Modernism Discussion Plans

Garrison Taylor

Discussion Outline: Modernism – Escape from Nature?

From Bump:

1. A usage, mode of expression, peculiarity of style, etc., characteristic of modern times. Later more generally: an innovative or distinctively modern feature. …

4. Any of various movements in art, architecture, literature, etc., generally characterized by a deliberate break with classical and traditional forms or methods of expression; the work or ideas of the adherents of such a movement….Now often used spec. with reference to the early 20th cent., esp. in the visual arts. OED

In ARCHITECTURE A broadly used architectural term and movement, tracing its origins to Le Corbusier's (1887–1966) designs such as that for the ‘floating box’ (i.e. it was on stilts) Villa Savoye, Paris 1933, ....In Modernist architecture there are no projecting features such as cornices, mouldings, architraves, or skirting boards. By the 1970s, however, Modernism had come to mean squat concrete blockhouses and impersonal skyscrapers. …

"Modernism" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Michael Clarke. Oxford University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference Online.

Modern Movement. C20 architectural movement (also called Modernism) that sought to sunder all stylistic and historic links with the past…

Anti-modern movements represent a wide range of critiques, including appeals to tradition, religion, spirituality, environmentalism, aesthetics, pacificism, Marxism or agrarian virtues. They may reject technologies, or their use, social organizations, such as corporations, or some combination of the above. They may reject modernism on the grounds of its denying universalism of particular kinds

Questions:

What is the most driving factor behind modern architecture? Is it God? Is it the city? Is it man’s isolation?

Ask Brad to elaborate on the Buddha, Haile Selassie, and Allah remark - throwing out the old?

Has God actually disappeared?

Ask Alexandra how does she interpret the man confronting isolation: how do we do this in our daily lives?

Relate to Past Discussions

-the role of God in architecture BEFORE this discussion: hardly mentioned at all in Ruskin, or with Gaudi’s work

-Development of the city in relation to past architecture – Notre Dame in Paris, Parliament in London

-How does this architecture not stand out compared to Gaudi?

-Does this blandness on the outside reflect the movement toward hypermedia?

Quotes to Discuss:

Garrison - no pleasure is taken anywhere in modern buildings, and we find all men of true feeling delighting to escape out of modern cities into natural scenery” (Ruskin 546).

life in the city is the way in which many men have experienced most directly what it means to live without God in the world” (Miller 491).

Chetna - modernism is characterized by ża deliberate break with the classical and traditional forms or methods of expressionż (Bump, 499). In architecture, this is illustrated by żpassion over form and function the abolition of ornament, the stripping away of żsuperfluousż detailż to żstrip the world of mystery and emotionż (Bump, 502, 503)

there began a situation of disconnection, żbetween man and nature, between man and man, even between man and himselfż (Miller, 491

Brad - We are not so much "chang[ing things] from [their] natural state into something useful" (Miller 492

Many Dadaists believed that the only way to make something truly new was to "throw out the vestiges of culture" and "reject everything" (Anthology 501

Alexandra - when the old system of symbols binding man to God has finally evaporated, man finds himself alone and in spiritual poverty. Modern times begin when man confronts his isolation, his separation from everything outside himself" (Miller, Bump 493).

My point is not to preach, but to illustrate that one's physical surroundings and personal circumstances do not always dictate the presence [or absence] of God; truth to nature can be found within one's own self rather than a building

Perhaps it is in rigid structures like modern skyscrapers that one may also see Ruskin's "active rigidity; the peculiar energy which gives tension to movement" (Ruskin, Bump 552

Amanda - The modernist movement developed out of a world war and a disillusioned society. People looked at older architectural styles with disdain, noting that classical forms such as huge stairs and grand columns żdefined a hierarchical order,ż while żGothic ornamentżexpressed painż[and] our guilt, pointing to a heaven we could never reachż (504)

Paradise Now article talks about how glass, one of modernismżs primary materials, żoffered social redemptionż symbolically through the light streaming through it ż żthe light of heaven itselfż (502)

Eric - Rather, we should embrace the new yet preserve the old. By doing so, we can appreciate all types of architecture

Ashley - What ordinary people wanted was culture they could relax into- the middle-class comfort of the upholstered armchair, not the bracing, challenging austerities of chrome tubes and leather thongs” (Bump 502

“The industrialization and urbanization of man means the progressive transformation of the world. Everything is changed from its natural state into something useful and meaningless to man” (Bump 492).

Liz - Miller's description of "the romantics" describes an artist who "find [God's] absence intolerable," and attempt to "create in that vacancy a new fabric of connections between man and the divine power" (Miller in Bump 496-7). In my view, that is EXACTLY what the Modernists were doing. They saw a fault in the existing architecture and world, and felt the need to create something entirely new

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