Modernism & Modernity lecture

Modernism & Modernity lecture

Today we had an introduction into the two significant movements, Modernism & Modernity, Modernism was influenced directly down the timeline by Modernity. 

Before modernity came about the world was governed by The church and the monarchy a very religious society. The term modernity and modernism follow different concepts. 

Modernity been the presentations of the latest techniques, technologies and process's at that time period. Showing how up to date & contemporary the creative was.

Modernism was the birth off a movement within art, design, literature and the arts as a general umber all incorporating aspects off modernity within these said creative practices. 

Its argued that the process off modernization allowed modernism to develop as a movement. 

To put it into context the end off the church governed world and when the world became "modern" was during the power of St peters church and this sparked the power of creative minds. 

Modernity really set in around the 1750s when the iron bridge showed the development and bragging rights off through the use of modern technologies and production techniques of that period.

1750-1789 saw the age of Enlightenment which sparked the basic birth of modern philosophy, research techniques and science. As shown in this experimentation on Anatomy presented by artist Rembrandt van Rijn.

And a painting of how science is represented by killing a bird showing its need for oxygen.

Bellow are the key dates within this modern period. 

The key elements within this period were the following:

Rationalization - The reasoning on human existence.

Secularization - Evolution of the human race from the writings of Charles Darwin. 

Democratization: No religious societ, not dominated by the Monarchy and the church. The separation of the rich and the poor faded with equal opportunities to everyone and the choice of vote became available for the majority. 

The documentation off life and society began to be presented in a more modern way through the use of photography. The latter photo "the two ways of life" represents realism through modernity and shows the contrast of good (religious) and bad (sex, drugs and alcohol) with jesus in the middle. A multiple exposure photo showing the advancement of photography from the first photograph of the Boulevard du Temple.

More advanced techniques shown through Gustave Le Grays photo that has a fast enough exposure to capture the wave in motion almost. 

Joseph Mallord William turner inspired the likes of Monet through his examples of realism and slight abstract elements were kept on the back burner for other future artists in the modernism & modernity period. 

Monet presents the modern society off working class enjoying a drink after work in a realist fashion. 

This presentation of the rich is contrasted by Gustave Caillebotte & Edvard Munchs paintings the first presents the upperclass in there wealthy society, Munchs painting represents in an abstract way the alienation of the rich societies.

Enter the 19th century. in 1907 Picassos Les Demoiselles made history by been classed as one of the top 100 paintings that changed the world and the real birth of abstract modernity artwork. It showed the human character in an abstract surreal way. 

Modernity began to become very minimalist in its style sparked by Kandinsky's paintings. 

All the above sparked the official birth of the modernism period. Mainly within architecture and the birth off minimalist aesthetics. 

The movement was strengthened by the production of new materials like concrete, modern steel and reinforced glass which were presented in architecture in abundance. Mass production was the main body behind the movement creating cheaper more widely available products a lot quicker than before. 

The term form vs function is best presented here when a typewriter replaces ornate hand wrote type, and in turn began the huge industry of type design. Typewriter representing function over form. 

From here modern technologies were presented in the birth of flat pack housing inspired by its minimalist aesthetics and clean lines and presentation of the modern materials at that time. 

My final relevance I took from the lecture was from how the above architecture gave birth to the iconic Bauhaus and the classic Bauhaus within the graphic design sector and product design sector. The use of angled elements and contrasting horizontal and vertical lines and simple use off color.