Modernism1909-1930

Modernism: FuturismItalian poet Marinetti challenged artists to show “courage, audacity, and revolt” and to celebrate “a new beauty, the beauty of speed.”

Modernism: FuturismBoccioni

Urged painters to forsake art of the past for the “miracles of contemporary life,” which he defined as railroads, ocean liners, and airplanes.

Modernism: FuturismBoccioni and Marinetti founded a movement based on speed.

The City Rises by Boccioni

Modernism: FuturismThe painters combined bright Fauve colors with fractured Cubist planes to express propulsion.

Boccioni tried to capture not just a freeze-frame still of one moment but rather a cinematic sensation of flux

Elastic by Boccioni

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space by Boccioni

Modernism: ConstructivismConstructivists combined the broken shapes of Cubists and the multiple overlapping images from Futurists.

Emphasized using industrial materials: glass, metal and plastic in 3-D works.

Modernism: ConstructivismFocused on geometric art reflecting modern technology

Art should be the engine for social purpose and change

Model for the Monument for the 3rd International by Tatlin

Propaganda Poster by Rodchenko

Modernism: PrecisionismPrecisionists straddled the borderline between representation and abstraction.

Simplified forms to an extreme, often very geometric.

Incense of a New Church by Demuth

Modernism: PrecisionismGeorgia O’Keefe

Best known for her huge paintings of single flowers like irises and calla lilies.

O’Keefe evoked nature without explicitly describing it and approached the brink of abstraction.

Poppies by O’Keefe

Red Canna by O’Keefe

Cow Skull and Two Calico Roses by O’Keefe