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American Modernism

American Modernism. 1919-1939 (roughly). New York Armory Show. 1913 – The New York Armory Show introduces contemporary European art to America. Most controversial painting was Marcel Duchamps Nude Descending a Staircase . (pictured right)

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American Modernism

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  1. American Modernism 1919-1939 (roughly)

  2. New York Armory Show 1913 – The New York Armory Show introduces contemporary European art to America. Most controversial painting was Marcel Duchamps Nude Descending a Staircase. (pictured right) (image taken from: http://www.abcgallery.com/D/duchamp/duchamp2a.jpg)

  3. Fountain, Marcel Duchamp

  4. The Great War, 1914-1919 • 1914: Archduke Francis Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo, after which the Austro-Hungarian Government declares war on Serbia.  • August, 1914: Germany declares war on Russia and France; Great Britain declares war on Germany as German troops invade Belgium.  Japan also declares war on Germany. 

  5. The Great War, 1914-1919 • April 2, 1917: Saying that "the world must be made safe for democracy," Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany.  • June 26, 1917: The Versailles Treaty was signed, ending WWI • Hemingway: drove ambulance in Italy during WWI • EE Cummings: volunteer ambulance driver

  6. Important works of 1915 T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Robert Frost, North of Boston

  7. 1922: Modernism’s Golden Year • Important works published in 1922: • James Joyce, Ulysses (the copies sent to the US were burned because they were considered “obscene”) • T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

  8. Elements of Modernism • Emphasis on bold experimentation in style & form, which reflects the fragmentation of society • Rejection of traditional themes, subjects, & forms • Rejection of sentimentality & artificiality • Sense of disillusionment & loss of faith in American dream

  9. Elements of Modernism • Rejection of the ideal of the hero as infallible () in favor of a hero who is flawed & disillusioned, but shows “grace under pressure” • Interest in the inner workings of the mind (especially new techniques: stream of consciousness)

  10. Symbolism • Definition: form of expression in which the world of appearances is violently rearranged by artists who seek a different and more truthful version of reality • Everyday version: Symbolists believed that art should aim to capture more absolute truths which could only be accessed by indirect methods. Thus, they wrote in a highly metaphorical and suggestive manner, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning

  11. Imagism • Manifesto: “The image is the thing!” • Images and Imagery alone can carry a poem’s emotion and message • Imagist poets wanted to “rid poetry of its prettiness, sentimentality, and artificiality, concentrating instead on the raw power of the image to communicate feeling and thought”

  12. Imagism • Ezra Pound: • 2. Direct treatment of the “thing” • 3. Use absolutely no word that does not contribute to meaning • (From Pound, “A Retrospect”) • An Image: “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time”

  13. “In a Station of the Metro” The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

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