The ideas of the early Twentieth Century differed from those of Nineteenth Century World - Essay Example

How the ideas of the early Twentieth Century differed from those of Nineteenth Century World, and how those changes are reflected in the paintings ofthe eras. Europe in the nineteenth century was a region which made great advances in industrialization and the making and selling of all kinds of manufactured goods. European countries were engaged in global trade with their colonies, and many new ideas were emerging in science and technology. Innovations in the study of light and photography, for example, changed the way that people viewed images, and artists began to experiment with impressionism as a way of capturing the interplay of light and shade in a fresh, new way.

Somewhat in contradiction to these new developments, there was in the UK and France a number of established academies and circles of artists, poets, and lovers of fine things who liked to determine what counted as fine art. This was rather conservative and elitist circle, and it dominated the galleries and exhibitions in the nineteenth century. The Victorians in England were well known for their rather rigid moral views, and their insistence on conformity. By the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a greater sense of rebellion against restrictive fashions and tradition, and one of the reasons for this was that the European market was becoming exposed to works from outside the usual narrow circles: “It was not until the early years of the present century that the importation by missionaries of of ‘curiosities’ made by the ‘savages’ of Africa and the South Seas gave rise to the view that art and beauty could have a meaning that had been suppressed by the canons of good taste” (Penrose 128).

The originality, bright colors, and disregard for convention that came with African artefacts helped to create a movement known as “fauvism” which stressed the value of wildness. This inspired artists like Picasso to use similar techniques and approaches in his works. His painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon features some female figures painted in a novel way which accentuates the slopes and angles of the body. One figure on the top right has a face which looks like an African mask, while another at the bottom right has asymmetrical features.

Later Picasso was to take this one step further and develop cubist paintings, which show human figures from several angles at once, in a disjointed way, as if to deliberately make the viewer deconstruct and reconstruct the human body using imagination as well as the visual clues on the canvas. Another key influence in the early twentieth century was the horrific experience of a mechanized warfare which caused very large numbers of casualties. Picasso’s Guernica which commemorates some ethnic cleansing in the Spanish Civil War, uses some elements of cubism, and a great deal of symbolism, which in turn owes much to the development of new ideas about psychoanalysis and the subconscious.

These new insights about human psychology provided interesting new avenues for artists like Matisse to followed up, for example in his painting The Sorrows of the King which mixes bright color and simple shapes into a layered pattern, indicative of human figures, flowers, and music, but not fully rendered into realistic images. American ideas about industry and technology, including mechanisation and factory efficiency also caused innovations in production techniques, resulting in the incorporation of print media and advertising into the concept of art as for example in the works of Warhol and others in the middle of the century.

In summary, then, the twentieth century brought a sense of discovery and exploration into the world of art. Old conventions were thrown aside, and adventurous new styles were developed, challenging what came before and setting out a radical new way of defining art and all the different meanings it can have. References Matisse, Henri. The Sorrows of the King. Gouache on paper on canvas. 292 x 386 cm. Paris: Pompidou Center, 1952. Collage. Penrose, Roland. Picasso: His Life and Work. Third edition.

Berkeley and Los Angelesm, CA: University of California Press, 1981. Print. Picasso, Pablo. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Oil on Canvas. 244 x 234 cm. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1907. Painting. Picasso, Pablo. Guernica. Oil on Canvas. 349 x 776 cm. Madrid: Museo Reina Sofia, 1937. Painting.