Modernism
Twentieth-century aesthetic break
Modernism typically refers to the specific artistic and intellectual movement spanning roughly 1890–1945, characterized by radical experimentation and rejection of Victorian conventions.
In literature, Modernism produced stream-of-consciousness narrative; in architecture, glass-and-steel minimalism; in music, atonality.
The term also names a Catholic theological movement condemned by Pope Pius X in 1907 that sought to reconcile Church doctrine with modern thought. (Lowercase modernism describes the general tendency toward modern ideas.)
Narrative of unfiltered thought
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
- experimentationSystematic testing of ideas
- UlyssesGreek hero, Latinized
- WoolfCanine surname variant
Joyce · Eliot · Kafka · Faulkner · Proust · free verse · interior monologue · nonlinear narrative
Fragmented geometric abstraction
- abstractionDistilling to essential qualities
- PicassoSpanish cubism co-founder
- MatisseFrench fauvism founder
- KandinskyBauhaus painting instructor
Mondrian · Duchamp · Fauvism · Surrealism · Dadaism · collage · primitivism · non-representational
Absence of key signature
- SchoenbergAtonal method inventor
- twelve-toneSerialism using all pitches
- serialismFixed-sequence composition technique
- dissonanceLack of harmony
Stravinsky · polyrhythm · Debussy · chromaticism · aleatory · impressionism
Influential modernist design school
- Frank Lloyd WrightPioneering American architect
- functionalismTheory emphasizing purposes and roles
- minimalismAesthetic of reduction
- reinforced concreteCement with steel bars
flat roof · open floor plan · International Style · cantilever · steel frame · brutalism · skyscraper · unadorned
Philosophy stressing self-created meaning
- nihilismRejection of objective meaning
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
- subjectivityPersonal viewpoint coloring perception
- consciousnessState of sentient awareness
Nietzsche · Freud · Jung · Marx · phenomenology · psychoanalysis · secularism · rationalism
State of being isolated
- estrangementEmotional separation between people
- anomieBreakdown of shared standards
- disconnectionState of being severed
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
disillusionment · isolation · rootlessness · displacement · outsider · antihero · wasteland · angst
Type without terminal strokes
- typographyArranging letters for display
- HelveticaNeutral sans-serif typeface
- grid systemIntersecting line network
- asymmetryAbsence of balanced form
white space · functionalism · industrial design · poster art · Eames · graphic design
stream-of-consciousness
Narrative of unfiltered thought
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
- experimentationSystematic testing of ideas
- UlyssesGreek hero, Latinized
Woolf · Joyce · Eliot · Kafka · Faulkner · Proust · free verse · interior monologue · nonlinear narrative · symbolism
Cubism
Fragmented geometric abstraction
- abstractionDistilling to essential qualities
- PicassoSpanish cubism co-founder
- MatisseFrench fauvism founder
Kandinsky · Mondrian · Duchamp · Fauvism · Surrealism · Dadaism · collage · primitivism · non-representational · avant-garde
atonality
Absence of key signature
- SchoenbergAtonal method inventor
- twelve-toneSerialism using all pitches
- serialismFixed-sequence composition technique
Stravinsky · dissonance · polyrhythm · Debussy · chromaticism · aleatory · impressionism
Bauhaus
Influential modernist design school
- Frank Lloyd WrightPioneering American architect
- functionalismTheory emphasizing purposes and roles
- minimalismAesthetic of reduction
reinforced concrete · flat roof · open floor plan · International Style · cantilever · steel frame · brutalism · skyscraper · unadorned · geometric
existentialism
Philosophy stressing self-created meaning
- nihilismRejection of objective meaning
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
- subjectivityPersonal viewpoint coloring perception
consciousness · Nietzsche · Freud · Jung · Marx · phenomenology · psychoanalysis · secularism · rationalism · skepticism
alienation
State of being isolated
- estrangementEmotional separation between people
- anomieBreakdown of shared standards
- disconnectionState of being severed
fragmentation · disillusionment · isolation · rootlessness · displacement · outsider · antihero · wasteland · angst · industrialization
sans-serif
Type without terminal strokes
- typographyArranging letters for display
- HelveticaNeutral sans-serif typeface
- grid systemIntersecting line network
asymmetry · white space · functionalism · industrial design · poster art · Eames · graphic design
- literary periodsRenaissance, medieval, Victorian, contemporary, ancient
- architecture stylesart deco, Art Nouveau, minimalism, Bauhaus, brutalism
- art historyart history, Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism, Renaissance art
- art termspainting, sculpture, drawing, portrait, landscape
- Design HistoryArt Nouveau, Bauhaus, Functionalism, International Style, Scandinavian design
- art movementsPop Art, pop art, Impressionism, impressionism, Surrealism
ModernismNeoclassicism
Revival of ancient aesthetics
Conservatism · Romanticism · Postmodernism · Beaux-Arts · Victorian aesthetics
- modernist artExperimental early-twentieth-century aesthetics
- modernist designStripped-down, geometric aesthetic movement
- modernist architectureSpare, functional building design
- modernist furnitureTwentieth-century design movement pieces
- modernist styleArt movement rejecting ornamentation
- modernist homesTwentieth-century design residences
modernize, modernist, modernity, modernization, modernists, modernistic, postmodernism, modernisms, postmodernist