Modernism

It all started before the industrial revolution, in a time where people were moving away from religion, and towards science. A time called the Scientific Revolution, which occurred in the 17th century. It revolved around the ideal of the search for enlightenment, and seeking answers. This period led to shifts in power, and changes in the class of individuals. Consequently, many revolutions occurred, around the world, due to this change in political and social philosophies.

An important word to use in relation to the whole modernist movement is zeitgeist. This means something that was prominent in the air of that era. Changes in society led to the Bauhaus movement, which contained many textile artists, painters, sculptors and designers. It established rules for design, and stated that "less is more" focusing on reductionism. Constructivism followed, which started in Russia, by using the ideas from the Bauhaus movement for political propaganda design. it involved reducing objects to their basic elements, and was highly idealogical. Descartes brought about a new stage of philosophical thought, a more complex idea of personhood. While Neo-Classicism revived an interest in antique art, and involved art educating the viewer.

Experimentation was a common ideal in the early modernist movement, as a result of dissatisfaction of the past, and artists looking for radical change in society. Cubism sums up this movement away from the norms of society, where artists introduced multiple shapes and viewpoints into their works, changing the way society viewed things. Futurism and Dada made statements about the nature of society at the time, rebelling against the strict norms established in the past. The Swiss modernist movement introduced much more freedom into art, and removed the rules, which led to surrealism.