Rather than an artistic style, modernism was a rebellious state of mind that questioned all artistic, scientific, social, and moral conventions.
Characteristics: Challenging Conventions
by embracing nihilism
by rejecting every system of belief
by believing in the self-sufficiency of each individual work of art
by adopting primitivism
by exploring perversity
by focusing on the city rather than nature
Nihilism: The Belief in Nothing
Modernists viewed the world, and especially human existence, as being meaningless.
Modernists rejected the belief that morality and organized religion provided the means for social evolution and/or the betterment of man.
Rejection of all Systems of Belief
Modernists questioned all accepted systems:
the sciences
political/social/economic paradigms
the arts, especially the Academy
Self-sufficiency of a Work of Art
Art was not to be judged on the old standard of mimesis, the literal representation of reality.
Art needed to be judged on an individual basis.
Art should be judged on the basis of how well an artist is able to communicate the purpose of the work as well as the relationship between meaning and form.
Modernists Rebelled Against the Dictates of the Academy
Each country had its Academy, an institution that judged what was proper and what was not in the depiction of reality.
The Academy saw its task as the education of artists in the practice of an idealizing art in the classical (or classicizing) tradition.
The Academy was a school as well as a regulatory body.
What Was Acceptable?
Goal of the artist was to achieve perfection through the following:
a highly polished style
use of historical or mythological subject matter
a moralistic tone
The Modernist Artist
systematically and deliberately developed an art that testifies to all that is strange, unknown, and unlabeled in the self
created a new language of images that described the inexpressible
expected the viewer/reader to interact with the work
Primitivism
Modernists rejected technology and the rigidity of society and its institutions.
Modernists embraced the natural primal roots of primitive man.
Modernists embodied the pursuit of personal and artistic freedom.
Perversity
Modernists explored the uncivilized nature of man.
Modernists suggested that being “civilized” was merely a veneer that quickly vanishes.
Focus on the City
Modernists shifted away from nature.
Modernists explored the city as a place of lonely crowds and marginalized individuals.
Forces that Shaped Modernism
technology and the new science
the new philosophical paradigms
F.H. Bradley
Alfred Whitehead
Albert Einstein
the new psychological paradigms
Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung
Henri Bergson
the new geo-political paradigms
Technology and the New Sciences
generated optimism
created dynamic industrial and urban growth
accelerated the way life is experienced
shrank distances through new communication and transportation systems
The Modernist Philosophical Paradigms
The New Perception of External Reality
Relativity: Space, Time and Light
Modern thinkers broke with the belief in classical mechanics.
Newton had asserted that space and time were absolute.
Modernists, on the other hand, questioned objective reality.
Instead, the modernists embraced subjectivity.
Observations about reality are observer-dependent.
F. H. Bradley: Appearance and Reality
Reality is not absolute.
An object’s appearance varies depending on from what angle it is being viewed.
To really understand an object, one has to view it from several points of view.
Alfred Whitehead: Process and Reality
Reality is not static but in a state of flux, always in the process of becoming.
No object exists in a vacuum—rather “there is no element whatever which possesses this character of simple location.”
Each object is relevant to its surroundings in that it is in the process of becoming another object.
Matter, space, and time are all interrelated.
Albert Einstein: TheSpecial Theory of Relativity
Space and time are relative; only the speed of light is constant.
There is no such thing as a favored point of view.
Color is relative.
A universal present moment does not exist.
Albert Einstein: TheSpecial Theory of Relativity
Only “local” time exists.
Moving clocks run slower than stationary clocks.
Two perfectly synchronized clocks would differ according to their respective speeds.
Albert Einstein: TheSpecial Theory of Relativity
Time slows as one approaches the speed of light.
The present moment expands from a narrow sliver until it encompasses both the past and the future.
At light speed, time ceases to change because it contains all change.
Albert Einstein: TheSpecial Theory of Relativity—Speed Dilates Time
Albert Einstein: TheSpecial Theory of Relativity
Albert Einstein: TheSpecial Theory of Relativity
Creates the illusion that perspective has flattened
Space between objects is truncated
Figures begin to look two-dimensional
the Modernist Psychological Paradigms
The New Perception of Internal Reality
Sigmund Freud
expanded the definition of sexuality
defined the major components of personality
created a dynamic psychology based on the interaction of the id, the ego, and the superego
defined the importance of the unconscious
created psychoanalysis, a science that uncovers the personality’s secrets
Carl Jung
based psychology on the collective unconscious, the inherited memories of the race
developed archetypes to explain human behavior
explained how archetypes are expressed in fairy tales, myths, and artistic endeavors
Henri Bergson
defined human experience through duration, psychological time consisting of the constant flow from the past into the future rather than a succession of chronological instants
believed that reality is a past that constantly becomes something new
held that intuition is the most trustworthy guide to understanding
