Background: Why is the World War I Era closely connected to innovations in the arts?
At the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century (1890-1914), many art forms began to change significantly.
All human creations are an important way to study history. We are accustomed to thinking about history as politics, war, maybe some economics thrown in. But how humans created beauty and expressed their emotions is an equally important historical subject.
We have a human need to find what is beautiful and what is true. That is the definition of “aesthetics” and early last century, definitions of aesthetics were in transition. The 20th century was also a very violent era including global wars and genocides.
The arts found a way to to give voice to those emotional truths of violence and anguish, but also to find beuaty in them. This was not the first time in history when art expressed some profound shifts in human perception (the Renaissance of the 1400s with Italian humanism comes to mind).
As the early 20th century edged closer to war in 1914, artists found new ways to express the outlook and emotions of their era. Sometimes the term “modernism” is used to describe this early 20th century view. Its arts often defied traditions. It embraced experimentation with new subjects, forms, and formats.
Many critics asked “why is that beautiful” or even “is that even art?”. But the artists felt that “speaking their truth” was the essence of their beauty. After all, what is more “beautiful” than someone’s truth?
Modernism, or any artistic expression that breaks tradition or is “ahead of its time”, can be called “avant-garde”. For more on definitions of “aesthetic expressions” of the era, see the Powerpoint below entitled “What are aesthetic expressions?”
video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF1OQkHybEQ
This video illustrates the topic of the readings 2-4 in the “1913 Readings” packet. What aspects of the choreograph and costumes offered a new view of aesthetics in ballet?
What was innovative about the music? What was occurring in 1913 that might influence Stravinsky, Diaghilev, and Nijinsky to produce such an “oppositional” piece of art?
Why did Paris audiences riot against it? What emotions does the dance. the music, and the costuming evoke?
Source: Rite of Spring, Joffrey Ballet 1987, YouTube
A sample of a more traditional ballet from Igor Stravinsky just prior to Rite of Spring.
Write a page about World War I Era and its new modern aesthetics. Please refer to 1913 Readings, the ballet Rite of Spring, and the 1913 Armory Show.
1. What is your own reaction to the new modernist art of 1913?
2. How did people in 191 react to these new modernist expressions? Can you understand their reactions? In other words, put yourself into the viewpoint of people 100 years ago looking at these new dances, costumes, music, and art.
