Modernism 8

Modernism

• World War 1 1914-1918
Undoes social order; lots of death
Many people devastated by injuries an death

• Lots of Revolution going around

• Urbanism; brings social change

• New'isms; new beliefs (photo collages and montages)

• Objectivity and New Objectivity; unbiased truth

• Sigmund Freud; First person to attempt to study the human mind, also
inspired many artists such as painter and photographers.

• A Radical Reconstruction of the world through Art and thought;
Old things don't work, trying new things to reconstruct the world
thoughtfully; also believed the world was broken

Art should be for society not just the upper class/ rich

The artists is a visionary and a genius; their was a new found respect for artists

Better living through science

• Dada; Rejected old, and aimed to destroy the old world of art and reconstruct it

Unknown, Equipt for the Trenches, c1915; depicted the ultimate fighting soldier in
military gear with gas mask

Winter Palace Faked, 1917

China, Mao Long March, 1934
Mao, along with many others walked all across China for the right to have wealth and power distributed fairly

Le Corbusier; believed old cities and buildings caused corruptness

Thinks that planning right will change society; associated urban decay as crime

Some people began to see the need for change

New projects began to tear down old buildings and replace with new ones dictated by geometry; However, new projects often did not help the situation

Duchamp; is doing cubism; he shows more than one specific time and angles at once

He has little respect for the historical art world

Duchamp feels as though art is what you say it is and often pushed the rules as far as possible

Fountain, 1916 was one example of how he felt about the meaning of art

He felt that everything was falling apart in the world and there was nothing to believe in but yourself

Duchamp, LHOOQ, 1919 makes fun of historical art; he also made a satire about the Mona Lisa by adding extra elements to the painting

He strongly believed that art is a thought/idea not necessarily just painting

Also known as the father of contemporary art

Futurism; believed the past was bad and wanted everything new

Sander; Bohemian, 1922

Sander believed in eugenics

Man Ray often photographed his muse Kiki de Montparnasse (who was also a friend of Hemingway)

He was a surrealists influenced by African art

Miller, who was his (Man Ray) former lover and assistant

She was one of the first to photograph in Germany

Man Ray worked between Paris and New York during his career; came back to the U.S. during WW2

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy; born in Hungary

He taught at the Bauhaus, a modernist art school that moved to Chicago after fleeing the Nazi

The Bauhaus had radical geometric ideas

Moholy-Nagy thought photography showed new things that people couldn't see before

He worked mostly in collage and montage

collage: elements that remain separate

montage: elements are put together photographically so they are all printed on one paper together

Study With Pins and Ribbons, 1937 was more about looking at form and lines, not what was actually in the picture

Heartfield; gave himself an American name because he was ashamed of his German name

He was a very political anti-Nazi communists; was associated with the Berlin Dada movement

Created montages that were printed in the AIZ German communists magazine and made complete satires about Nazi officials

Heartfield eventually had to flee Germany

Montages were popular in Russia; First film school in Russia

They loved the idea of putting two things together to create new ideas

Hoch; she was anti-Nazi and a member of the Berlin Dada

Montage artist who did a lot of political art

She was also a feminists who often questioned how women felt about their bodies and beauty through her art

The Sweet One, 1926 was one of her famous pieces, which questioned how women felt about their bodies

Hoch also did wired performances with mannequins and dolls

Mash-up; putting two things together

Lissitzky, Beat the white with Red Wedge

Dada; art should exist for its own purpose

Soviets; art should have a purpose

Art was a way for the two groups to communicate

Red vs. White was a clear metaphor in Russia

Rodchenko 1925; a famous revolutionist artist

He was first a painter and graphic designer

His art meant to speak loud and make statements

He was also a photographer

Hans Bellmer; creates and photographs creepy dolls referencing the cult of of the perfect body

Photographs look like nightmares

He was a surrealist influenced by Freud

The dolls in photos have dismembered bodies

Bellmer was labeled a degenerate by the Nazi's

Kertesz; from Budapest, was drafted to WW1 and took his camera with him on the front line

He was influenced by Dada and constructivist movements

Surrealists using realists forms

He didn't really like the U.S. but worked for a lot of American magazines

Brassai; from Transylvania, moved to Paris and fell in love with the city

Almost never went out in the daytime; he photographed Paris only at night

He was influenced by line and formalism

5 web links:
http://www.artsmia.org/modernism/
http://www.artmovements.co.uk/dada.htm
http://www.marcelduchamp.net/
http://www.manraytrust.com/
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/1998/rodchenko/

Notes by Kia Kelliebrew

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