#4 Edging into the 20th Century

Think: The Big Questions

Does realism's emphasis on representation restrict artistic expression?

Is there "truth" beyond observed reality and what can be proven scientifically?

Must art serve a functional purpose, or can art exist simply as "art for art's sake"?

Is technology the answer to our problems or a curse that will destroy about humanity?

Think

Introduce

QUIZ

Introduce

Watch: Historical Context

QUIZ

The Irish Renaissance in the early 20th century included a wealth of new plays written both in Ireland, and by Irish ex-patriots elsewhere. W.B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, and J.M. Synge were creating a new national theater of Ireland at the Abbey Theatre. They often drew their stories from the fabric of Irish life. Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw were meanwhile writing important (and often hilarious) works on the world stage.

it's time for a dip into the random, because we're talking about the Dada theater that grew out of Symbolism, and the Surrealist theater that followed Dada. You'll learn about Maurice Maeterlinck, Paul Fort, Lugne Poe, Andre Breton, and Alfred Jarry and his infamous play, Ubu Roi. Along the way, you'll pick up lots of interesting facts.

We're going back into the past to talk about Futurism. Which seems like it would be cool, but it was started by this terrible guy Martinetti, who also wrote the Italian Fascist manifesto. We'll also check in with the Russian theater, and learn about generally nicer Futurist Vsevolod Meyerhold, who also was vey influential in constructivism. So get ready to fire up the meaning machine and learn!

Watch

Know: Vocabulary

Know

Aestheticism

Art-for-Art’s Sake

automatism

avant garde

biomechanics

bourgeoisie

Cabaret Voltaire

collage

concrete poetry

contructivism

Dadaism

Futurism

George Bernard Shaw

Irish Renaissance

John Synge

kinetic sculpture

manifesto

Meyerhold

Oscar Wilde

serates

Sigmund Freud

sintesi

stream-of-consciousness

Surrealism

Symbolism

Lecture Slides

Early Departures from Realism

Dadaism, Futurism, Expressionism

Visualize

Symbolism

Dadaism

Constructivism

SYMBOLISM

A movement that emerged in the late nineteenth century, symbolism was the first of several that sought to counter the influence of realism and naturalism. Rather than seeking truth through direct observation of the world around them, symbolists argued that truth can only be intuited and that these intuitions can be expressed only indirectly through symbols.

AESTHETICISM

A late nineteenth-century movement, which asserted that the only functions of art were to intensify experience and to provide sensuous pleasure. In this respect it challenged the scientific outlook of realism and naturalism, their focus on contemporary subjects, and their tacit agenda for social change.

DADAISM

Dadaism was an art that developed in reaction to World War I. It consisted of artists who rejected the logic, reason, and aestheticism of modern capitalist society, instead expressing nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois protest in their works. The art of the movement spanned visual, literary, and sound media, including collage, sound poetry, cut-up writing, and sculpture.

FUTURISM

A movement launched in early twentieth-century Italy that glorified the speed and energy of the machine age and sought to replace traditional art forms with new ones, which included “synthetic” drama, which compressed into a moment or two the essence of a full-length play, the use of simultaneously staging different scenes or events in different parts of the performance and audience spaces, and various attempts to induce confrontational audience-performer interaction.

SURREALISM

A movement, especially in the 1920s, emphasizing the importance of the unconscious. Believing that the most significant truths are those buried in the unconscious, surrealists sought to release these suppressed forces by exploring dreams, automatic writing, and stream-of-consciousness.

CONSTRUCTIVISM

Constructivism was already a popular movement in the visual arts in the early 20th Century, when Meyerhold adapted its form for theatrical set design in many of the productions he directed. Constructivist theatre sets typically included treadmills, ramps, catwalks, trapezes, turning wheels, multiple levels and machines.

Salvador Dali

(1904-1989)

dali 1

dali 2

dali 3

dali 1

1/3

Earnest

1/6

Futurism Sampler

Neo-Futurism: Too Much Light...

Animated Poem by Marinetti

Victory Over the Sun

Listen

Sample Plays

Futurist Manifesti

The Importance of

Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde

Irish (1895)

Aetheticism

The Breasts of Tiresias

by Maeterlink

Symbolism (1903)

Futurist Sintesi

multiple Italian writers

Futurism

Anchor 1

Performance (Then)

A group of young artists and writers has been formed whose aim is to create a centre for artistic entertainment. The idea of the cabaret will be that guest artists will come and give musical performances and readings at the daily meetings.

A mass spectacle with over 10,000 participants reenacted the historical event on the third anniversary of the Revolution.

Meyerhold, the Russian theatre director, devised the acting technique biomechanics. Using actors this film attempts to recreate his ideas in the context of Russian Theatre of the 1920s.

Andalusian Dog

Compare