Modern art and war

The Armory Show

• 1913; first exposure of many American artists to current trends in European modern art

• Controversial; widely seen; influential

• The Armory Show–official advertising poster

• Nude Descending a Staircase, no. 2

• "Is it a woman? No. Is it a man? No. ...I have never thought which it is. Why should I think about it?“ MD

• Jules Marey, motion study photograph, ca. 1890-1900

• Picasso, Guitar Player, 1910, Cubism

• Portrait of AmbroiseVollard (1910)

• Picasso, Guitar Player, 1910, Cubism

• Portrait of AmbroiseVollard (1910)

• Picasso “Guitar, sheet music, and wine glass” 1912

Modernism and the War

•Futurism:

•Ancient life was all silence. In the nineteenth century, with the invention of the machine, Noise was born. Today, Noise triumphs and reigns supreme over the sensibility of men.

--Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noises

The cry of rebellion which we utter associates our

ideals with those of the Futurist poets. These ideas

were not invented by some aesthetic clique. They

are an expression of a violent desire, which burns

in the veins of every creative artist today. ... We will

fight with all our might the fanatical, senseless and

snobbish religion of the past, a religion encouraged

by the vicious existence of museums. We rebel

against that spineless worshipping of old canvases,

old statues and old bric-a-brac, against everything

which is filthy and worm-ridden and corroded by

time. We consider the habitual contempt for

everything which is young, new and burning with

life to be unjust and even criminal.

Luigi Russolo - Macchina Tipografica

Luigi Russolo - Macchina Tipografica

• http://www.ubu.com/sound/marinetti.html

• La Battaglia di Adrianopoli

• http://www.ubu.com/sound/balla.html

• Macchina Tipografica (1914)

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Zang Tumb

Tumb, 1914.

• 2 pages from Marinetti’s “Words in freedom” 1919

Giacomo Balla, Street Light,

Study of Light, 1909

• Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912

• Jules Marey Motion Capture photography

• Chrono

Jules Marey, Chronophotographic Image Formed by Man

Walking in Black Suit with White Stripes, 1884

• Edweard Muybridge Motion study

• Boccioni, Charge of the Lancers, 1915

• Gino Severini, Cannon in Action, 1915

Plastic Synthesis of the Idea of War, 1915,

Cubism at the Front

• The art of painting original arrangements composed of elements taken from conceived rather than perceived reality. -- Guillaume Apollinaire, The Beginnings of Cubism, 1912

Fernand Leger

Verdun, The Trench Diggers, 1916

• La Fin du monde, filmée par l'ange de N.-D. (author: Blaise Cendrars, illustrator Fernand Leger)

•

Fernand Léger, Le soldat à la pipe, oil on canvas, 1916

• Leger, The Card Game, 1917

Art and camouflage

• Renault FT-17 WWI light tank. (model)

• German Helmet with Camouflage American Helmets with camouflage

• Dazzle Camouflage

• Sniper in Dazzle camo

• German Lozenge Camouflage on a Fokker D.VII

• German Lozenge Camouflage

• Sonia Delaunay,

• sonia delaunay - costumes for the ” the gas heart” directed by tristan tzara (1923)

• Giacomo Balla, , 'Futurist Suit', 1913-1918

• Human beings, until now, have dressed (more or less) in black mourning.We are fighting against:(a) the timidity and symmetry of colours, colours which are arranged in wishy-washy patterns of idiotic spots and stripes;(b) all forms of lifeless attire which make man feel tired, depressed, miserable and sad, and which restrict movement producing a triste wanness;(c) so-called 'good taste' and harmony, which weaken the soul and take the spring out of the step.

We want Futurist clothes to be comfortable and practicalDynamicAggressiveShockingEnergeticViolentFlying (i.e. giving the idea of flying, rising and running)PeppyJoyfulIlluminating (in order to have light even in the rain)PhosphorescentLit by electric lamps.