I had my first lecture on 10.10.12 on Modernism, and here are the notes I took for it.
Modernity - Historic phase in western culture
- Industrialisation, Urbanisation in the city
Modern is an improved version of what was before, and was associated with positivity; a progressive art.
Notable People -
Holman Hunt painted 'The Hireling Shepherd'
John Ruskin 1819 - 1900 - he was one of the first people to look at what modernism was in a book 'Modern Painters'
Charles Jencks, 15 July 1972 - said that modernism dies.
He wrote the book The Language of Postmodernism Architecture (1977)
Paris 1900
Most modern city at the time
Troittor Roullant - electric moving railway
Factories were open 24/7
Technology was rapid - there was the invention of the railway, lightbulb and phone
Technology was 'shrinking the world' and life accelerated
Because of the railway, world time is standardised
There are now new ways to spend leisure time - music halls, cinema, shopping
Enlightenment Project
A period in the late 18th century when scientific and philosophical thinking made leaps and bounds, and people stepped away from religion.
A Baudelaire poem 'The Painter of Modern Life' depicts the changes in the new lifestyle
Impressionist painters documented the experiences of the modern life, and how although people are more connected through phone and travel, they are more alienated as they walk down the streets without talking to each other.
Haussmanisation
Paris, 1850s-onwards - a new Paris
Old architecture of narrow streets and run down houses were ripped out and redesigned by Haussman
Large boulevards replaced the narrow streets so it was easier for police to control, as there had been a lot of crime beforehand when criminals could hide down dark alleys etc. - Social Control.
Dangerous elements of working class are moved outside the city, and the middle and upper classes are moved to the center, highlighting the class divisions.
This is what brings alienation, as people are cramped together but do not speak to each other.
The discovery that white is RGB
Paintings start to be cropped, and use different compositions in corrospondence to photography. Paintings were used to document life, but now photography is invented it is seen as a threat.
An example of this can be seen in Abinsthe Drinker 1876 by Dagar.
Kaiser Panorama
This was a German communal viewing box which held images of landscape, art and erotica. People would rather view things through a mediating device rather than directly experiencing it now.
This was one of the side effects of modernity/technology, people live more through media than they do reality.
This led Max Nordau to write an essay called Degeneration (1892), which was about his worries about the effect of modernism and what the world is turning into. He was an anti-modernist.
Subjective Experience
'Experience of individual in modern world'
If we start to think about subjective experience we start to come close to understanding modern art and the experience of modernity.
Modernism emerges out of the subjective response of artists/designers to modernity.
Modernism was an era of experiment
Modernism in Design
Anti-historicism - looks forward
Truth to materials - new processes, materials etc, and not hiding them
Form follows function - look is secondary to practicality
Technology
Internationalism
Adolf Loos (1908) - 'Ornament is Crime'
Modernism is timeless because it has been stripped of all decoration and doesn't date, but decorated buildings will eventually date as new styles come in.
Serifs weren't needed in the modern era so sans serifs were designed.
Bauhaus
Bauhaus was an art school in Germany, which was located in Weimer, then Dessau, then Berlin before eventually being shut down by the Nazis in 1933. The first building was made out of concrete, and it was a new material so was not hidden or painted. It also had a huge window as artists and designers need it when creating work, so this was for a practical reason, not an aesthetic reason. Bauhaus had its own sans serif font.
Internationalism
A language of design that could be recognised and understood on an international basis
New Materials
Concrete
Plastics
Reinforced Glass
Aluminium
New techologies of steel
Term modern isn't neutral - suggests novelty and improvement
Modernity (1750-1960) - social and cultural experience
Modernism - range of ideas and styles that sprang from modernity
Importance
A vocal of styles
Art and design education
Idea of form allows function
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