Modernism

Futurism was a social and artistic movement in the early 20^th century that originated in Italy. It glorified and emphasized themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, this included technology, youth, violence and speed, and objects such as the airplane, the car and the industrial city. Although there were parallel movements in Russia and England, it was largely an Italian phenomenon. Key figures in the movement include the Italians Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Carlo Carra, Giacomo Balla, Antionio Sant’Elia, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini and Luigi Russolo. The futurists practiced in every piece of art including, sculpture, painting, theatre, urban design, ceramics, industrial design and much more.

At the beginning of the 20^th century was the use of propaganda. Propaganda is a form of communication which was to influence the audience’s attitude towards one cause by presenting only a one sided argument.

Constructivism was an architectural and artistic philosophy that originated in Russia in 1919, the movement was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. The constructivists were the early developers of the technique photomontage, which photographer Gustav Klutsis was known for.
Klutsis’ propaganda shows a variety of scale and the hands show an army, the small hands all make up a big hand. His posters show distortions of scale and space, angled viewpoints, colliding perspectives and this is what makes the photos modern.

Art Deco was an influential visual arts design style which first appeared in France during the 1920’s. It was an eclectic style which combined traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery, the style is often characterised  by rich colours, lavish ornamentation and bold geometric shapes. Art deco was widely used in consumer products such as automobiles, china, cookware, textiles, jewellery and much more.

The decisive moment was when a photographer took a photograph and all the elements would come together. Henri Cartier-Bresson said “…the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event…”  And me? I sum it up this way: “the impetus”. A good example of a photograph is Henri Cartier-Bressons photograph Behind the Gare Saint Lazare, 1932.

The society of the early 20^th century started to take over with machinery over the hand made. The Americans saw machinery as being much more efficient. Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Modern Times’ film, 1936, shows him being the subject of testing a new piece of machinery, and first it turns out well and suddenly it all goes wrong, it changed from a utopia to a dystopia.