Modernism: “In or about December 1910 human character changed”

1. Modernism: “In or about December 1910 human character changed” - Virginia Woolf, expressing a sentiment reflecting British opinion when it saw art like the following.

2. The Water Lilies by Claude Monet We know them and love them, but they were initially ridiculed at the Salon de Refuses, 1863 The Impressionists establish the pattern of the avant-garde: an elite group of artists, scorned but heroic, leading humanity into the future through their artistic vision

3. Le Dejeuner surl’herbe by EdouardManet Objectionable subject matter – a nude woman with two fully clothed men at a picnic Flatness of the technique Lack of concern with modeling of the figures (giving a sense of 3-dimensions) Revolutionary painting : Against the Academy

4. View of L’Estaque and the Chateau d’Ifby Paul Cezanne Wants to move away from surface effects of the impressionists – wanted to be less decorative than the impressionists formless and shapeless canvasses Adds weight and volume by emphasizing the underlying geometric form of objects Calls attention to its painterly technique and the flat surface of the canvas More monumental than the impressionists

5. Houses on the Hill by Pablo Picasso Cubism Chief break with representational art and the most influential movement of the century Simplified palette of color Scene is composed of geometrical planes

6. Compare and Contrast The Bathers by Cezanne Les Mademoiselles d’Avignonby Pablo Picasso

7. The Most Influential Painting of the Century

8. The Guitar Player by Georges Braque Analyze the form into smaller parts so much so that the subject becomes hardly recognizable. Less and less color This is a watershed moment. Centuries old traditions, like perspective, are overturned. A new pictorial space is created. The eye is not pulled back into the painting. It’s held on the surface. There’s little distance between figure and background. Painter no longer beholden to realistic conventions. Now they can break apart an object and distribute its pieces around the canvas. I.e. You can show the front and back of a chair at the same time.

9. La Suze by Pablo Picasso Still cubism here, but it’s taken on the form of collage. Collage breaks down the boundaries between art and life—an important innovation. More color Real objects are added Letters/words are part of the composition

10. The Unique Forms of Continuity in Space – Umberto Boccioni Futurism Worship of the future Advocate the complete destruction of the past Admire the sleekness and power of machinery Wanted to convey the rapid pace of modern life

11. Abstract Expressionism: The reality behind surface appearances Cubism taken to its limit Left – Piet Mondrian Below – WassilyKandinksy

12. I thought this was American Lit • This new style of art comes to America in 1913 at the Armory Show in New York City. • Among other things, the audience is scandalized by Duchamp’s highly erotic Nude Descending a Staircase.

13. Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp Dada – i.e. nonsense The ironic humor of the title Embodies the destructive element that is an important part of modernism Rebel against all established institutions and values, against reason itself, which had led to war. Randomness could play a big role All of this comes to America for the first time in 1913 at the legendary “Armory Show” in New York City. Elements of cubism and also futurism—emphasis on kinetic motion

14. Fountain by Marcel Duchamp An even better example of Dada. The readymade An ordinary mass produced object displayed as art. Initial reaction: “Is it art?” That’s the point. The question leads to complex theoretical problems. Duchamp was interested in ideas. Dada could only go so far, but it led to Surrealism

15. Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali Veristic surrealism Odd juxtapositions or distortions of recognizable objects in Illusionistic style—i.e. so realistic as to create the illusion of reality. To capture the truth you must enter a dream state

16. Ladders Cross the Blue Sky in a Wheel of Fire by Joan Miro Absolute surrealism Chance occurrences or spontaneous gestures start the painting and lead into the unconscious. Automatism—one form here suggests the next one there. No preconceived plan.

17. So What Does This Have To Do With Literature? • Many writers of the early 20th century mingled with these Modernist artists • They wanted to bring their innovations in art to the written word • Writers call attention to the materials they are working with rather than concealing them. • A sense that the truth is fragmented and must be expressed thus • A focus on the image, whether realistic, as in the readymade, or not • An economy of expression, omitting anything but the barest essentials

18. And, Lastly • “Make it new” – the exhortation of Ezra Pound and one of Modernism’s defining tenets. The old methods of expressing our lives no longer work, they are not up to the task of describing the world we live in today. • “Nothing good save the new” - William Carlos Williams’s formulation – formal coherence, metrical rules, and generic laws must be broken

19. Bibliography • “The Visual Arts” by Glen Macleod in The Cambridge Companion to Modernism 1999.