The modernity era was characterized by industrialization, capitalism, urbanization, and secularism. It brought wide changes not only to people’s lives but also to the world of art. Many artists responded to the progress of modernity in an unusual way. Some, like Picasso, scared the audience with geometric forms of human bodies. Russian avant-garde chose a defensive position, refusing to believe in the positive side of the progress. Surrealist Salvador Dali represented chaotical and paradoxical elements in his pictures. The world of art reacted to the changes with non-traditional ways of reality representation creating new movements.
Cubism, with its angular and sometimes monstrous forms, has become one of the brightest movements of the modernity era. In 1907, Pablo Picasso created the picture Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon). The painting depicts five nude women having figures with straight lines and sharp corners. Apart from being the first Cubism piece of work, this painting also reflects different periods of Picasso arts. Inspired by African culture, Picasso depicted two women on the right side of the picture with African masks. At the same time, the tones of the painting remind of Picasso’s Rose and Blue periods. The researchers also see this piece of art as revolutionary. According to Chave, “Picasso’s picture has been held to mark or even to have precipitated the demise of the old visual order and the advent of the new” (596). The plot of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon has sexual context as the represented women are the prostitutes in a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyó in Barcelona. The style and plot of the picture caused controversy among the contemporaries of Picasso.
The audience of that time did not accept the painting. As Chave notes, the picture seemed mad and monstrous to many, and the men viewers even felt as if they were victims of depicted prostitutes (596). Researchers consider that men became the main audience for that piece of work and were terrified by geometric forms of female bodies and uncertainty that hides behind African masks (Chave 609). The painting, depicting one of the most vulnerable female groups involved in the sex industry, also causes debates from a feminist perspective. Chave finds the picture offensive and attractive at the same time, seeing its attractiveness in the fact that the painting “makes fun of the prostitutes’ clients, despoiling their sexual appetite” (599). Thus, it is possible to agree that Picasso tried to make people reconsider their view not only on art but also on sexuality.
An unusual answer to social and industrial changes during the modernity era was given by Russian avant-garde. According to Groys, Russian artists were “far from enthusiastic about technology or inspired by a naive faith in progress,” seeing the destructive effect in those changes (15). One of the artists who responded to modernity destructions with modern methods was Kazimir Malevich. His most famous and peculiar picture Black Square, created in 1915, belongs to the Suprematism movement and depicts a black square figure on a white background. This picture became a “sign for the pure form of contemplation” (Groys 16). The object of that contemplation became nothing in the form of the black square, as Malevich felt that the progress was moving to nothing (Groys 16). Suprematism was characterized by simple geometric shapes, usually of different colors. In this context, Malevich’s Black Square, with its blackness, managed to express nothingness even more brightly. It is possible to agree that this picture represents a new level of reality belonging to the subconscious world.
This painting became revolutionary, expressing an absolutely non-traditional way of art representation. Russian avant-garde artists, including Malevich, believed that traditional methods were not able to respond to new forms of reality (Groys 15). Given the revolutionary nature of the work, it can be assumed that Malevich was not interested in the reaction of the audience, but in the opportunity to express his thoughts and concerns. Malevich considered that the technological invasion destroyed the harmony that existed between “the original suprematist elements” of classical art and nature (Groys 16). These elements were previously perceived subconsciously, but with the destruction of that harmony, it became necessary to reveal them (Groys 16). Thus, Black Square became the symbol of the subconscious world and expressed resistance to modernity.
Another modern movement that impressed viewers with its unusual and paradoxical forms was Surrealism. Developing out of Dadaism, it emerged as a movement in France in the 1920s. Researchers note that Surrealism founded itself as “the re‐establishment of what had been lost, as the recovery of elemental and universal forces which modern society was in the process of destroying” (Richardson 132). It is interesting to discuss one of the most famous surrealists, Salvador Dali, and his painting The Lugubrious Game, created in 1929. The picture was among those works that Dali wanted to represent in his first solo exhibition in Paris.
The Lugubrious Game can be called attractive and repulsive at the same time. Various objects and creatures are presented in a chaotic but organized manner as a mixture of reality and fiction. The painting represents some objects and themes that are typical of Dali’s art in general. For instance, there is an image of a locust depicted on Dali’s face, which hints at personal and biographical motives. Many objects, such as female hips, also vividly illustrate the theme of sexuality. Huge steps leading to the unknown are represented on the right side of the picture, and on the left side, there is an impressive monument and sculptures of lions.
The painting caused controversy, and some elements seemed even offensive to the audience. For instance, according to the study, Breton found the most vulgar figure was “the man in the lower right hand corner whose shorts are visibly soiled with excrement” (Rothman 8). However, it was claimed that Dali, with that picture, opened “the mental windows” really wide (Rothman 8). Dali himself saw the depicted objects as mattered in themselves and wanted “to liberate all things – especially the tiniest of things – from the minds that would control them” (Rothman 11). It is possible to agree that Dali opened his mind to the audience, representing his own nightmares and dreams mixed with the reality that is peculiar and scary as well.
One may conclude that the modernity era created artists whose picture of the world did not meet traditional views on art. Some artists, including Picasso, living in times of great changes, were not afraid to bring even greater changes to art, creating new movements. Russian avant-garde artists expressed protests to the new era and its progress. Surrealists tried to re-establish something that was lost in a whirlwind of modern time, filling simple objects with deep meaning.
Works Cited
Chave, Anna C. “New Encounters with Les Demoiselles d’Avignon: Gender, Race, and the Origins of Cubism.” The Art Bulletin, vol. 76, no. 4, 1994, pp. 596-611.
Groys, Boris. The Total Art of Stalinism: Avant-Garde, Aesthetic Dictatorship, and Beyond. Verso Trade, 2011.
Richardson, Michael. ““Other” Surrealisms: Center and Periphery in International Perspective.” A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, edited by David Hopkins, Wiley Blackwell, 2016, pp. 131-143.
Rothman, Roger. “Object-Oriented Surrealism: Salvador Dalí and the Poetic Autonomy of Things.” Culture, Theory and Critique, vol. 57, no. 2, 2016, pp. 176-196.