EARLY

MODERNISM
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Introduction
• The birth of modern architecture depends on recognition of a deep historical
discontinuity.
• The greatest obstacle in the nineteenth century to modernism had been the
rigid insistence on the continuity with the past.
• About 1900, however, the architectural avant-garde served this bond.
• The immense spectrum of historical styles, researched by nineteenth century in
its troubled pursuit of architectural relevance, recognized as antithetical or
irrelevant to architectural modernism.
• It was suddenly realized that way to future was not through past.
• The past was over-an almost unbridgeable void has opened between it and the
present.
• The sudden liberation from historicism was very lively.
• The modernist movement was one of high spirits and intoxicating new pleasing
view as a torrent of freed energies poured fourth in an array of avant-garde
developments.
• Architecture was expressing a command to adapt to the machine age
• It was imagined that buildings were being made to function analogously to
machines- in a tightly planned, rational manner.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
• Outside of the art world, the terms modern and contemporary are used
virtually interchangeably.
• Both words relate to the present or immediate past.
• Modern is opposite of antiquated, old fashioned or outdated.

• The word MODERNISM-used to describe certain trends in art, writing,

criticism and philosophy that have had a powerful influence on the development
and experience of the 20th century. Conventionally dated from 1890 to about
the beginning of the 2nd world war in 1939.

MODERNISM includes
• New experimentation and pursuit of novelty
• Ideas developed that questioned traditional Western beliefs about morality,
freedom and reason.
• Stress on personal individualistic perspectives rather than collective communal
values.
EARLY MODERNISM is an introduction to the great avant-garde movements in
European literature, music, and painting at the beginning, from the advent of
Fauvism to the development of Dada.
Characterized by its deliberate break from design patterns and traditions of the
past.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Evolution
• Radical shift in art, literature and philosophy.
• It rejected and challenged anything traditional.
• Searched for new ways to communicate about the modern world.

Reaction
• Bridged by the socialist philosophies of Arts & Crafts movement and
reacting against the romantic and nostalgic excesses of the Victorian era, artists
decided to break from tradition.
• Early “modern” artists can also be described as “avant garde” (new or
experimental) because most of these groups were on the fringe.
• However, their ideas and philosophies had a major influence on all art, design,
architecture, fashion, even literature.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

General beliefs
• The assurances of religion, politics, and society no longer work to reassure
people.
• History is coming to an end.
• Modern life is pointless.
• Many modernists believed art had replaced religion as the guiding force to
make sense of the world.
• Many modernists sought back to ancient myths for inspiration.
• Others felt that artists must reject the past and create one’s own sense of
logics.
• Literature should unsettle readers
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Early Influences
• Early pioneers of Modernism began to
experiment with geometric forms.

PIONEERS
• PETER BEHRENS designed for the
Allgemeine Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft
(AEG).
• This cover for the Berlin Electric Works
Magazine (1908) demonstrates his
geometric approach to design
problems.
• EDWARD JOHNSTON contributed an
exclusive typeface for the London
Underground, in addition to this
revised symbol which was used until
1972.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Influences
• One can apply the label “early modern” to the
following avant-garde movements: Bauhaus,
Constructivism, Dada, De Stijl, Expressionism,
Futurism, the New Typography, Plakatstil.

• Members of these groups traveled

throughout Europe and influenced each other.
• Many taught at the Bauhaus.
• The common thread between all of these
movements is experimentation, dissatisfaction with
the past, a need for radical change in society.
AVANT-GARDE
MOVEMENTS
 History of architecture
Cubism(1908-1914) (Early Modernism)
• first abstract art style.
• used simple shapes.
• The style ignored color in the beginning
• lacks elements of light, atmosphere and space.
• gave depth and richness to painting.

Pioneers
PICASSO and BRAQUE invented cubism.

PICASSO (1881-1973)was a Spanish painter and sculptor. He took

sculpture approach which lead to creation of cubism.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon; girl with mandolin; woman in armchair;

Pablo Picasso;1907 1910-Picasso 1913 Picasso
 History of architecture
Pioneers (Early Modernism)
BRAQUE (1882-1963) was a French painter.
He saw solid reality of objects.
Initially an impressionist, fauvist, then cubist. He painted mainly
scenery.

“Fruit Dish” “Bottle and Fishes” “Violin and Candlestick”

1909 Braque 1910 Braque 1910 Braque

Typical cubist paintings frequently show letters,musical instruments, bottles,

pitchers, glasses, newspapers, still lives, and the human face and figure
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
• It was at its height around 1910-13, moved beyond the calm surface of traditional
painting to investigate the structure of consciousness itself.

Phases
The movement has been described as having two stages:
Analytic Cubism(1909-1911)
• first cubism phase
• forms seem to be 'analyzed' and fragmented
• based on reducing natural forms to basic geometric parts
• focused more on intellect than emotion

Synthetic Cubism(1912-1919)
• involves wider use of colors and materials
• newspaper and other foreign materials such as chair caning and wood veneer, are
collaged to the surface of the canvas as 'synthetic' signs for depicted objects
• appealing and easier to interpret
• less complicated.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

Characteristics
The style emphasized

• the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the

traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and
chiaroscuro and proving wrong time-honored theories of art as the
imitation of nature.

• painters were not bound to copy form, texture, color, and space; instead,
presented a new reality in paintings that depicted radically fragmented
objects, whose several sides were seen simultaneously.
 History of architecture
Futurism (1909-1914)
• Began in Italy in 1910
(Early Modernism)

• Defining avant-garde art movement of the early twentieth century.

• Inspired by the speed, technology, cities and latent violence of the world around
them, as well as by the ideas of thinkers such as BERGSON, futurists created an art
and ideology for their heroic and highly politicized vision of modernity.

Pioneers
• The movement was launched by FILLIPO TOMMASO MARINETTI.
• The manifesto was passionate and bombastic in tone, expressing a feeling of open
rejection superiority for anything old, particularly in the fields of art and politics.

• GIACOMO BALLA, UMBERTO BOCCIONI, CARLO CARRA, GINO

SEVERINI AND WYNDHAM LEWIS are among the artist featured in futurism.

Futurism Art Movement –

Umberto Boccioni
Futurism Art Movement – 'Unique Forms Of
Umberto Boccioni Continuity In Space'
'Elasticity' 1912 1913
 History of architecture
Characteristics (Early Modernism)
• Futurist artwork used typography and writing as its own expressive
means.
• Futurist use different styles, sizes, weights and colors around the page.
• They gloried in the beauty of letterforms as a work of visual art.
• They chose font and style to redouble the words expressive power,
such as an italic for speed and bold for loud.
• The futurist firmly broke the written word from traditional syntax and
visual standards of horizontal rows.
The futurists
introduced
concrete poetry
to the world. It
is a poem that
both is read and
viewed at the
same time.
F. T. Marinetti:
“Man who has witnessed an explosion does not stop to In the above poem by Guillaume Apollinaire
connect his sentences grammatically, but hurls shrieks and from calligrams 1918, he speaks of a bird, water,
words at his listeners.” fountain and an eye.
 History of architecture
Futurism (Early Modernism)
• It attacked the academics and called for destruction of museums and
libraries.

• The Futurism art movement was a movement of painters.

•They wrote explosive poetry that challenged syntax.

• They were inspired by cubism use of fragmented planes and often used
multiple fonts and styles.

• Despite their passionate manifesto, the Futurist painters took a while to

develop a meaningful style that would embody their ideas.

The First World War brought the movement to an end as a vital force,
but it lingered in Italy until the 1930s, and it had a strong influence in
other countries, particularly Russia.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Dada(1916-1920)
• ROUMANIAN TRISTAN TZARA and HANS ARP, launched Dadaism in neutral
Zurich, Switzerland as a reaction against the insanity of WWI.
• was an international artistic phenomenon which sought to overturn traditional
bourgeois notions of art.
• It was often defiantly anti-art .
• Dada is a state of mind.
• That is why it transforms itself according to races and
events.
• Dada applies itself to everything

Pioneers Dada 6 (Bulletin Dada), Tristan

Tzara 1920
More than anything, its participants, figures such as MARCEL DUCHAMP,
FRANCIS PICABIA, TRISTAN TZARA, HANS ARP, KURT SCHWITTERS
and RAOUL HAUSSMANN, counter posed their love of paradox and no respect to
the insanities of a world-gone-mad, as the first world war raged in Europe.
 Characteristics History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
• Dada had only one rule: Never follow any known rules.
• Dada was intended to provoke an emotional reaction from the viewer (typically
shock or outrage).
• Abstraction and Expressionism were the main influences on Dada, followed
by Cubism and, to a lesser extent, Futurism.
• Dada is seen as iconoclastic (which attacks established customs and values)and
confrontational(face to face).
• Dada often gain great pleasure in the chaos and fragmentation of modern life.
• Dada partially saw itself as re-enacting the psychic upheaval caused by first world
war.
• The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art
manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design
• Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to
be the meaninglessness of the modern world.

John Heart field, Hitler tells fairy tales II,

INSCRIPTION: “...and then the poor
German Michel screamed so long, that
finally the whole world believed him:
‘Help, help, I'm surrounded!’”
 History of architecture
Surrealism(1924-1940) (Early Modernism)

• Dada’s artistic heir, become a global phenomenon.

• Surrealism is seen anti-bourgeois in spirit but more deeply immersed in bizarre.
• Surrealism had more of a restorative mission, attempting to create a new
mythology and
put modern man and woman back in touch with the forces of the unconscious.
• The irrationalism celebrated by surrealism could be seen as a thoroughgoing
acceptance of the forces at work beneath the veneer of civilization.

Pioneers
SALVADOR DALI, JOAN MIRO, and ANDRE MASSON
conducted an often turbulent love affair with psychoanalysis, aiming to plumb the
mysteries of the human mind.

JEAN ARP (1886-1966), HANS BELLMER (1907-1975), LOUISE

BOURGEOIS (1911-2010), LEONORA CARRINGTON (B. 1917),
JOSEPH CORNELL (1903-1972), SALVADOR DALI (1904-1989),
PAUL DELVAUX (1897-1994)
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

Characteristics
•The exploration of the dream and unconsciousness as a valid form of reality.
•A willingness to depict images of perverse scatology, decay and violence.
•The desire to push against the boundaries of socially acceptable behaviors and
traditions in order to discover pure thought and the artist’s true nature.
•The incorporation of chance and spontaneity.
•The influence of revolutionary 19th century poets, such as CHARLES
BAUDELAIRE, ARTHUR RIMBAUD and ISIDORE DUCASSE.
•Emphasis on the mysterious, marvelous, mythological and irrational in an effort
to make art ambiguous and strange.
•Fundamentally, Surrealism gave artists permission to express their most basic
drives: hunger, anger, fear, dread, ecstasy, and so forth.
•Exposing these uncensored feelings as if in a dream still exists in many form of
art to this day.
•Two stylistic schools: Biomorphic and Naturalistic Surrealism.
Illustrations History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

• Max Ernst, Two Children Are Threatened by a

Nightingale, 1924.
(Museum of Modern Art, New York)

•Joan Miró, Carnival of Harlequin, 1924-25.

(Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY)

Salvador Dali. (Spanish, 1904-1989)

The Persistence of Memory, 1931.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

Expressionism (late th
19 -early th
20 )
• an attempt to discover a technique and a method which will express what
the dramatist imagines the inner reality of his drama to be, more perfectly and
impressively than any of the other dramatic modes are capable of doing.

• a protest, on the one hand, against the sentimental unrealities of

romanticism and, on the other, against the tendency of realism (or naturalism)
to satisfy itself with a careful representation of the surfaces of life, the speech-
habits, milieu(person’s social environment), manners, emotions, ideas of one
or another class in society.

• Narrowly, expressionism reveals the influence on the drama of the

contemporary preoccupation with the rich and complex, conscious and
subconscious experience of modern personalities, and at the same time it
betrays the impatience of dramatist and producer with the limitations of late
nineteenth-century naturalist staging,
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
• Expressionism developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Expressionism was opposed to academic standards that had prevailed in Europe and
emphasized artist's subjective emotion, which overrides faithfulness to the actual
appearance of things.
• The subjects of expressionist works were frequently distorted, or otherwise altered.
• The term ``Expressionism'' can be used to describe various art forms but, in its
broadest sense, it is used to describe any art that raises subjective feelings above
objective observations.
• The paintings aim to reflect the artist's state of mind rather than the reality of the
external world.

Characteristics
• Landmarks of this movement were violent colors and exaggerated lines that helped
contain serious emotional expression.
• Application of formal elements is very deep, unpleasant, violent, or constantly
changing.
• Expressionist were trying to pinpoint the expression of inner experience rather than
solely realistic portrayal, seeking to depict not objective reality but the subjective
emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in them.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
• Expressionists were concerned with the human condition and felt deep
empathy for the poor and social outcasts.

• The German Expressionist movement began in 1905 with artists such as

KIRCHNER and NOLDE, who favored the Fauvist style of bright colors but
also added stronger linear effects and harsher outlines.

Illustrations
• Visual motifs of the expressionists include
thick, raw strokes, loose brushwork, bold
contour.

Sezessionsplakat 1918, Poster for

the 49th Secession Exhibition by
the Neukunstgruppe, Austria
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

• Expressionists were inspired by woodblock

prints, art by children, unschooled artists,
non European cultures, tribal arts.

Book cover; Emil Node

(Germany 1919)
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
• Expressionists sought new approaches to art and
life, often depicting alienation, anxiety, despair.

• German Expressionism extended into theatre,

film and literature (i.e. Franz Kafka’s
“Metamorphosis” and “The Trial ”).

Poster; EL Kirchner
(Germany 1922)

Poster;Stahl-Arpke
(Germany 1919)
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Constructivism(1915-1940)
• created by the Russian avant-garde, but quickly spread to the rest of the
continent.
• Constructivist art is committed to complete abstraction with a devotion to
modernity, where themes are often geometric, experimental and rarely
emotional.
• Objective forms carrying universal meaning were far more suitable to the
movement than subjective or individualistic forms.
• Constructivist themes are also quite minimal, where the artwork is broken
down to its most basic elements. New media was often used in the creation of
works, which helped to create a style of art that was orderly.
• An art of order was desirable at the time because it was just after WWI that the
movement arose, which suggested a need for understanding, unity and peace.

Pioneers
Famous artists of the Constructivist movement include VLADIMIR TATLIN,
KASIMIR MALEVICH, ALEXANDRA EXTER, ROBERT ADAMS, and
EL LISSITZKY.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

• The Constructivists believed communism social

engineering would create a new order,
technology would provide for society’s
needs, and the artists/designer
(constructor)would forge a new unity between
art and technology.

Book; EI Lissitzky(Russia 1920)

• Accelerated by the Russian Revolution,

Constructivists used graphic design as a massive
propaganda effort to support the Bolsheviks.

Poster ;USSR 1923

 History of architecture
De Stijl (1917-1931) (Early Modernism)
• De Stijl, a Dutch term meaning “the style”
• Also known as Neoplasticism
• An artistic movement founded in 1917, shortly
before the Bauhaus movement, by a group of
several Dutch artists.
• Sought to express a new utopian ideal of spiritual
harmony and order.
• They advocated pure abstraction and universality
by a reduction to the essentials of form and color
— they simplified visual compositions to the vertical
and horizontal directions, and used only primary
colors along with black and white. PIET MONDRIAN, Composition With
Yellow, Blue and Red, 1939-42.
Goal: to create a precise, mechanical order
lacking in the natural world.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Principles
• Relied strongly on primary colours
• Involved the use of hard edges and angular design
• A design movement that was followed by both artists &
designers/ architects
• De Stijl paintings usually represented parts
of larger spaces like interiors spaces within
houses
• Artists of the De Stijl movement saw art as
a collective approach, and as a language that
went beyond culture, geography and politics
• The group was intent on finding a new
aesthetic of art and principles
• The movement spread through town
planning, fine arts, applied arts and philosophy

Composition in Red, Blue and Yellow by

Piet Mondrian (1930)
 History of architecture
Pioneers (Early Modernism)
GEDDIT REITVELD
• Dutch minimalist architect and designer
• One of the most famous designers of the De Stijl movement
• Work consisted of mostly cubist elements and contained mainly primary colours
• Much of his furniture was designed to accompany his architectural commissions

“Red and Blue Chair”1917 “Reitveld Shröder House”1924

 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
J.J.P OUD
• A Dutch architect
• Most famous for his De Stijl work
• One of the original members of the De Stijl movement but eventually
left to form his own practice

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Mondrian, Evening, 1908. Mondrian, Horizontal Tree, 1911.
Boogie Woogie, 1943.
 History of architecture
Purism(1918-1925) (Early Modernism)

• Purism was another movement interested in a kind of

utopian vision of art and the modem world Purism was
comprised of only two artists: AMÉDÊE OZENFANT and
EDOUARD JEANNERET (Le Corbusier).
• In their own manifesto, Après le Cubisme, published in
1918, they criticized that the heirs of produced an art that
was essentially decorative and ornamental which they
believed to be inferior to an approach that would give
attention to the basic, essential form of objects.
• Moreover, they believed that fantasy and individuality had
no place in modem art
• The machine became the artist’s reference, the exemplary
symbol of their age Architectonic form most defines their
paintings.
• The two artists remained faithful to the traditional genre of
the still life and everyday objects-a bottle, a pipe, a tool, a
musical instrument, and produced diagrammatic and colorful
compositions, the outcome of a methodical line of thought
and a methodical working method.
 History of architecture
Purism(1918-1925) (Early Modernism)

Le Corbusier as a Purist
Le Corbusier was deeply involved in the
purist movement which focused on
seeing objects in the world and rendering
them exactly as they appear in their purest
forms.
MODERNISM IN
ARCHITECTURE
 History of architecture
The Chicago School (Early Modernism)
• Chicago in 1885 was the scene of a great building boom precipitated by a
cataclysmic fire in 1871 that destroyed most of the ramshackle early city.
• But new construction activity was more than a rebuilding in more permanent
materials.
• It was driven by explosive demographic and economic growth as the city
rapidly became the commodities and railroad center of an undeveloped
continent suddenly opened to exploitation.
• From its very beginning in the 1830s, Chicago had strong cultural aspirations,
which found expressionism in a large market for books and the early foundation
of a symphony orchestra, a museum, and an art academy.
• Material and cultural circumstances made the new architecture possible, but,
as always, architects
•made it happen.

View(1884-85) Front view(1881-82)

Wain Wright Building Montauk block; Burnham & Root
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

Home insurance building

• Built in 1884 by William le baron Jenney in Chicago.
• First building to use structural steel in its frame.
• Fire proof metal frame
• 10 stories and height 42m
• Basic principle is skeleton construction.

Wain Wright Building

• a 10-storey red brick office building
• among the first skyscraper in the world.
• designed in palazzo style and built between 1890
and 1891
• Tripartite composition
• Decorative pattern in low relief
• Embellishments of terra cotta
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Bauhaus
• The Bauhaus is one of the
first colleges of design.
• It came into being from the
merger of the Weimar
Academy of Arts and Crafts.
• It was founded by WALTER
GROPIUS in 1919 and was
closed in 1933 by the Nazis.

• The Bauhaus sought a new unity of art and

technology by raising the aesthetic quality of
mass produced low-cost
Book/Moholy-Nagy
consumer products. The philosophy that (Germany 1919)
function determined form had wide-ranging
impact on all art and craft, even today.
 History of architecture

Bauhaus (Early Modernism)

The Bauhaus holds a place of its own in the culture

and visual art history of 20th century. This
outstanding school affirmed innovative training
methods and also created a place of production and
a focus of international debate. It brought together a
number of the most outstanding contemporary
architects and artists.
• The Bauhaus
curriculum included
advanced instruction on the fundamental
principles of design
underlying all visual art, form, color and space. These
fundamental
principles are still being taught in design schools today.
• The Bauhaus influenced Constructivists and visa
versa. This poster uses the same titled axis and color Poster /Joost Schmidt
scheme as the (Germany 1923)

Constructivists.
 History of architecture

Bauhaus (Early Modernism)

More Constructivists influence in

a Bauhaus design

Magazine Spread/Kurt Schwitters

(Germany 1924)

Bauhaus and Constructivists influences

with a touch of Cubism.

Poster/ Emanuel Hrbek

(Czechoslovakia 1923)
MODERNISM IN
FURNITURE DESIGN
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

Mies Van Der Rohe

• Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe worked
under BRUNO PAUL, architect and
furniture designer in Berlin.
• Mies Van Der Rohe furniture is
influenced by a design approach
based on advanced structural
techniques and Prussian Classicism.
• The Barcelona Chairs create
ambience of sophistication and sport
clean lines and smooth finishes. A
perfect mix of metal and soft leather,
Mies Van Der Rohe furniture includes
smart pieces like Mies van der Rohe
Cantilever Chair with no arms,
Barcelona Ottoman, Mies van der
Rohe Barcelona Day Bed and
Barcelona Chair etc.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

Le Corbusier
• Chaise longue 'LC4‘

• Le Corbusier began experimenting with

furniture design in 1928 after inviting the
architect, CHARLOTTE PERRIAND, to Resting Chair
join his studio. His cousin, PIERRE
JEANNERET, also collaborated on
many of the designs. Before the arrival of
Perriand, Le Corbusier relied on ready-made
furniture to furnish his projects, such as the
simple pieces manufactured by Thonet.

Arm Chairs
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)
Inference
• Modernism is taken as sudden liberation from historicism
• MODERNISM Pioneers gave new definition of art away from historicism
in the form of MODERN ART
•Because of invention of various styles in the past we are able to innovate
them in more scientific way through our own ideas.
•Modernism gave directions in the fields of literature, painting, philosophy
•It led to the introduction of machine age which encompasses compact
spaces with proper functioning.
•It established sudden shift from the atmosphere of democrat subservicing
the imperialism.
•It led to the architects and engineers of that time to apply the various
inventions of industrial revolution in liberty of their own ideas.
• The various movements helped the people to fight against various political
powers to achieve their own national style.
• The various artistic and writing styles are capable of expressing different
emotions of the people at that time giving a picture of what has happened.
 History of architecture
(Early Modernism)

Reference
 Dada and Surrealism: a very short introduction; David Hopkins
Futurism(Movements in modern art); Richard Humphreys
 Mike Darton, ARCHITECTS AND ARCHITECTURE, Quinted Publishing Ltd, 1990
 Harry N. Abrams, ARCHITECTURE FROM PRE HISTORY TO POST-MODERNISM/THE
WESTERN TRADITION,1986
http://www.slideshare.net/katiereily/cubism-lecture
http://www.keithgarrow.com/modern-art-styles/futurism-art-movement.html
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/AlexzJudeH-328378-futurism-
education-ppt-powerpoint/
http://gds.parkland.edu/gds/!lectures/history/1915/modern.html
http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/dadaism.htm
http://www.arthistoryguide.com/De_Stijl.aspx
http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/bauhaus.htm
http://www.moma.org
http://www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/hofmann.php
THANK YOU