Modernism / Modernity
Ikea / miniskirts / high heels – Modernism all from modernity / modernism
Paris - The new woman 1937
Paris – Paris International exhibition / Cultural hub of modernity
Historical period 1750 – 1960 –roughly
Urbanisation – Cities as main residence
Shipping / Telephone / Railways expanded – Travel / Life changes
New forms of Leisure – Shopping
World clock – Co-ordinated – Instead of being based on harvest etc
Factory shifts – Holidays / Free time
Enlightenment – Period in late 18th Century when scientific / philosophical thinking made leaps and bounds
Sekular Society
Cities characters – Paris – Modern / Historic
Calibotte – ‘’’Paris on a rainy day’
Fine clothes / identity / strolling streets / wealth / leisure – Paris
Haussmanisation – Redesign – Wide streets – Easier to police / Control / working class people moved from the inner city / Becomes expensive & upper class
Psychology – Modern life sending people mad – 1893 experiment on attentivemness – One of first psychology labs
Condensed Social space
Upper and lower class forced together - pushes them away
Class division
Degas – 1876 – L’ Absinthe
Resorting to drink because of work / drowning sorrows / boredom / distraction / alienation / technoligies – distancing device between us and the world / society atomised
Modernism emerges out of the subjective responses of artists / designers to MODERNITY
Experience of individuals in the modern world – start to understand modern art and experience of modernity
Painting has to change in order to keep up with photography
Alfred Stieglitz – 1903 - Flatiron Building
Designed for mass amounts of people to fit in small spaces
Skyscrapers create new perspectives on the world
Paul Citroen – Metropolis 1923 – Photomontage
New mediums create new forms of art and design
Design – Try and work with the modern
Architecture / fashion
Anti-historicism – need to look back
True to materials – Architects and designers would let the materials speak for themselves
Form follows function – Dictated by the purpose it serves
Old / new cutlery – unnecessary aesthetics stripped down
The Bauhaus – Simplicity / cutlery / tea pot / simple geometric forms appropriate to the material being used
Internationalism – Speak global language / neutral language –democratic / International style
Modernising education – Nazis shut down Bauhaus
Technology – Concrete / new tech of steel / plastics
Le Corbusier – 1927 - plan voisin
Harry Beck – 1933 - London Underground map
Function / standardised / simplified / reduced / colour coded / everyone can read it from all over the world
Sans serif typeface – Direct result of Modernism
Argued there was no need for capital letters, doesn’t add to readability
Times new roman – 1932 - Conservative / idea of empire
Fraktur font – Show a link to historical roots
The term modern isn’t neutral – it suggests novelty and improvement
Modernity – 1750-1960 – social and cultural experience
Modernism – range of ideas & styles that sprang from modernity
