Old Architecture













Modernist Museum

Modernism

• Self-conciousness/self-reflexivity.
• Alternative ways of thinking about representation - rejecting traditional approaches.
• Rejection of realism.
• Experimentation.
• Fragmentation in form and representation.
• Modernism challenged the status quo.
• Modernism retained a belief that rationality and reason were the key to progress.

Modernism Timeline

Thoughts are that modernism began in the late 1800s. It roughly occurred between 1875 and the mid-1900s.
Modernism is a movement where a style in the arts such as painting, sculpture, architecture literature, poetry etc.. challenges traditional and classical forms.
The argument was that art needed to change with society as it was becoming more modern, industrial, secular and rational ideas which are based on reason and science instead of religion.

Modernist art challenged the realism and illusion of the romantic era and was often 'abstract'.
Modernism is self conscious and ed to experimentation - artists' painting draw attention to themselves and the materials used ie the blob of paint. - E.g. Jackson Pollock.

Modernist Architects
Modernist architects and designers believed that buildings should be practically designed - as opposed to decorative Churches or cathedrals in the past.

Modernist designers typically rejected decoration in design, preferring to emphasise the materials used and pure geometrical forms.

Modernist Literature
..is sub-genre of modernism - characterised by writing that was utopian, positive and reflected great developments in the field of political theory, philosophy and psychoanalysis.

After WW2 , the writing reflected the disillusionment and a lack of trust in government and religion.