Modernist and Postmodernist Art, Architecture, and Film Movements

Deconstructivism

challenges traditional harmony, order, and symmetry in architecture; structures often appear fragmented, distorted, or unstable, emphasizing unpredictability and controlled chaos.

Atheistic Existentialism

sought to heal the division after WWII by focusing on the power of agency in creating one's identity. Emphasizes that humans create meaning in a meaningless universe without reliance on religion or divine authority

Organic architecture

reflects its environment and often utilizes local materials; emphasizes harmony between human habitation and the natural world; buildings appear to grow naturally from their surroundings.

International Style

•Principle of "less is more"

•Inspired by classical architecture

•celebrates glass, steel, and bronze.

is raised on plinths and maximizes the use of steel and glass; emphasizes minimal ornamentation, clean lines, open interiors, and functional design.

AbEx: action painting

promotes the process of painting as the final product; emphasizes spontaneous gestures, movement, and physical interaction with the canvas.

AbEx: color field painting

sought to convey spiritual feelings through large blocks of color; emphasizes simplicity, flatness, and emotional resonance through color alone.

Mobile

a kinetic sculpture that moves freely, often suspended from the ceiling and moved by air currents. (commonly associated with Alexander Calder).

Stabile

a stationary sculpture, often abstract, that stands firmly on the ground.

Photomontage

is comprised of various photographic media, often combined to make a political statement; frequently used for satire, critique, or propaganda.

Readymade

pre-fabricated, mass-produced object that is elevated to the status of high art by an artist; challenges traditional definitions of art and authorship.

Dada

anti-art movement reacting to WWI; embraced absurdity, irrationality, chance, and rejected traditional artistic standards.

•Sought to expose the superficiality of art

•ironically transformed art

Ragtime

Broke up rhythms to simple, unsyncopated music - "ragging" Scott Joplin, piano music that features a syncopated rhythm; popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and influenced early jazz.

Blues

music genre rooted in African American spirituals and work songs; often expresses sorrow, struggle, and emotional hardship.

Jazz

Duke Ellington, utilizes a combination of intrements (brass, percussion, voice, paino) and involves the improvisation of the muscians.

Fin de Siècle

translates to "end of century" and references the closing years of the 19th century; associated with anxiety, decadence, and cultural transition.

Turn of the Century

refers to the beginning of the twentieth century, when many creatives were seeking to more truthfully express the Modernist aesthetic; period of rapid industrial, social, and artistic change.

Curtain wall -

is an exterior facade that covers a steel skeletoninvolves lots of windows - fenestration, baby!!is part of the Chicago School of Architectural innovations

Steel-cage construction

structural system using a steel skeleton to support the building, allowing taller structures and thinner exterior walls.

Spiritualism

belief in communication with spirits or the supernatural; influenced many artists seeking deeper meaning beyond material reality.

Cubism

fragmented objects into geometric shapes and presented multiple viewpoints simultaneously.

Expressionism

emphasized emotional experience over physical reality; often distorted forms and exaggerated color.

Kinetoscope intertitles

printed text in a silent film used to convey dialogue or narrative information.

Nickelodeons

named after the price of admission to see a silent, moving picture; early movie theaters charging five cents.

Mise-en-scène

translates as "placing on the stage" and refers to all the elements in a cinematic shot; includes lighting, costumes, actors, props, and setting.

Movie Palace

the fancy venue for talkies, with orchestra pit, proscenium, and assigned seating; designed to create a luxurious movie-going experience.

Blockbuster

high-budget film designed for mass appeal and large box-office success; often heavily marketed.

Paratextuality

- the elements surrounding a text, such as book covers, posters, movie trailers; influences audience interpretation before viewing/reading.

Annus mirabilis

a year of wonders; refers to a year with many important or groundbreaking events.

Modernism

Reaction to WWI, interested in portraying the isolation and alienation of modern life

Characteristics

•Published Manifestos

•Designed a better society

•Creatives purposely shocking their audiences.

Postmodernism

Reaction to modernism, ironic or playful treatment of a fragmented subject.

Harlem Renaissance

Factors of the Harlem Renaissance

•Migration from the South to North

•WWI introduced Black American soldiers to life without segregation

•The organization of the NAACP, the philosophical exploration of the African-American experience was published in the magazine, The Crisis

Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism is Humanism

•Unlike 18th Century Humanism, doesn't advocate for the need for education as the basis for moral behavior

•"Existence precedes essence"

⚬Humans are born and then must define who they are.

What movement does Sigmund Freud influence?

Surrealis

Literary modernism

reflected the increased feelings of alienation and disillusionment, experimented with narrative structure and style, used stream-of-consciousness, fragmentation, and unreliable narrators, focused on individual perception and psychological depth

Black Arts Movement ideas

Art can challenge society, empower people, and represent culture and identity.

Black Arts Movement — Assumptions Challenged

Art should be politically neutral

Art should avoid culture

Art must use traditional materials and realistic proportions

Land Art IDEAs

Art can be created in nature, experienced in nature, and can even be nature itself.

Front: Land Art — Assumptions Challenged

Back:

Art must be in museums

Art must be commercialized or sold

Art must be permanent

Front: Minimalism — Main Idea

Art can be simple, non-representational, and exist without emotion or meaning.

Front: Minimalism — Assumptions Challenged

Art must express emotion

Art must be complex or decorative

Art must be handmade

Art must tell a story

Pop Art Artist

Pauline Boty — Used celebrity imagery to criticize how women were portrayed in mass media and explore female identity

Martha Rosler — Used photomontage and collage to critique war, advertising, and American consumer culture

Sister Corita Kent — Used advertising slogans and product packaging to address war, racial inequality, and social justice

Pop Art IDEA

art accessible, commercial, and culturally relevant, directly opposing the serious, abstract, and elite nature of Abstract Expressionism.

Pop Art rejected the rules of Abstract Expressionism by:

Using recognizable imagery instead of abstract emotion

Appealing to mass audiences instead of elite art viewers

Using commercial materials and mass production

Bringing back storytelling, symbolism, and popular culture

High art vs low art

D. W. Griffith

In his epic film, birth of a nation, is the first to use the camera as narrator

Thomas Edison

In his kinetoscope films recorded vaudeville or circus acts.

Alice Guy Blaché

Female film director, used an all black cast in her film, cinematic story teller

Igor Stravinsky's The Right of Spring

•Unusual rhythms

•tonalities

• storyline and choreography depart from the traditional ballet movement and music

Duke Ellington

One of the most influential Jazz and Classical music composers of the 20th century.