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About This Book
Modernism is usually thought of as a shock wave of innovations hitting art, architecture, music, cinema and literature - the work of Picasso, Joyce, Schoenberg, movements like Futurism and Dada, the architecture of Le Corbusier, T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and the avant-garde theatre of Bertolt Brecht or Samuel Beckett. But what really defines modernism? Why did it begin and how long did it last? Is Modernism over now? Chris Rodriguez and Chris Garratt's brilliant graphic guide is a brilliant exploration of the last century's most thrilling artistic work - and what it's really all about.
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ArtSubtopic
History of Modern ArtRealizing Modernism
This book will try to answer 15 basic questions on modernism, and is specifically concerned with modernism in the arts.
1. What is modernism?
2. When does modernism begin?
3. What is the difference between modernism and “modernity”?
4. Is modernism just a reaction to modernity?
5. How do we recognize a “modernist” work?
6. Is there a modernist theory in relation to practice?
7. What is the relation of modernism to primitivism?
8. What is the relation of modernism to psychoanalysis?
9. What is the role of the city in modernism?
10. Why are modernists so often “exiles”?
11. What is the role of élites and avant-gardes in modernism?
12. What politics did modernists espouse?
13. How does modernism relate to mass culture?
14. What is the relation of cinema to modernism?
15. Has modernism ended?
What is Modernism?
What is the first feature of modernism that is generally acknowledged? Most of us will agree that a modernist work is perceived as difficult, and that its difficulty is associated with unfamiliarity and difference. D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930), who might himself be classified a modernist writer, expressed this feeling of the pleasure and pain of difficulty.
“… to read a really new novel will always hurt, to some extent. There will always be resistance. The same with new pictures, new music. You may judge of their reality by the fact that they do arouse a certain resistance, and compel, at length, a certain acquiescence.”
All works that can be accommodated under the umbrella of modernism – or, as we’ll see, schools of modernisms – share a relationship to the modern world which is peculiarly new and exceptional to any other previous cultural and historical condition.
Novelty and difficulty form a special historical alliance. That’s one feature. Another is the reply that most people will give to the question: “What is modernism?” More than likely, they will identify it by naming its icons.
Interesting reasons can be found – positive and negative – why these names occur. Let’s consider just three from this list.
Media High Profile
What makes an icon? Picasso is likely to be remembered not just because he was a “great artist”. Media notoriety is crucial.
Arnold Schoenberg might not figure so high in the media stakes. His brand of (“classical”?) modernist music is, of all the modernisms, the most élitist and remote from the feelings of contemporary society. What does the “a-tonal” style or the “serial” system of composition mean to us? Most of us are happier with less cerebral forms of music that we can still identify as modern.
Keeping up with Fashion
Fashion has the benefit of making us reflect on what modernism isn’t, what it was reacting against, what it intended to replace.
And this might lead us to think of trends or movements characteristic of modernism – for instance, Cubism, Dadaism or Surrealism – instead of simply naming personalities.
Such isms – indeed modernism itself – provide clues to the “spirit of the age’’, the Zeitgeist as it’s often called. Modernism expresses the new energies sweeping through from the late 19th century onwards – the revolutionary potentials opened up by Marx, Freud, Nietzsche and others.
So, modernism concerns not only novelty and difficulty, but also a change in social dynamics. Nevertheless, we are still in the realm of generalities. How do we identify the specifics of modernism? Perhaps the question of modernism’s timeliness is a good way to begin.
Chronologies and dates are often seen as the boring bits of cultural history. Stuff we glance at, or skip over, in our hurry to get to the “heart of the matter”. But with accounts of modernism, something strange happens. Dates and starting points begin to matter. The problem with defining modernism is that of fixing a chronology – who did what first, when and where? Establishing the credentials of originality is crucial to modernism.
We can get lost in a complex schedule of “originalities” that pollinate each other across frontiers – but always from one major city to another: Paris, London, Berlin, Moscow, Zurich, New York …
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Realizing Modernism
- Bibliography
- Index