Humanities Study Guide

Humanities Study Guide

Chapter 10: The 20th Century

Overview In our final chapter, we can see how the accumulation of art and culture has rapidly increased since our first chapters of the Ancient periods. There’s much more content to study in the 20th century, so we’ll be looking at general changes and trends, remembering how things may relate to major changes due to theWorld Wars, the Cold War, and countless other inventions and changes that pushed society forward. Learning Objectives At the end of this chapter, you will be able to: • Understand the general change in art as it became increasingly modern and experimental • Define important trends and changes in art and music, especially in the USA • Identify key figures in each different artistic, literary, or musical movement 10.1 The Early 20th Century Discoveries and significant events of the 1900s shook the foundations and shaped the future of Western society. In particular, Einstein’s theory of relativity, the Russian revolution and the development of communism, the outbreak and aftermath of the great world wars all hugely impacted Western culture. The rise of communism in Russia and anti-communist fascism in Italy and Germany contributed to the suppression of modernism. With that, they promoted the use of mass media, like radio and film, to promote political agendas. Painting With new forms of mass media and entertainment, artists began redefining themselves. This newway of expression was more of an idea of thought than a type of art. Modern Art sought to free itself from the depiction of external reality and concentrated on pure color, form, feelings, and ideas. Pablo Picass mastered traditional techniques early in his career before he formulated a new set of artistic rules and deconstructed pictorial tradition. He defined cubism , a style that analyzes natural forms into planes, angles, and geometric shapes. Think of a 2-D layout of a cube; Picasso’s works tried to do this with people and landscapes. He dismissed the traditional alluring female nude portraits and created mannequin-esque figures that projected an aggressive nature, as seen in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Georges Braque worked closely with Picasso and was an innovator in his own right. The

© 2020

Achieve

Page 56 of 62