

their art work.

Richard Morris Hunt (1827–95)

Richard Morris Hunt was

the an American who

studied in Paris, after his

return to New York, he

became the most

prominent architect in

the city. Early in his

career, Hunt designed a

series of avant-garde

buildings, introducing

French architectural

ideas to America.

The pedestal of Statue of Liberty

Carnegie Hall

Metropolitan Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art

Biltmore Estates

U.S. Naval Observatory

The Card Players, 1890’s Paul Cézanne

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1974)

These portraits are Picasso’s early paintings starting from 1895 to 1909. A Spanish child prodigy well gifted in the arts was well known for his art throughout in his life time. Picasso’s late paintings are known as “neo expressionism” , which was discredited before his death, but later recognized as art before his time.

The Scream is, as Edvard Munch said himself, "a bitterly earnest scene — and a child of sleepless nights, which have taken their toll in blood and nerves".

From around 1889 onwards, Edvard became increasingly depressive, suffering from occasional fits of terror. Yet, by the age of seventeen, he had discovered another language with which to express his feelings of desperation: painting. It promised relief, consolation and hope.

Edvard MunchDeath in the Sick-Room1893/94

Painted after the deaths of his mother and sister.

American

Arts and Crafts: A movement that sought to restore the medieval tradition of handicraft in reaction to the spread of mass production, originating in late 19th century Great Britain. Designs were based on simple forms and natural materials, as much for purposes of social reform. In America, the movement became less an idealization of the skilled craftsperson than a democratic interest in embedding the honest, simplicity in everyday high-quality design.

By far the most significant event in the history of amateur photography was the introduction of the Kodak #1 camera in 1888. Invented and marketed by George Eastman (1854–1932)

“Art is not so much a matter of methods and processes as it is an affair of temperament; of taste and of sentiment. . . . In the hands of the artist, the photograph becomes a work of art. . . . In a word, photography is what the photographer makes it—an art or a trade.”

William Howe Downes, 1900

The Beginning of the The Beginning of the 1900’s1900’s

Now realism was ‘reality’. Capturing one’s thought and vision in a photography.

ALFRED STIEGLITZ. Waiting for the Return, c. 1895.

Motion Pictures

The Frenchman Louis Lumiere

is often credited as inventing

the first motion picture camera

in 1895, but there were other

inventors that made similar

intentions during this time. In

1891, the Edison company

successfully demonstrated the

Kinetoscope, which enabled one

person at a time to view moving

pictures. Later in 1896, Edison

demonstrated his improved

Vitascope projector. It was the

first successful, commercial

projector in the U.S..

The Beginning of Motion Picture

In late 19th century, after WWI, America entered a new genre. Ragtime music emerged and gained huge popularity. The rhythm of the piano was mainly the instrument heard for all Ragtime music. The huge influence of Ragtime music would evolve into what we hear today as jazz. Ragtime music remained popular through 1920’s.

Scott Joplin is know as the “King of Ragtime” and one of the best known ragtime composers. Joplin learned how to play the piano on the pianos, where his mother cleaned houses. Joplin later took lessons, and played in the Maple Leaf Club where he started to gain fame. 

Scott Joplin 1867-1917

The fast pace of technology, entertainment, and art moved swiftly throughout the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. The art revolution created a new era of idealist; photography, and motion pictures gave people visions of what awaited on the other side of the world. Like the internet as done for us. The world is forever changing and as well as modernism.

Rozelyn Parker

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