Modernism is a philosophical movement that was initiated in the late nineteenth century. It was triggered by several historical, social, philosophical, and scientific developments of the period and was largely deemed revolutionary and disruptive in nature. Despite being strongly associated with the domain of art, its influence can be traced in many aspects of social life.
The most notable prerequisite to the Modernist revolution was the disillusionment caused by the development of several radical ideas that emerged during the late nineteenth century. First, Darwin’s theory of evolution undermined the belief in fundamental characteristics of the divine nature of humankind and, as a result, stripped the existence of certainty and objective determination.
Simultaneously, the works of Karl Marx challenged the assumption of the relative nature of the shortcomings of capitalist society and suggested its fundamental flaws and inherent contradictions as reasons for the current social issues (Whitworth 22). These new characteristics of human society as unremarkable, imperfect, and not backed with a warrant for the ultimate goal, were radically different from the previous assumptions capitalized by realism and were enough to disrupt the underpinnings of a social order of the time.
By extension, the fundamental values such as the objective and infallible nature of truth or even reality became visibly obsolete, and the scholars and artists alike turned away from them. The beginning of the twentieth century also saw the emergence of two notable scientific concepts, which were major contributions to Modernism. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity further deemphasized the objective nature of the Universe, suggesting that the laws of nature, which were previously thought of as immovable, such as time, were, in fact, altering values (Ebury 42).
Karl Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, built upon Freud’s theory of subjective states, described a set of typologies that were combining and interlocking to produce a conscious response of a human being and thus define its perception of the outside world. Interestingly, this also led Jung to a conclusion that breaking the established norm was not a deviant behavior but a natural outcome of the subconscious nature of humans, the idea which was readily embraced by the artists rebelling against existing standards (Sikes 51). In essence, the development of science created a new image of the world where the traditional artistic approaches and values became irrelevant and hypocritical, and the world was highly personal and subjective.
The rebellious and disruptive nature of Modernism was best observed in the Surrealist movement of the early twentieth century. In its initial form, Surrealism was essentially a protest against the existing approach to art and social organization in general. The main concerns of Surrealists were rational thinking and traditional bourgeois values, which allegedly caused social and economic decline (Hopkins 22).
Thus, Surrealists capitalized on the “anti-artistic” quality of their work, embracing the freedom of expression and interpretation. The easiest and one of the most recognized examples of such an approach is Salvador Dali’s work Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening. The painting features recognizable and fairly detailed images and forms that, with the exception of the elephant, resemble the real-world counterparts. However, the arrangement and positioning of the objects prominently denies logic and instead emphasizes the imagination and lack of restrictions (Cantor and Cantor 112).
The resulting image is also highly reminiscent of the dream sequence, which rejects the rational view and resembles the subconscious deconstruction suggested by Freud. Dali’s works often feature other prominent characteristics of Modernism. For instance, the inspiration behind The Persistence of Memory can be traced to Einstein’s suggestions of the relative rather than the rigid quality of time.
Cubism was another Modernist movement that deemphasized the importance of objects in an attempt to capture their intrinsic qualities. A common approach in Cubism is the breakdown of objects into their characteristic features or meaningful elements and reassembling them in a more abstract form that prominently features their traits. For example, The Woman with a Guitar by Georges Braque creates the feeling of movement and dynamics rather than a static image by highlighting various parts of the objects from multiple viewpoints.
The image looks fragmented and chaotic, but its elements are intersecting to create a sense of depth rather than complicate the perception. Such an approach disregards the physical resemblance in favor of the properties attributable to the object, which is consistent with the approach commonly displayed by Modernists (Cantor and Cantor 117). Notably, this approach can also be traced to Friedrich Nietzsche’s work, which suggests the importance of forces over physical properties of objects and, more prominently, the ideas of Henri Bergson.
According to Bergson, who is often cited alongside Nietzsche as a pioneer of the Modernist philosophy, the dynamic life force of reality must be prioritized over its static representation (Gontarski, Ardoin, and Mattison ix). It should be mentioned that Braque’s Cubism is relatively concrete and serves the purpose of artistic depiction, which is not common throughout the movement. Picasso, who collaborated with Braque, eventually developed his own manner of Cubism, which relied more on the abstract and less on transferring the meaning.
Some of his pictures, such as Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, are a challenge to decipher and comprehend – instead, they pursue the very definition of the abstract and deliberately emphasize the rebellion against the Western artistic tradition (Cantor and Cantor 109). Thus, Picasso’s work is a manifestation of the Modernist philosophy rather than a suggestion of an alternative, an emphasis on the fact of disillusionment with the old rather than a constructive suggestion of the new. More than everything else, it describes the reaction to the views introduced by Darwin and Marx and the social dismay emerging as a result of disillusionment with traditional values.
Works Cited
Cantor, Norman, and Mindy Cantor. The American Century: Varieties of Culture in Modern Times, London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997. Print.
Ebury, Katherine. Modernism and Cosmology: Absurd Lights, Hampshire: Springer, 2014. Print.
Gontarski, Stephen, Paul Ardoin, and Laci Mattison. Understanding Bergson, Understanding Modernism, New York: A&C Black, 2013. Print.
Hopkins, David. A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2016. Print.
Sikes, William. The Psychological Roots of Modernism: Picasso and Jung, Hoboken: Wiley, 2015. Print.
Whitworth, Michael. Modernism, Malden: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print.