Assignment Paper :-110 ( History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000)
Name :- Aarti Bhupatbhai Sarvaiya
Batch :- M.A. Sem. 2 (2022-2024)
Enrollment N/o. :- 4069206420220027
Roll N/o. :- 01
Subject Code & Paper N/o. :- 22403 Paper 110A: History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000
Email Address :- aartisarvaiya7010@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English – Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University – Bhavnagar – 364001
Date of Submission :- 31 March, 2023
Modernist Artistic Movements of 20th Century
Introduction -
The Early 20th Century was marked by rapid industrial, economic, social, and cultural change, which influenced the worldview of many and set the stage for new artistic movements.
The Modernism movement within art, arising in the early 20th century, referred to art that accurately reflected the society in which artists found themselves. After the French industrial revolution, artists demonstrated a great desire to move away from the traditional aspects that previously governed fine art in favor of creating artworks that sought to capture the experiences and values in modern industrial life. Thus, Modern Art existed as a broad movement that incorporated a variety of other “isms” under its title.
What Is Modernism?
Modern Art, Known as a global movement that existed in society and culture, Modern Art developed at the start of the 20th century in reaction to the widespread urbanization that appeared after the industrial revolution. Modern Art, also referred to as Modernism, was viewed as both an art and philosophical movement at the time of its emergence. This movement reflected the immense longing of artists to produce new forms of art, philosophy, and social structures that precisely reflected the newly developing world.
Modernism included a variety of different styles, techniques, and media within the broad movement. However, the fundamental principle that was demonstrated in all the artworks of each movement within Modernism was a complete dismissal of history and traditional concepts associated with realism.
"Artists began to make use of new images, materials, and techniques to create artworks that they thought better reflected the realities and hopes that existed in rapidly modernizing societies".
Due to the fact that it was not considered a singular and cohesive movement, many different movements developed that fell into the bracket of Modernism. These Modern movements included Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Expressionism, and Futurism, to name a few.
About the 20th Century -
The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 (MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 (MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear weapons, nuclear power and space exploration, nationalism and decolonization, the Cold War and post-Cold War conflicts, and technological advances. These reshaped the political and social structure of the globe.
The century saw a major shift in the way that many people lived, with changes in politics, ideology, economics, society, culture, science, technology, and medicine. The 20th century may have seen more technological and scientific progress than all the other centuries combined since the dawn of civilization. Terms like nationalism, globalism, environmentalism, ideology, world war, genocide, and nuclear war entered common usage.
Characteristics of the 20th Century -
Modernist writers were influenced by such thinkers as Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, amongst others, who raised questions about the rationality of the human mind.
Marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views.
A central preoccupation of Modernism is with the inner self and consciousness.
The Modernist cares little for Nature, Being, or the overarching structures of history.
The “unreliable” narrator supplanted the omniscient, trustworthy narrator of preceding centuries, and readers were forced to question even the most basic assumptions about how the novel should operate.
There is no such thing as absolute truth. All things are relative.
Modernist Artistic Movements of the 20th Century -
The 20th century saw a new era of visual artists who challenged the precedent art styles. Beauty and aesthetics gave way to abstraction, expression and symbolism. This metamorphosis formed numerous distinct and important art movements which presented a new type of aesthetic, some which overlap with or influenced the others. Below is a broad overview of the most influential visual art movements during the 20th century, excluding some of those shorter-lived or lesser known.
Impressionism (1870s – 1880s)
Seen as an important precursor to the Modernist movement, Impressionism made famous the use of non-naturalist colors in the artworks that were created. The importance of Impressionism was demonstrated by artist Claude Monet, whose landscape works focused on capturing transient moments of light and color in excruciating detail.
This attention to detail was also seen when artists chose the colors within their artworks, as these vivid and shocking colors were said to emphasize the emotions that they felt. Additionally, Impressionists made use of loose and highly textured brushstrokes that made the painting unrecognizable if viewed from up close. These specific techniques made Impressionism very disliked in the conventional art spheres, as the works created did not conform to the traditional elements of art.
This led to Impressionism being seen as an important influence of Modernism, as it was one of the initial movements to reject the realism associated with traditional art through the color palette and brush strokes used. Impressionism went on to validate the use of unrealistic colors in artworks, which went on to pave the way for the emergence of abstract art. This continued to be upheld as an important characteristic in the Modern Art movements that developed.
Fauvism (1905 – 1907)
Led by Henri Matisse, Fauvism was an incredibly short-lived movement that existed during the mid-1900s in Paris. Despite its lifespan, it was an incredibly dynamic and influential movement and was seen as a very fashionable and modern style during its time.
Fauvism is known for launching at the Salon d’Automne, with the movement becoming instantly renowned for its intense, loud, and non-naturalistic colors that were used in the artworks created. This excessive use of color made the previous movement of Impression seem monochromatic in its palette choice, with the use of colors being extremely exaggerated in Fauvism.
The major contribution of Fauvism to the Modern Art movement was its demonstration of the power of color. Fauvism showcased the independent strength that colors possessed, which turned artworks into a force to be reckoned with when various colors were combined. Additionally, Fauvism was seen as a highly subjective movement, existing as a strong contender to the previous classical artistic style that was used.
Cubism (1908 – 1914)
Developed by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Cubism existed as quite a harsh and challenging style of painting. This art form differed greatly from previous movements that were inspired by the techniques of linear perspective and softly curved volumes made famous in the Renaissance. Instead, Cubism made use of a compositional arrangement of flat and shattered planes that were combined to make up a painting.
Cubism was developed into two versions, namely Analytical Cubism and Synthetic Cubism. Analytical Cubism, which existed from 1910 to 1012, examined the use of basic shapes and overlapping surfaces to portray the individual forms of the subjects in a painting. Synthetic Cubism appeared after and ran from 1912 to 1914. This style emphasized on including characteristics such as simple shapes and bright colors that held hardly any depth in the artworks that were created.
Despite its influence over abstract art, the appeal surrounding Cubism was extremely limited. However, an important contribution of the Cubism movement within Modern Art was that it offered an entirely new alternative to standard perspective due to its creation of the flat picture plane.
Futurism (1909 – 1944)
The Futurist movement, founded by Italian art theorist and poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, was an art form that celebrated technology, speed, inventions such as the automobile and the airplane, and scientific achievement.
This movement saw all of these avenues of development as worthy of praise and believed that they were responsible for the advancement of modern society. Futurism captured the dynamism and energy that existed in the modern world and proposed the creation of art that celebrated modernity and the development of technology in all its forms.
Existing as a heavily influential movement, it borrowed elements from other eras such as Neo-Impressionism, Italian Divisionism, and Cubism. This was demonstrated through the splintered forms and numerous viewpoints that were typical of some Futurist artworks.
Futurism was at its most influential stage between 1909 and 1914, as World War One brought the first wave of Futurism to a close. This led artists to turn to different styles that incorporated elements of modernity. However, after the war had ended, Marinetti revived the movement and continued to develop into what was called second-generation Futurism. Thus, Futurism was seen as a significant Modern Art movement as it introduced the element of movement into art and linked the concept of beauty to scientific achievement.
4. Dadaism (1915-1924)
Dada was an international art movement originating in the early 20th century. It created absurd, nihilistic and sometimes incomprehensible art. Dada blurred the lines between visual, performance, and literary arts.
It was led by artists like Hugo Ball, Marcel Duchamp and Sophie Tauber. Its legacy shook the art world quite possibly changed the definition of art itself.
Dada was developed during World War I in Zurich as an avant-garde, anti-art movement. It rejected and mocked the capitalist and nationalistic cultural climate of World War I, focusing instead on the irrational, nonsensical and absurd with strong anti-bourgeois overtones. The movement spread throughout Europe and the United States, echoing far-left radical thought and the overall discontentment with the violence of wartime.
Known artists :- Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Arp, Hannah Höch, Tristan Tzara
Surrealism (1924 – 1950s)
Highly influenced by Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, Surrealism sought expression through the exploration of the unconscious mind. Its imagery was characterised by unsettling, dreamlike settings with juxtaposing and often deformed subject matter. Having developed from the avant-garde Dada movement, Surrealism began in Europe and expanded throughout the western world as a cultural, artistic and literary movement.
Known artists: André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Frida Kahlo, Rene Magritte
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, beginning with poetry and painting, that originated in Germany at the start of the 20th century. It emphasised subjective experience, manipulating perspective for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality.
Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War and remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including painting, literature, theatre, dance, film, architecture, and music.
It can be characterised by evocative and emotional pieces that are typically abstract. The use of traditional representation was discarded in favour of communicating the emotion or meaning behind the work. This use of thematic rather than literal expression revolutionised western visual art and became an antecedent for many other 20th-century movements.
Known artists :- Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky,Die Brücke,Der Blaue Reiter.
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism is the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often characterised by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity.
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s in America and Britain, drawing inspiration from sources in popular and commercial culture. Different cultures and countries contributed to the movement during the 1960s and 70s.
Conclusion -
To sum up, we can say that at the 20th Century Art is only the way of people through which they expresses their emotions and feelings. They were used different Art's to express their inner-voice. Lots of Artistic movements were developed at that time as a result of the World War.
Word Count :- 1990
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