humanity

profilejunyuguo1
humch20.ppt
Home>History homework help>humanity

The Age of
Early Modernism
1871–1914

20

*

20-*

The Age of Early Modernism

  • The cultural movement called modernism began its first phase from 1871-1914. During this time Europe enjoyed a period of unprecedented tranquility, but undercurrents of rampant nationalism, aggressive imperialism, and growing militarism were moving Europe towards the First World War.
  • Over this 40 year period, “modern life,” as we know it was emerging. As the Second Industrial Revolution was taking place artists, writers, and thinkers tried to forge a new perspective that reflected the modern secular experience.
  • Claude Monet’s “Impression: Sunrise” (1872) is a fitting symbol of early modernism. It was rejected by art critics as being “slapdash” and “messy,” but its suggestive and atmospheric showed a new style, ready to pursue anything new, the defining characteristic of modernism.

*

Claude Monet “Impression: Sunrise” (1872)

10-*

*

20-*

Second Industrial Revolution

  • The Second Industrial Revolution brought new technologies, and began the making of Modern Life. The United States and Germany began competing with Great Britain as the world’s industry leader.
  • Oil and electricity replaced water and steam power as the primary source of industrial energy. The wireless radio replaced the telegraph and the internal combustion engine gave rise to the automobile and the airplane.
  • Refrigeration allowed perishable foods to be transported great distances, cities were now on electric grids, new household appliances were invented that ran on electricity.
  • Women’s roles began to change as they became teachers, nurses, office workers and sales clerks. Women fought for increased rights, gaining the right of suffrage in Great Britain (1918) and the United States (1920).

*

20-*

Second Industrial Revolution

The middle and the upper classes enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and leisure, but misery mounted among the working class. Urban slums grew more crowded and living conditions worsened.

The British government passed social legislation that improved the working and living conditions of the poor and created opportunities for social mobility.

Big business interests dominated American politics. Despite this fact, some limited progressive reforms took place in the U.S., despite the dominance of the “robber barons” in politics.

Additionally, during this time period, the U.S. saw the immigration of over 20 million people, most from central and eastern Europe, to the U.S. These individuals poured into the crowded slums of American cities and provided the labor necessary for the U.S.’s growing factory system.

*

Immigrants

Aboard Ship,

Bound for America

(1902)

20-*

Ellis Island Holding Pens

20-*

Ellis Island Health Check

20-*

20-*

Response to Industrialism

In early modernism liberal assumptions were challenged in many quarters. Except in Great Britain and the U.S., most nations saw a battle between socialists, who wanted central planning and state-funded services for workers and conservatives, who feared the masses and supported militant nationalism to unify their societies.

The German Reich or Empire moved towards unity under chancellor Otto von Bismarck and the Emperor Wilhelm I. The German empire was militaristic, conservative, and nationalistic.

In France, the Third Republic was founded after the humiliating defeat of the Second Empire by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. Conservatives and socialists were bitterly deadlocked and little could be accomplished politically.

*

20-*

Response to Industrialism

The less industrialized states of central, southern, and eastern Europe faced very difficult challenges. Regional leaders had a great deal of power in Italy, and northern Italy became more industrialized, while much of the south stayed in semi-feudal conditions.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered from ethnic unrest as it denied freedom to its many Slavic minorities. Despite this fact, the city of Vienna became a glittering symbol of modernism.

The Russian Empire only slowly entered the Industrial Age, hampered by its vast size, sluggish agrarian economy, and inefficient bureaucracy. When the reform-minded Czar Alexander II was assassinated by an anarchist, the new czar, Nicholas II, responded by violently suppressing dissent.

Additionally, they lost the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5). The Russian imperial court found itself isolated from underpaid factory workers and starving peasants.

*

20-*

Imperialism and International Relations

The Shogun (military leader) of Japan had closed Japan to foreigners in 1638, with the exception of one harbor which was controlled by the Dutch. In 1853 the U.S. demanded, with gunboats, an “open door” policy. Japan opened up to foreign trade and decided to modernize its army and navy along European lines.

Europe’s industrialized states began to compete for colonies, and the raw materials and markets they provided. Product rich Africa was an imperialist’s dream and the European states set up colonial governments, with Britain and France claiming the best lands, and Germany, Italy, and Belgium, settling for less desirable areas.

In the Far East the Europeans, the U.S., and Japan, competed for colonies in the South Pacific, and trading rights in China.

By 1914 Europe was divided into two armed camps, France, Great Britain, and Russia (the Triple Entente) against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (the Triple Alliance)

*

Battle of Isandlwana, 1879

10-*

20,000 Zulu Warriors attacked a portion of the British main column consisting of about 1,800 British, colonial and native troops wiping out most of them

*

20-*

Imperialism in Africa: Colonial States, 1914

*

20-*

Europe’s Rise to World Leadership

  • The Islamic world, from the East Indies across Afghanistan, India, the Middle East, and North Africa, was prey to European imperialists.
  • The Dutch and the British divided the East Indies; Great Britain invaded Afghanistan, Russia and Great Britain meddled in Persia (Iran), and Britain effectively controlled India commercially.
  • After 1830 the Ottoman Empire, despite the efforts of westernizing sultans, continued its decline. The Ottomans fought a series of losing wars with Russia, which resulted in the loss of land. The French invaded Algiers in 1830 and in 1882 British troops took control of Egypt. The Ottoman Empire was seen as the “sick old man of Europe.”
  • Orientalism-Led Westerners to see Middle East as forbidden and erotic land, a place of squalor and crime

*

20-*

Imperialism in Asia: Colonial States, 1914

*

20-*

The Outbreak of World War I

In 1914 a Serb student assassinated Archduke Ferdinand (heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne) in Sarajevo (modern Bosnia and Herzegovina).

  • The major European nations were embroiled in entangling alliances & in sharp competition for world dominance.
  • Austria-Hungary (with the support of their ally Germany) declared war on Serbia. Serbia was a client state of Russia which began military mobilization.
  • Russian mobilization caused Germany to declare war on Russia and France (Both a Russian ally and German enemy).
  • Germany violated Belgian neutrality to attack France. Great Britain to protect Belgium declared war on Germany.
  • The modern world, with its huge armies, military technology, and industrial might, had plunged into the most destructive war in human history.

*

20-*

Europe on the Eve of World War I

20-*

Early Modernism: Philosophy

  • The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) saw beyond the optimism of the time and correctly predicted the general disasters, both moral and material, that would afflict the Western world in the twentieth century.
  • Nietzsche denied moral certainty, announcing the “death of God” and vehemently rejected Judeo-Christian ideals as “herd” values. He believed that the philosophies of the past were all false because they were built on non-existent absolute principles.
  • He believed in a new morality that glorified human life, creativity, and personal heroism. He forecast the appearance of a “supermen” who would live “beyond good and evil” by refusing to be bound by society’s rules and norms.
  • Although he was an ardent foe of nationalism, anti-Semitism, and power politics, his name was later invoked by Fascists to advance the very things he loathed.

*

20-*

Early Modernism: Psychology

  • Austrian Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) offered an approach to human psychology that could be used for further study of the self. Freud’s analysis of the human mind challenged the Enlightenment belief that human being are fully rational.
  • Freud is the father of psychoanalysis and his concept of the Id, Ego, and Superego as the three struggling components of the psyche is instrumental in the modern understanding of psychology.
  • Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychologist and former associate of Freud.  Jung proposed and developed the concepts of extraversion and introversion; archetypes, and the collective unconscious.
  • Jung’s principle of opposites portrays each personality as a balance between opposing pairs of unconscious tendencies (male/female, extraversion/introversion, etc.

*

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

  • Personality Structure

Id

Superego

Ego

20-*

*

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

  • Personality Structure

Id

Superego

Ego

Primitive, unconscious portion of personality; houses most basic drives and stores repressed memories

20-*

*

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

  • Personality Structure

Id

Superego

Ego

Mind’s storehouse of values, moral attitudes learned from parents and society; same as common notion of conscience

20-*

*

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

  • Personality Structure

Id

Superego

Ego

Conscious, rational part of personality; charged with keeping peace between superego and id

20-*

*

Freud’s Model of the Mind

20-*

*

Figure 10.4

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung

20-*

20-*

Early Modernism: Religion

  • By the 1880’s there was a movement in religion called the “Social Gospel” stressing social betterment rather than personal piety. The religious equivalent of progressive politics, the Social Gospel movement taught that the evils and suffering of Industrialism could, and should, be eased through social outreach programs and helping one’s fellow man.
  • Some evangelicals felt betrayed by the Social Gospel movement and began the “fundamentalist” movement, which held fast to the Bible as the literal word of God, the need to be “born again,” and the truth of miracles.
  • In mostly Protestant Germany there was a “Kulturkampf” (culture war) between the German chancellor and the Vatican.

*

20-*

Early Modernism

*

20-*

Early Modernism: Literature

  • Three overlapping and contradictory styles of literature characterized early modernism; Naturalism, Decadent, and Expressionism.
  • Naturalistic Literature used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character.
  • The French writer Émile Zola and the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen were the leaders in this movement. They exposed the dark harshness of life, including poverty, racism, violence, prejudice, disease, corruption, prostitution, and filth. 
  • Naturalistic works often include uncouth or sordid subject matter. As a result, naturalistic writers were frequently criticized for focusing too much on human vice and misery.

*

20-*

Early Modernism: Literature

Decadence in Literature – Decadence was the name given, originally by hostile critics, to several late nineteenth-century writers who valued artifice more than the earlier Romantics' naïve descriptions. 

Writers such as Oscar Wilde (“The Importance of Being Earnest,” “A Picture of Dorian Gray”) and Marcel Proust (“Remembrance of Things Past”) were typical of the Decadent writers.

The Decadent movement generally had very relaxed views of morals and a cynically amused approach to life. H.G. Wells (“The Time Machine,” War of the Worlds,” “The Invisible Man, “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” etc.) is sometimes considered one of the members of the Decadent movement.

*

Oscar Wilde and H.G. Wells

20-*

20-*

Early Modernism: Literature

  • Expressionist Literature arose as a reaction against materialism, complacent bourgeois prosperity, rapid mechanization and urbanization, and the domination of the family within pre-World War I European society.
  • Expressionist artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality.
  • The finest exponent of Expressionist Literature was Franz Kafka (1883-1924) whose strange, symbolic stories question traditional views of reality.
  • Kafka’s most striking work is his short story “Metamorphosis,” in which the hero awakens to find out that he has been turned into a giant insect and “The Trial” where a doomed main character is accused of a nameless crime and executed by a faceless bureaucracy.

*

20-*

Early Modernism: The Advance of Science

  • In genetics the work of Johann Mendel advanced the field of genetics and the existence of dominant and recessive traits, a major accomplishment in gene theory.
  • The Polish physicist Marie Curie (1859-1906) identified two new radioactive elements, polonium and radium and German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen (1845-1923) discovered X-rays.
  • Max Planck (1858-1947) laid the foundation for modern physics with his research in quantum theory. Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962) was the prime mover in solving the mystery of the structure of the atom with his theory of atomic structure.
  • German-born Albert Einstein (1879-1955) developed the theory of relativity, the cornerstone of modern physics.

*

20-*

Modernist Painters

  • Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy.
  • He perfected the concept of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to “plein-air” (in the open air) landscape painting. 
  • The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (1874) in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.
  • Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons.

*

Claude Monet “La Grenouillére 1869”

10-*

*

Claude Monet, “Camille Monet on a Garden Bench” (1873)

10-*

*

Claude Monet.
“Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas 
(Water Lily Pond; 1919)”

10-*

Monet's late series of waterlily paintings are among his best-known works.

*

20-*

Modernist Painters

Auguste Renoir (1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French modernist artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. Renoir moved beyond impressionism and concentrated more on form.

As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau.”

Renoir's paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions.

The female nude was one of his primary subjects. In characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with one another and their surroundings.

*

Auguste Renoir, “Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette,” 1876)

20-*

*

Auguste Renoir, “Dance at Bougival”,
1882–1883

20-*

*

Auguste Renoir, “Nude in the Sun,” (1875) and “Seated Girl,” (1883)

20-*

*

Auguste Renoir, “After The Bath,” (1888) and “Diana the Huntress,” (1867)

20-*

*

Auguste Renoir, “Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880-81)

20-*

*

Berthe Morisot,
“The Cradle” (1872)
Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was another important French Impressionist. She focused on atmosphere and the play of light on the human form.

10-*

*

Berthe Morisot,
“Lady at Her Toilette” (1875)

10-*

*


Berthe Morisot,
“Shepherdess Reclining Nude” (1891)

10-*

*

Edgar Degas, “The Dance Class

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist. He was masterly in depicting movement and his paintings are notable for their psychological complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation

10-*

*

10-*

Edgar Degas, “L'Absinthe” (1876)

*

20-*

Edgar Degas, The Cotton Bureau in New Orleans (1873)

*

Edgar Degas, “After the Bath, Woman Drying her Nape” (1898)
and “Three Dancers in Yellow Skirts” (1891)

10-*

*

20-*


The Modernist Revolution in Art: Postimpressionism

  • Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colors, often thick application of paint, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary color.
  • Georges Seurat (1851-91) painted the ordinary pleasures of Parisian life in a sunlit atmosphere, but his way of doing so was formulaic and theoretical.
  • Seurat developed a technique known as “pointillism” which meant applying to the canvas thousands of tiny dots of pure color juxtaposed in such a way that when viewed from a certain distance, they merged to form a natural, harmonious effect of color light and shade.

*

 Georges Seurat,
“A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” (1884)

10-*

*

 Georges Seurat,
“Circus Sideshow (or Parade de Cirque)” (1887-8)

10-*

*

20-*

The Modernist Revolution in Art: Postimpressionism

  • Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.
  • Cézanne's often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of color and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects.
  • Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. Both Matisse and Picasso are said to have remarked that Cézanne "is the father of us all."

*

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine (1887)

20-*

Paul Cézanne, The Card Players (1892-5) and Woman in a Green Hat (1894-5)

20-*

20-*

The Modernist Revolution in Art: Postimpressionism

  • Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) the Post-Impressionist painter Gauguin began the movement known as “primitivism,” which was a term used to describe the West’s fascination with non-Western Culture.
  • Gauguin abandoned his career and life in Paris and lived a decadent, bohemian existence in the French colony of Tahiti

*

Paul Gauguin
“Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?”
(1897-8)

10-*

*

Paul Gauguin, “The Seed of the Areoi” and “Spirit of the Dead Watching” (1892)

10-*

*

20-*

The Modernist Revolution in Art: Postimpressionism

  • Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) was a Post-Impressionist painter of Dutch origin whose work—notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color—had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art.
  • Van Gogh’s paintings served as served as a vehicle for his private emotions. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, Van Gogh died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted. 
  • Van Gogh launched the postimpressionist trend in painting called Expressionism, where the art works to serve as a vehicle for artist’s private emotions.

*

20-*

Vincent Van Gogh, “The Starry Night” (1889)

*

Vincent Van Gogh, “Self Portrait” (1889)

20-*

*

Vincent van Gogh, “The Red Vineyard” (1888)

10-*

*

Vincent Van Gogh, “The Old Mill” (1888)

20-*

*

20-*

Fauvism, Cubism, and Expressionism

  • Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts"), a loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values. Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was the leading painter in this group.
  • Cubism - The Cubist painters rejected the inherited concept that art should copy nature, or that they should adopt the traditional techniques of perspective, modeling, and foreshortening. They emphasized the two-dimensionality of the canvas. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was the co-founder of the movement and the leading painter of the movement.
  • At this point we see “Expressionism” in the form of abstract art that is nonrepresentational in its nature. The paintings defy any sense of reality or connection to nature.

*

Henri Matisse, “Blue Nude” (1907) and “Madame Matisse (The Green Line) 1905

10-*

Matisse is the most important artist in Fauvism 

*

Pablo Picasso, “The Old Guitarist” (1903) and “Girl with a Mandolin (1910)

10-*

*

Pablo Picasso, “The Young Ladies of Avignon,” (1907) and “Woman in an Armchair (1913)

10-*

*

Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” (1879-89)
Rodin (1840-1917) was the greatest sculptor of this period. He rejected static classicism and forged and eclectic style that blended Romanticism, Renaissance, and Gothic styles.

10-*

*

Auguste Rodin, “Eve” (1881-99) and “The Kiss” (1889)

10-*

*

20-*

Louis Sullivan, “Wainwright Building” (1890-91)
The skyscraper, perfected by Chicago-based architects, became synonymous with modernism and modern life

*

20-*

Expressionism in Music

  • Claude Debussy (1862-1918), a French compose, is credited with founding the Impressionist movement in music, with rich chords and free rhythms and forms. Another major voice in Impressionist music was the French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937).
  • However new traditions and forms of music began to develop. Jazz, rooted in the African-American tradition began to emerge in the United States. The word “jazz” was originally a euphemism for sexual intercourse. Jazz drew heavily on “ragtime,” which was chiefly instrumental and “blues” which was primarily vocal.
  • Blues grew out of the rural African-American tradition of work songs and spirituals. Ragtime, which flourished from 1890-1920, is derived from the phrase “ragged time” and was perfected by black pianist and composer Scott Joplin (1868-1917).
  • These powerful and expressive musical forms are a uniquely American contribution to world music and are impactful to this day.

*

20-*

The Legacy of Early Modernism

  • The West, from 1871-1914, enjoyed one of the most peaceful eras in history, which would soon be broken by the greatest wars in history.
  • Nationalism, imperialism, militarism, all increased and the horrible wars would result from these forces.
  • The Second Industrial Revolution picked up momentum and millions emigrated to the U.S. seeking upward mobility, but the suffering of the working class continued.
  • We see the rise of a “Mass culture” and a fascination with the avant-garde and “newness.”
  • Early modernism established the emotional and aesthetic climate of the century and rebelled against many traditional values of society.

*