Modernism was a general movement in literature, music, and the fine arts that stressed newness and stylistic innovations to reflect modern life. Modernism was the dominant artistic and literary movement between 1890 and 1945, and perhaps even to the present day.
Modernism was often seen as a rebellion against the artistic and literary formulas of the 1800’s. It was associated with experimentation and with the avant-garde, a movement that pioneered in using new ideas, methods, and styles. Modernist artists were influenced by developments in philosophy and the birth of psychoanalysis. These artists created art forms that seemed new and shocking.
In painting, Modernist artists explored total abstraction in art, a style that emphasizes shapes, colors, and patterns instead of recognizable subject matter. In literature, writers adopted new methods of narration, such as stream of consciousness. This technique presents the thoughts, sensations, and memories that flow through a character’s mind. The dominant Modernist style in music was atonalism, the deliberate avoidance of key.
Modernism emerged in France during the last quarter of the 1800’s. Pioneers of Modernism there included the poet and critic Charles Baudelaire and the painters Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet. The writings of T. S. Eliot of England and James Joyce of Ireland in the early 1900’s were landmarks of Modernism. Many critics and scholars believe that Modernism exhausted itself, giving way to the playful countermovement called Postmodernism. However, others have argued that Modernism is too powerful to be dislodged.
