Modernism (philosophical movement)

The word “modern,” in general, refers to what is contemporary. For example, all art or literature is considered modern at the time it is produced. In cultural history, however, the term “modernism” refers to the period generally dating from around the 1860s to the 1970s. This era is defined by an aesthetic, a style, and a political and cultural ideology. It is this more specific use of the concept of modernism that generally applies to discussions of art, literature, and the philosophy that framed these developments. Emerging in part from the Enlightenment ideals of progress, freedom, equality, and the pursuit of reason and truth, modernism influenced nearly all aspects of Western culture well into the twentieth century.

Background

Most scholars agree that modernism began in France in the 1860s. However, some argue that the roots of modernism developed as early as the sixteenth century, during the revival of classical Greek and Roman culture in the Renaissance. Humanists of that era took from the classics the idea that humans, rather than gods or other external forces, were responsible for their ultimate fates. Renaissance humanists believed in the capability of individuals to shape their own destinies and understand the mysteries of nature. These incipient modernist ideas provoked lively debate, centering on whether modern approaches were superior to the classical tradition, throughout European intellectual circles from the end of the seventeenth century onward. The underlying dynamic in the division between ancients and moderns was the challenge to authority, in the form of tradition, customs, and established institutions, by more progressive groups that rejected the impositions of tradition. This dispute remained a fundamental modernist issue.

Occurring in conjunction with the Scientific Revolution in Europe, the Enlightenment era furthered the humanist belief in the importance of reason and rational thought. Enlightenment thinkers believed that carefully considered rational truths should be applied not just to science but to the political sphere as well, in order to confront social and political issues. Truth, in short, would free humanity from its erroneous beliefs, and the idea of freedom as a consequence of truth became essential to the creation of a new society. These ideas became foundational tenets of modernism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At the same time, however, the modernists rebelled against many aspects of Enlightenment thought, seeking instead to develop new ways of thinking about art, philosophy, and the world.

Modernism also followed in the wake of romanticism, an artistic movement that had developed in reaction to the scientific and industrial advances taking place during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The romantics drew strongly from classical works, incorporating versions of ancient themes and subjects into their art and literature while also focusing significantly on human emotions and concerns. Although the modernists carried elements of this and other earlier artistic movements forward to an extent, they largely rejected earlier philosophies in favor of the new.

Overview

Over the decades, modernism took numerous forms in art. Some of the best-known examples of early modernism are found in nineteenth-century modernist visual art. French painter Eugène Delacroix is more commonly associated with the romantic movement, but he is considered by many scholars to have been a significant influence on later modernist painters because of his rejection of formal, traditional ideals of beauty. Numerous later French artists were inspired by Delacroix’s example, among them the impressionist painters Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas.

As the movement evolved, much modern visual art became increasingly abstract and experimental. Artists such as Pablo Picasso experimented with cubism. Other artists, such as Salvador Dalí, created surreal paintings of objects, people, and landscapes.

Modernism took a variety of forms in literature as well. Nonfiction works such as the writings of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud influenced numerous writers and artists, who incorporated elements of his theories into their work. In fiction, writers such as James Joyce experimented with traditional forms such as the novel and the short story and developed new ways of presenting narratives. Modernist poetry proved especially influential, and works by poets such as T. S. Eliot went on to shape the development of poetry as a genre over the next several decades.

Twentieth-century modernism was greatly affected by the horrors of the century’s two world wars. By the end of World War II, modernism’s optimism had largely eroded. The Russian Revolution of 1917 had seemed, for a time, to offer the way to a progressive modernist utopia that promoted a vision of universal freedom. However, under dictator Joseph Stalin, this freedom was brutally repressed, and modern artists were instead forced to create only realistic art that served a political purpose. Modernity had brought many advances in science and technology; however, the world wars indicated to many that the belief that scientific and technological progress were the key to a better society had been tragically wrong.

Optimism was a difficult sentiment to sustain during the Cold War that followed World War II. Modernism evolved into the conceptual art scene of the 1960s and 1970s, based on abstract ideas and eschewing more traditional aesthetics, art materials, and themes. In the latter half of the twentieth century, art in the modernist tradition rejected any type of stricture or control. Modernism ultimately fell out of favor among many artists, some of whom opted to experiment instead with postmodernism, but it remained an influential force into the twenty-first century.

Bibliography

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Butler, Christopher. Modernism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.

Carter, Mia, and Alan Warren Friedman, eds. Modernism and Literature: An Introduction and Reader. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print

Foster, Hal, et al. Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism. 2nd ed. New York: Thames, 2012. Print.

Highfill, Juli. Modernism and Its Merchandise: The Spanish Avant-Garde and Material Culture, 1920–1930. Philadelphia: Penn State UP, 2014. Print.

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