An overview of Modernism

Modernism was the start of rejecting the old traditions and what was already known in favour of the uncertainty and unknown which resulted in a revolution which included innovative and new ways of thinking and a change in technology. Modernism took place in the middle of the 19th century and leading into the early 20th century most taking place shortly before or after the first world war. Art nouveau, expressionism, futurism and art deco all support the birth of modernism. Modernists had a desire to change the world and believed technology, this combined with social and political beliefs which were mainly left-wing was the way to improve society.

The key movements of modernism which happened in the early twentieth century are cubism, surrealism, futurism and purism.

Graphic design and illustration became an important way of communicating a message, in the late 19th century letterpress started to become obsolete and was no longer the main printing method, lithography had been invented and replaced letterpress meaning that drawings and paintings could now be mass produced making it easier for images to be in posters as well as text to sell things, the main style of these posters was Art Nouveau they were highly decorative and had geometric and asymmetric shapes included in them.

Mussolini and Hitler didn’t agree with with many of the modernistic style yet they were interested in change, innovation and the use of new technology however they were prepared to eliminate anything that questioned this. Expressionism originated in germany by another group of avant garde artists that began to question the tradition of western art and started to represent the world by distorting it dramatically for emotional shock and effect and did this through creating images of a working class life. Expressionist wanted to express meaning rather than reality.

Modernism was the start of allowing the world to be lurched very quickly from a black and white to a colour world however only red and black were the two main colours that were used by most artists. This was not only the case in the sense of art but in the way people thought, were seen and perceived also.