Lyuba Rotankova.

2 April 2010

MODERNISM
Modernism was a movement not only in visual art, but also architecture and industrial
design. Modernism developed in the 20th century. It began after many wars that took place in
the late 1800’s and early 1900’s – the French revolution (1989), the Russian revolution
(1917), World War I (1914). It was also inspired by the artistic movements which it followed –
cubism and abstract. Cubism was a unique but short art movement expressing what you
know. It was based on shapes and values, showing he drawn object from all points of view
as well as its ‘negative’. Abstract, on the other hand, was meant to create something new, so
it had no direct representation.
Modernism started in France in the early years of the 20th century. The artists that first
used the modernist techniques called themselves fauve, which means ‘wild beasts’ in
German. They experimented with standing out colors and wide, bold brush strokes. Henri
Matisse was one of the first founders of modern art; later, many architectors and artists (such
as Vasily Kanditsky and Walter Gopius) picked up this style and began this new artistic
movement.

Architecture

Modernism had a great impact on the architecture. Instead of making the classic and
somewhat boring houses, houses and apartments became plainer in details but more
complicated and straight forward in coloring. The famous architectors used primary colors:
red, blue and yellow to color the walls and the furniture inside those apartments. One of the
first modern buildings is Villa Savoy. This is a very interesting building, where you get an
impression of being not only inside or outside,
but somewhere in between. It is a two story
house. The main room is on the 1st story.
Corbusier put the living rooms above the
ground level, so the cold and the unpleasant
smell wouldn’t get to the people. Those rooms
are supported by cylindrical columns called
pilotis that stand in a square shape under the
house. Between the pilotis, there is an uneven
shaped garage. A staircase leads to the floor
above. Even though the story is square, it is
divided into uneven rooms, with the bigger part
Villa Savoy, [82 rue de Villiers, Poissy, France],
being public area, and one corner (about a Le Corbusier
quarter) – private. The windows are located all
around the walls, divided only by small pieces of wall. One side of the building is the balcony,
which is also held up by pilotis and has a ceiling and walls; however, the windows are not
protected by glass, which gives you an impression of being outside. The story above is the
roof. It has one standing wall of uneven shape, and a square in the floor to let the light pass
onto the balcony. The roof provides a magnificent view on the little park surrounding the villa,
which cannot be seen whilst standing on the ground. This villa is an amazing example of the
modern architecture, combining plain regular shapes with curvy and uneven lines, and
having most of its furniture in one color – white.
 Modern architecture favored the contrast between
white and the primary colors. Another example of
architecture built by Le Corbusier is Unité d'Habitation
Marseilles. Houses with apartments looked plain and
boring, as well as giving an impression of imprisonment.
The thought of having many people enclosed in one
building, owning only a few rooms that were all the same
decreases a person’s pride and uniqueness. To prevent
this, Le Corbusier designed a building with apartments are
on different levels, some having balconies and some not,
and with every apartment colored differently. The house is
standing on wide pilotis, under which there is space for
parking. On top of the building, just like in Villa Savoy,
there is space for sunbathing. The house is one of the many examples of playing with
different story levels and colors within the building.
One of the most famous modern buildings, though, is the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus was
built by a German architector Henri Van de Velde
(1863-1957). It is a strange shaped building used as
a university. It was built in 1919. Its main modern
purpose was to show the idea of transparency – all
walls are glass. The main color is white. Following
the modernist’s slogan “Less is more”, Van de Velde
only used white paint to decorate the interior of the
building; however, the Bauhaus proved to be
unsuitable for living because of the glass walls –
they didn’t protect from the sun during summer, nor
from the cold during winter. Even though, the
building has a very interesting modern design, which
might not be practical, but it is a great discovery as
an experiment. The Bauhaus has three main blocks,
as can be seen from the picture. Those blocks are
connected by bridges, which are also stories used
for living and working. One bridge (the façade) is
held up by the pilotis, and is made up of two stories.
It is used as a corridor, as well as the office of the
director of the university.

Visual Art

Modernism was greatly developed in visual art (sculpture, painting, ect.) Unlike the
previous styles, its goal was not to get a message across or to create something new, but to
please the eye with something simple and natural. In the earliest years of modernism, the
paintings still had some touch of cubism and abstract. However, the
main features of modernism were straight lines and primary colors, as
can be seen in the painting on the right. There are multiple examples
of paintings like this, which are mostly very similar to this one. The
composition’s main point is the perpendicular black lines on the white
background, which makes a double impression of contrast. The sharp
and eye-tiring painting is somewhat softened by three small squares of
blue, yellow and red paints, which are different by their area and the

P. Mondrian: Composition
with Red, Yellow and Blue,
distance from the center. The overall view is really nice because whilst it is very contradicting
and sharp, it is also somehow disorganized and bright. Even though there are not many
colors, the painting looks colorful because otherwise than the primary colors, there is only the
plain white and black.
“The Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich can be counted as
the top painting of modernism. It shows the exact direction of
modernism. The square is a regular, plain, sharp figure. Unlike a
circle, it has no curves, so there is no ease or irregularity. The equal
sides make the square perfect. By making this square, Malevich
wanted to show that the romantic, curvy art came to an end, which
was highlighted by the mourning color – black. It is considered the
most as one of the most famous modern paintings as being the most
extreme. The other extreme paintings in the same style are “The
Black Square and the Red Square”, and the “Read Square”, both by
Kazimir Malevich. Te black Square, K.
One aspect of the modern paintings was that the painting Malevich, 1913, Oil
becomes object, giving it the 3D look. on Canvas, the State
Just as shown on the painting below, Russian Museum
the shapes seem to float off the page.
Again, the only colors the artist uses are the primary colors,
white and black, as well as the pastel color of the
background. There are multiple examples of this style. This
painting mainly experiments with colors and shapes.
Although this painting has no visible representation, it can be
noticed that the artist was somewhere showing a building,
which can be concluded from the cubic shape and that the
warmer colors are on the top of the painting, which can be
argued to be the sun and shadow (although the colors are
somewhat equally spread throughout the painting).
Theo van Doesburg, Costruzione a
Colori, 1922
Kazimir Malevich’s “Composition VIII” is another
modern painting, although it does get its roots from abstract
art. The meaningless shapes and the complex composition, as
well as the presence of many colors, resemble both abstract art
and cubism; however, many lines and the way the colored
squares intersect with those lines also give a modern
impression. The background is very complex because although
it is supposed to be white, you can still see the red, blue and
yellow almost transparent shades in the corners of the page.

Industrial Design K. Malevich, Composition

VIII, 1923, oil on canvas
 Whilst the visual art and the architecture were changing, it was not possible for the
industrial design not to change. Instead of making heavy
wood furniture that was popular in the previous century,
light metal comfortable things came into use. As well as
everything else at that time,
simplicity was favored. Furniture
was one of the most affected
aspects of modernism. Metal bars
and leather cushions were used
widely for sofas, armchairs and
chairs. The chair on the side
(called the Barcelona chair) was designed by M. Van Der Robe. It is
very simple because if its common color, and the shapes – two black
squared cushions lying on bent metal bars. However, this chair is quite low, so it might not be
very comfortable for sitting. It is a very good presentation of modernism, because it is colored
simply, but it also combines the sharpness of the cushions and the softness of the metal. The
sofa on the right, created by le Corbusier, is another good example of the modern furniture. It
is plain, not appealing to the eye, but quite comfortable and made of simple shapes.

Modernism was very popular in the first half of the 20th century. It lost some of its
meaning after the 2nd World War. It is considered that the modern movement finished on
March 16, 1972, with the destruction of a modern building Pruitt-Igoe.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.csulb.edu
http://www.odessaglobe.com/russian/people/kandinsky.php
www.metuseum.org
The black square, K. Malevich, oil on canvas, 1913, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg,