Modernism in USA

American Modernism
An artistic and cultural movement in the
United States starting at the turn of the 20th
century with its core period between World War
I and World War II and continuing into the 21st
century.

Armory show in New York (1913)

-the first opportunity for
Americans to see the new art that
had been developing in Europe.
The Centers of Modernism:
1. Artist's self-consciousness about
questions of form and structure.
2. Obsession
with
primitive
material
and
stylistic
innovations.

Modernism was also revolutionary in

the sense that it challenged the issues
that blocked the human progress.
Rejections of the Modernism
movement:
Certainty of Enlightenment thinking
Nihilism or rejection of religious
beliefs
Ideology of Realism
Tradition
It also reacts against historicism,
artistic conventions, and
institutionalization of Art

 By 1930, Modernism had entered

popular culture. Popular culture, derived
from its own realities (particularly mass
production), fueled much modernist
innovation.
Modern ideas in art appeared in
commercials, advertisements, and logos,
being an early example of the need for
clear, easily recognizable and memorable
visual symbols.
Modernism was also shaped through the
economic and technological progress in
U.S. which accelerated the daily life of an
individual.

Examples of Modernist magazine advertisements

Visual Arts

Marsden Hartley
(January 4, 1877 - September 2,
1943)

anAmerican
Modernistpainter, poet,
and essayist. Often
combines a thick
brushstrokes and vibrant
colors.

ortrait of a German Officer (1914)

Oil on canvas 68 1/4 x 41 3/8 in.

Hartley's assimilation were both

Cubism (the collage like
juxtapositions of visual fragments)
and Expressionism (the coarse
brushwork and dramatic using
bright colors and black).
However, his purpose inclusion of
medals, banners, military insignia,
the Iron Cross, and the German
imperial flag does evoke a specific
sense of Germany during World War
I as well as a collective
psychological and physical portrait
of a particular officer.

Other paintings of Hartley

The Ice Hole

(1908)

Painting No.
48(1913)

Handsome drinks
(1916)

Paul Jackson
Pollock
(January 28, 1912 August 11,
1956)

known asJackson Pollock

was an influential American

painter and a major figure in
theabstract expressionist
movement. He was well known
for his unique style ofdrip
painting.

Pollock was introduced to the use of

liquid paint in 1936 at an
experimental workshop in New York
City by the Mexican muralistDavid
Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint
pouring as one of several techniques
on canvases of the early 1940s, such
asMale and FemaleandComposition
with Pouring I.After his move to
Springs, he began painting with his
canvases laid out on the studio floor,
and he developed what was later
called his "drip" technique.
He uses synthetic resin-based paints
calledalkydenamels, which, at that
time, was a novel medium
andhardened brushes, sticks, and
even basting syringes as paint
applicators. Pollock's technique of
pouring and dripping paint is thought
to be one of the origins of the
termaction painting.

Male and Female

(1942)
Oil on canvas
73.1 in x 49 in
Pollock was heavily influenced by fellow
painters, Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso. It
is obvious that the distortion of the
human form present inMale and
Femalestems from the similar
Surrealist and Cubism art forms.
This painting portrays a man and
woman using bold colors and in an
extreme abstract form. The figure on
the right appears to have a blackboard
type surface as a body displaying
numbers and mathematical symbols.
The image to the left is less identifiable
except for the appearance of two long
lashed eye openings. They appear to be
joined in the center by a surface
containing 3 triangles and what looks
like a partial, almost ghostlike child
figure.

Other paintings of Pollock

The Key (1946)

Oil on linen
59 x 82 inches

Convergence
(1952)
Oil on canvas
93.5 x 155 inches

Other paintings of Pollock

She-Wolf
(1943)
Oil, gouache, and
plaster on canvas
41 7/8 x 67"

The Deep
(1953)
Oil and enamel on
canvas

Other paintings of Pollock

Number 8 (1949)
Oil, gouache, and plaster
on canvas
41 7/8 x 67 inches

Number 11
(1952)
enamel &
aluminium paint
with glass on
canvas
83.5
192.5inches
Known also as Blue
Poles

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe

(November15,1887March6,1986)

TheworldsfamousfemaleAmericanmodernist
thatdevotedtocreatingimagerythat

expressedwhatshecalledthewideness
andwonderoftheworldasIliveinit.
OKeeffesimagesinstantlyrecognizable
asherownincludeabstractions,largescaledepictionsofflowers,leaves,rocks,
shells,bonesandothernaturalforms,New
Yorkcityscapesandpaintingsofthe
unusualshapesandcolorsofarchitectural
andlandscapeformsofnorthernNew
Mexico.

Cows Skull Red White

and Blue (1931)
39 7/8 x 35 7/8 inches
The painting depicts
acowskullcentered in front of what
appears to be a cloth background.
In the center of the background is a
verticalblackstripe. On either side
of that are two vertical sripes
ofwhitelaced with blue. At the
outside of the painting are two
verticalredstripes.
O'Keeffe used a weathered cow's
skull to represent the enduring
spirit of America or depicting Jesus
Christ on the cross with touches on
the strong ties to Christianity. The
painting prominently displays the
three colors of theAmerican
flagbehind the cow skull. Although
she said made it as a joke on the
concept of the "Great American
Painting," the picture has become a
quintessentialiconof theAmerican
West.

Other paintings of OKeeffe

Georgia Ram's
Head White
Hollyhock and
Little Hill (1935)
Oil on canvas
36 x 24 inches

Cow's Skull with Calico

Roses (1931)

Georgia Ram's
Head White
Hollyhock and
Little Hill (1928)

Oil on canvas

Oil on canvas

36 x 24 inches

29 7/8 x 39 7/8 inches

Other paintings of OKeeffe

Sky Above Clouds IV

(1965)
Oil on canvas
96 x 288 in

The Black Place II

(1944)
Oil on canvas
23 7/8 x 30 inches

John Marin
(December 1870 October
1953)

was an early American

modernist artist. He is known
for his abstract landscapes and
watercolors.

The Sea, Cape Split,

Maine (1939)
Oil on canvas

Movement: Boats and Objects,

Blue Gray Sea (1947)
Oil on canvas

24 1/4 x 29 1/4inches

29 x 36 1/4 inches
John Marin used oil paint as thinly as
he did watercolor, the medium for
which he is best known.

Mark Rothko

was an Americanpainter of
Russian Jewish descent. He is
generally identified as
anAbstract Expressionist,
although he himself rejected
this label and even resisted
classification as an "abstract
painter."

No.5/No.22
Oil on Canvas
Untitled

Number 12
(1951)

Saffron
(1957)

Robert
Motherwell

was an
Americanpainter,printmaker,
and editor. He was one of the
youngest of theNew York
School(a phrase he coined),
which also includedPhilip
Guston,Willem de
Kooning,Jackson Pollock,
andMark Rothko.

From the Lyric Suite, 1965

Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 54, 195761

Wall Painting with Stripes,1944

Adolph Gottlieb

was anAmericanabstract
expressionistpainter, sculptor
and printmaker.

Rolling, 1961

Sentinel, 1951

Flotsam at Noon, 1950s

Morris Louis

was anAmericanpainter.
During the 1950s he became
one of the earliest exponents
of Color Fieldpainting

Point of
Tranquility,1959

DALETKAF

1958 Tet magna

Architecture

Modernist architecture emphasize

function.
The phrase form follows function is
often used when discussing the
principles of modernism. It asserts that
forms should be simplified
architectural designs should bear no
more ornament than is necessary to
function. Modernists believe that
ornament should follow the structure
and purpose of the building. Family life
and social interaction was at the centre
of the modernist dream for a
plannedenvironment.

Modernist architecture has these

features:
Little or no ornamentation
Factory-made parts
Man-made materials such as
metal and concrete
Emphasis on function
Rebellion against traditional styles

Louis Henry Sullivan

(September 3, 1856 April 14,
1924)
was anAmericanarchitect,
and has been called the "father
of skyscrapers"and "father of
modernism".He is considered
by many as the creator of the
modernskyscraper, was an
influential architect and critic of
theChicago School, was a
mentor toFrank Lloyd Wright,
and an inspiration to the
Chicago group of architects
who have come to be known as
thePrairie School.

Guaranty
Building

Frank Lloyd Wright

(June 8, 1867 April 9, 1959)

American architect, interior

designer, writer and educator, who
designed more than 1000
structures and completed 532
works.
Wright believed in designing
structures which were in harmony
with humanity and its
environment, a philosophy he
calledorganic architecture.
His work includes original and
innovative examples of many
different building types, including
offices, churches, schools,
skyscrapers, hotels, and museums.
Was recognized in 1991 by
theAmerican Institute of Architects
as "the greatest American architect

Falling water
(1935, Southwestern
Pennsylvania)

TheSolomon R.
Guggenheim
Museum
(New York City
1959)

Hickox/Brown
house
(Illinois,United
States)

Richard Neutra
(April 8, 1892 April 16, 1970)
was anAustrian American
architect .
He came to be considered
among the most
importantmodernist
architects.
Neutra had a keen
appreciation for the
relationship between people
and nature; his trademark
plate glass walls and ceilings
which turn into deep
overhangs have the effect of
connecting the indoors with
the outdoors.

Kaufmann Desert
House (1947, Palm
Springs, California)

Kronish House
(1955, Beverly
Hills,California)

Walter Gropius
July 5,
(May 18, 1883
1969) was
aGermanarchitect and
founder of theBauhaus
Schoolwho, along
withLudwig Mies van der
Rohe,Le
CorbusierandFrank Lloyd
Wright, is widely regarded
as one of the pioneering
masters ofmodern
architecture.

Gropius House
(1938) in Lincoln,
Massachusetts

Ludwig Mies van der

Rohe
(March 27, 1886 August 19,
1969) was a GermanAmericanarchitect.

He is widely regarded as one

of the pioneering masters
ofmodern architecture

860880 Lake Shore

(1951,Drive
Chicago,Illinois)

Fashion

Fashion
In the early 1920s, the ready-to-wear fashion
began to spread America. More women
earned their own wages and didnt want to
spend time on fittings. Fashion as the status
symbol was no more important as class
distinctions were becoming blurred. People
especially women called for inexpensive
fashion. In the aspect of mass production of
contemporary style clothing for women,
America went ahead of other countries.
Several designers of this fashion
includingJane Derbymade a stage pose.

Jane Derby
(May 10, 1895
August 9, 1965)

a top-of-the-line ready-towear American fashion

designer from the 1930s to

Women
By 1921 the longer
skirt, which was usually
long and uneven at the
bottom was out of date.
The short skirt became
popular by 1925. No
bosom, no waistline,
and hair nearly hidden
under a cloche hat.
The manufacturing of
cosmetics also began
from this decade.
Powder, lipstick, rouge,
eyebrow pencil, eye
shadow, colored nails,
women had them all.
Moreover, pearls came
in fashion as well.

Men
In this period, clothing
for men was more
conservative. Trousers
widened to 24inches at
the bottoms. Knickers,
increased the width and
length, were calledplus
fours.
In summer, white linen
was popular, while in the
winter an American coat
the raccoon coatwas
in fashion. The slouch
hat, made of felt, could
be rolled up and packed
into a suitcase. These
were very popular with
college men.

Children

Music

American Modernism
in Music
Armies of men have turned
to a better life by first hearing
the sounds of a Salvation
Army band. The next time you
hear a Salvation Army band,
no matter how humble, take
off your hat.
-John Philip Sousa

Is an American
composer and
conductor of the
late Romantic era,
known primarily for
American military
and patriotic
marches,
known
as
o The Liberty Bell
march king.
othe
The Thunderer
o The Washington Post
o Semper Fidelis
o The Stars and Stripes
Forever

John Philip Sousa

The Salvation Army is a Christian denominational

church and international charitable organization
structured in a quasi-military fashion.
The organization reports worldwide membership of
over 1.5 million,[1] consisting of soldiers, officers and
adherents known as Salvationists. Its founders
Catherine and William Booth sought to bring salvation
to the poor, destitute and hungry by meeting both
their "physical and spiritual needs".

Charles Edward
Ives
He is one of the first
American composers of
international
renown,though Ives'
music was largely
ignored during his life,
and many of his works
went unperformed for
many years.Over time,
Ives came to be
regarded as an

Ives drew on the music of his New

Englandchildhoodhymns, patriotic
songs, brass band marches, and
dancetuneswhichhe set in a very
modern style, using
polytonalityandpolyrhythms.
Poly tonality musicaluse of more
than onekeysimultaneously.
Polyrhythms simultaneous use of
two or more conflicting rhythms

The Country Band

March
Written in 1903 after Ives graduated in
Yale.
He setcompositional path for the
future by using manywellknownmusicalquotations
fromchildrens songs, patriotic tunes,
hymns, and even two marches by John
Philip Sousa.
The work is not actually in a march
form (which resembles a rag) but
rather afive-partsectional one that

jaz

Early in the 20th century, jazz evolved from

the blues tradition, but also incorporated
many other musical and cultural elements.
In New Orleans, often considered the
birthplace of jazz, musicians benefited from
the influx of Spanish and French colonial
influences. In this city, a unique ethnic
cultural mix and looser racial prohibitions
allowed African Americans more influence

Jazz

music of
integration

as a central element of American culture, has its roots in

Black slave culture. The music combined elements from
African call and response patterns into its instrumentation
and riffs.In its beginnings jazz was looked critically upon
by parts of the white population
During the 1920s and 1930s jazz gained considerably in
popularity and aroused increasing interest in young
whites who were attracted by the artistic, personal as
well as cultural freedom of expression this new musical
form had to offer.

White
Musicians
Benny
Goodman

Gene
Krup
a

Milton
Mezzrow

Louis
Armstrong

Today, jazz music is regarded

as an integral and vibrant
part of American culture, the
unique native music of
America, a worldwide
representative of AfroAmerican culture.

Literature

 John Steinbeck (19021968) was born in

Salinas, California , where he set many
of his stories. His style was simple and
evocative, winning him the favor of the
readers but not of the critics. Steinbeck
often wrote about poor, working-class
people and their struggle to lead a
decent and honest life.
The Grapes of Wrath, considered his
masterpiece, is a strong, sociallyoriented novel that tells the story of the
Joads, a poor family from Oklahoma and

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

in 1962.

Nathanael West
born Nathan
Weinstein (October
17, 1903
December 22,
1940), was an
American author,
screenwriter and
satirist

 A contemporary of Steinbeck, Nathanael West is

most famous for two short novels.
The first, Miss Lonelyhearts , plumbs the life of its
eponymous antihero , a reluctant (and, to comic
effect, male) advice columnist , and the effects the
tragic letters exert on it.

 The second, The Day of the Locust , introduces a cast of

Hollywood stereotypes and explores the ironies of the movies.
Both are now considered classics of American literature.
Hollywood The center of the American motion picture industry.

Henry Miller
Henry
Valentine
Miller
(December 26, 1891 June 7,
1980) was an American writer.
He was known for breaking
with existing literary forms,
developing a new sort of semiautobiographical novel that
blended
character
study,
social criticism, philosophical
reflection, explicit language,
sex, surrealist free association
and
mysticism,
always
distinctly
about
and
expressive of the real-life
Henry Miller and yet also
fictional.

 Henry Miller assumed a unique

place in American literature in
the 1930s when his semiautobiographical
novels,
written and published in Paris,
were banned from the U.S.
Although his major works,
including Tropic of Cancer and
Black Spring , would not be
free of the label of obscenity
until 1962, their themes and
stylistic
innovations
had
already
exerted
a
major
influence
on
succeeding
generations
of
American
writers, and paved the way for
sexually frank 1960s novels

Gertrude Stein
(February 3, 1874
July 27, 1946) was an
American writer of
novels, poetry and
plays that eschewed
the narrative, linear,
and
temporal
conventions of 19thcentury literature, and
a fervent collector of
Modernist art.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is a 1933 book by
Gertrude Stein, written in the guise of an autobiography
authored by Alice B. Toklas, who was her lover.

 In 1933, Gertrude Stein published the memoirs of her

Paris years, entitled The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas ,
which became a literary bestseller. The advent of this
book elevated Stein from the relative obscurity of a cult
literary figure into the light of mainstream attention.

Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway
(July 21, 1899 July 2,
1961) was an American
author and journalist.
His economical and
understated style had a
strong influence on
20th-century fiction,
while his life of
adventure and his public
image influenced later
generations.

 The popularity of
Hemingway's work to a
great extent is based on
the themes, which
according to scholar
Frederic Svoboda are love,
war, wilderness and loss, all
of which are strongly
evident in the body of
work.[174] These are
recurring themes of
American literature, which
are clearly evident in
Hemingway's work

 T.S. Eliot (1888-1965),

American-British poet and
literary critic, author of
Prufrock and Other
Observations (1917) won
numerous awards and
honours in his lifetime,
including the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1948. His early
and experimental poetical
works depict a bleak and
barren soullessness, often
in spare yet finely crafted
modern verse

The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men (1925) is
a poem by T. S. Eliot. Its
themes are, like many of
Eliot's poems, overlapping
and fragmentary, but it is
recognised to be
concerned most with postWorld War I Europe under
the Treaty of Versailles
(which Eliot despised:
compare "Gerontion"), the
difficulty of hope and
religious conversion

William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner
(born Falkner, September
25, 1897 July 6, 1962),
also known as Will Faulkner,
was an American writer and
Nobel Prize laureate from
Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner
worked in a variety of
written media, including
novels, short stories, a play,
poetry,
essays
and
screenplays. He is primarily
known and acclaimed for
his novels and short stories

A Rose for Emily

Faulkner's most famous, most
popular, and most anthologized
short story, "A Rose for Emily"
evokes the terms Southern gothic
and grotesque, two types of
literature in which the general
tone is one of gloom, terror, and
understated violence. The story is
Faulkner's best example of these
forms
because
it
contains
unimaginably dark images: a
decaying mansion, a corpse, a
murder, a mysterious servant
who
disappears,
and,
most
horrible of all, necrophilia an
erotic or sexual attraction to
corpses.

F.Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key
Fitzgerald (September 24,
1896 December 21,
1940) was an American
author of novels and
short stories, whose
works are the
paradigmatic writings of
the Jazz Age, a term he
coined. He is widely
regarded as one of the
greatest American writers
of the 20th century.

 Tender is the Night was

published in 1933 by Francis
Scott Key Fitzgerald, better
known as F. Scott Fitzgerald,
the American author famous
for his novel, The Great Gatsby.
Set between 1913 and 1930,
mostly in Southern France and
Switzerland, the novel tells the
story of what happens when
the extremes of love, madness,
and ambition play out against
a high-glamour backdrop, in a
physical
and
psychological
landscape torn apart by World
War I.

 The
Great
Gatsby
explores
themes
of
decadence,
idealism,
resistance to change,
social upheaval, and
excess,
creating
a
portrait of the Jazz Age
or the Roaring Twenties
that has been described
as a cautionary tale
regarding the American
Dream.

Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Munnerlyn
Mitchell (November 8,
1900 August 16, 1949)
was an American author
and journalist. One novel
by Mitchell was published
during her lifetime, the
American Civil War-era
novel, Gone with the Wind.
For it she won the National
Book Award for Most
Distinguished Novel of
1936 and the Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction in 1937.

Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett
May 27, 1894 January 10,
1961) was an American
author
of
hard-boiled
detective novels and short
stories, a screenplay writer,
and political activist. Among
the enduring characters he
created are Sam Spade
(The Maltese Falcon), Nick
and Nora Charles (The Thin
Man), and the Continental
Op (Red Harvest and The
Dain Curse).

The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a
1930 detective novel by
Dashiell Hammett. The
main character, Sam
Spade, appears only in
this novel and in three
lesser known short
stories, yet is widely
cited as the crystallizing
figure in the
development of the hardboiled private detective
genre.

Jerome David Salinger

Bornrn on January 1, 1919, in
New York, J.D. Salinger was a
literary giant despite his slim
body of work and reclusive
lifestyle. His landmark novel,
The Catcher in the Rye, set a
new course for literature in
post-WWII
America
and
vaulted
Salinger to
the
heights of literary fame. In
1953, Salinger moved from
New York City and led a
secluded life, only publishing
one new story before his
death.

 The Catcher in the

Rye is a 1951 novel
by J. D. Salinger.
Originally published
for adults, it has
since
become
popular
with
adolescent readers
for its themes of
teenage angst and
alienation

THE END