Modernity: Using latest techniques.
Modernism: Early to mid 20th century movement in Art.
The process of modernisation allowed modernism to develop and Flourish.
Pre Modernity : Governed by the Church.
NEW WORD! Patriarchy - world dominated by men.
Industrial Revolution influenced Modernity by allowing new techniques through the new technologies, the mass production, and by creating the working class a new culture was born with more people having money to spend.
1750-1789 was the age of enlightenment, during this time people questioned the church, especially Voltaire with his satirical take on religion.
The French Revolution occurred in 1789.
These events helped along the movement of Modernism by allowing three major processes:
Rationalisation, allowing reasoning, mainly through Darwin and the new ideas of evolution.
Secularisation, more and more people where abandoning religion.
Democratisation, more equality, more people where allowed to vote and express there opinions.
Although society remained Patriarchal.
Then there was the invention of Photography, which lead to the start of Bohemianism and an artistic lifestyle in the 1850's. Artists such as William Turner (such a great artist I really like the emotion in his work and talent in keeping the painting simple with brooding colours yet conveying, imparticularly storms on the sea. However my favourite pieces are always the ones that capture a sunrise he really has a way to make them misty and magical.), inspired impressionists such as Monet, (whose work I saw early last year at the Galerie L'Orangerie in paris, whose lily paintings are custom designed for an oval room in the gallery that really transform the space, and have such impeccable beauty and overwhelm you as you walk in, really is a spectacle. Cezanne took the impressionism further, as the medium of Photography was developed painters no longer where required to paint to a lifelike style, they could embrace the medium and be a lot freer with the outlet. Then Picasso was even more radical painting a prostitute in an abstract way which led to cubism being developed in 1910. I don't like the cubism genre as much, because although theres skill in seeing something from many different angles, i think the aesthetics just aren't as pleasing and often your eyes don't move through the picture as well. To me there isn't enough flow to them. During the time of cubism in Italy, a group started Futurism which was mainly led by Umberto Boccioni, to me looks like all the paintings where trying to get speed in, by the line work and shapes in the imagery, theres lots of repetition, and although it's also not my cup of tea I can see how it's developed from previous pieces of abstract art. Which leads on to Kandinsky and abstraction, which I really struggle to appreciate. However at this time expressionism in the Form of Van Gogh was starting, and in France Marcel Duchamp was painting Mona Lisa, which surprised me at how small this was. He was also signing a urinal and questioning what is art.
All of this led up to Modernism whose basic premise was the Form Follows Function. The main properties of Modernist art was the Minimal Aesthetic through the Bauhaus recognised as international style. As well as the art came a new breed of Architects one of the most notable was Le Corbusier, who designed hi-rise flats. He was ahead of his time with a clinically clean aesthetic.
Another aspect of Modernist design that developed was type, a modernist's obsession. Helvetica most famously was created by Bauhaus, along with many others. Bauhaus only lasted 15 years before being taken over by the Nazi's who used it as offices. Today it has been restored as a gallery and college that teaches the equivalent of foundation diplomas. Nazi's of the time were anti Modernism and this caused other socialist Movements elsewhere to pick it up, this included people like Picasso.
Along with Modernism came advertising, such as Think Small, the Volkswagen campaign which represented the core philosophies of Modernism through it's minimalism, only using a small proportion of the space, it's clean type and clean white background. This is still one of the most prominent examples of Modernism Design. Things with a modernism design were however very, very expensive, and this meant that only the affluent could afford it. It is often seen as a catalyst to represent 20th century money making.
The death of modernism is often defined by the building of a Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, 1953-1955, which also marks the start of Post Modernism.
In conclusion Modernism is regarded as an Idealistic, utopian response to war.
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