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Modernism

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 3 months ago

 

 

 

 

  • What is Modernism?

 

 Modernism describes a series of reforming cultural movements in art and architecture, music, literature and the applied arts which emerged in the three decades before 1914.

 

  • What is it called in different countries?

 

- Jugendstil - Germany

- Art Nouveau - France

- Liberty - Italy

- Modernism - Spain

- Modern Style - England

 

 

  • How did it start?

 

In the 1890s a strand of thinking began to assert that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of current techniques. The growing movement in art paralleled such developments as the Theory of Relativity in physics; the increasing integration of the internal combustion engine and industrialization; and the increased role of the social sciences in public policy. It was argued that, if the nature of reality itself was in question, and if restrictions which had been in place around human activity were falling, then art, too, would have to radically change. Thus, in the first fifteen years of the twentieth century a series of writers, thinkers, and artists made the break with traditional means of organizing literature, painting, and music.

 

 

Designers such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe brought modernist ideas into everyday urban life.

 

 

 

 

 

:: MODERNISM IN BARCELONA ::

 

 

 

With Modernism, Catalunya recovers an artistic pro-technism which was lost after the splendour of the Middle Ages. But the recovery, is not the same in all domains. Of all the arts, it is architecture which creates the style with a singular and well defined personality. 

 

 

Some architects of this style:

 

 

  • Lluís Domènech i Montaner
     
     

Was a Catalan architect who was highly influential on Modernisme català, the Catalan Art Nouveau / Jugendstil movement. His most famous buildings, the Hospital de Sant Pau and Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, have been collectively designated as a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site.

 

 

Domènech i Montaner's article "En busca d'una arquitectura nacional" (In search of a national architecture), published in the journal La Renaixença, reflected the way architects at that time sought to build structures that reflected the Catalan character.

 

 

His buildings displayed a mixture between rationalism and fabulous ornamentation inspired by Spanish-Arabic architecture, and followed the curvilinear design typical of Art Nouveau. An interesting characteristic of Domènech i Montaner's work was the evolution towards more open structures and lighter materials, evident in the Palau de la Música Catalana. Other architects, like Gaudí, tended to move in the opposite direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Antoni Gaudi 

 

 

Sometimes referred to by the Spanish translation of his name, Antonio Gaudí – was a Spanish architect from Catalonia, who belonged to the Modernisme (Art Nouveau) movement and was famous for his unique style and highly individualistic designs.

 

Gaudí's first works were designed in the style of gothic and traditional Spanish architectural modes, but he soon developed his own distinct sculptural style. French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, who promoted an evolved form of gothic architecture, proved a major influence on Gaudí. But the student surpassed the master architect and contrived highly original designs – irregular and fantastically intricate. Some of his greatest works, most notably La Sagrada Família, have an almost hallucinatory power.

He integrated the parabolic arch and hyperboloid structures, nature's organic shapes, and the fluidity of water into his architecture. While designing buildings, he observed the forces of gravity and related catenary’s principles.

 

In 1883, Antoni Gaudi also undertakes this singular building, Vicens House, covered with mosaics and straight lines with these elevated windows and its balconies in the form of abutments. It is clearly associated with oriental style medieval architecture.

 

 

Vegetables and fantastic animal forms, are present in the palace traits, the forge grills and ornamental motives and the natural forms break the rectilinear uniformity of the building.

 

 

It is in this year, that Gaudi takes over the work of the “Sagrada Familia” which the architect Villar had left because of differences of opinion.

 

 

In his life time, Gaudi would convert the Cathedral of the port in the most emblematic building of the new Barcelona.

 

 

Five years later, Gaudi has finished the Güell Palace. Here again, he takes his inspiration from the oriental world, in making a totally modern building with respect to its internal space.

 

 

Light, from the elevation of the main floor, reaches the holes framed by a gallery of arches, stylized oriental-looking capitals.

 

 

In this construction, light is the highly important factor because the street known as the Rambla is narrow and darkness dominates.

 

 

Gaudi’s expressionist originality, is manifest both in the design of the system of construction and in the ornamental profusion planned by the architect down to the last detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Puig i Cadafalch

 

 

He was a Modernist Catalan architect who designed many significant buildings in Barcelona. He was the architect of "la Casa Martí" (also known as "Els Quatre Gats") which became a place of ideas, projects and social gatherings for such well-known Catalans as Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Casas.

 

Although the style of Puig separated him significantly from his contemporary architect Gaudí, their relations were neither tense nor problematic. It is demonstrated by the participation of both architects in the construction of the Cafe Torino. Another one of his significant buildings was the Casa Terrades (also known as "les Punxes"), which is know for its medieval castle style from the north of Europe. From 1942 to his death in 1956, he was the President of the academic institution of the Catalan language (Institut d'Estudis Catalans

 

 

He was 18 years younger than Domenech i Montaner, and his student at the School of Architecture.

 

By 1896, he has completed the Marti House, well known because the café-restaurant “Els Quatre Gats” is installed on its ground floor. In this early building, of his modernist stage, we observed the constancy of his work which is inspired by Gothic art.

 

Like many other architects, Domenech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch represent the prototype of the qualified designers. They are architects that put school and art together and Catalan art in particular.

 

Politically committed to Catalan Nationalism, they would become City Counsellors and Members of Parliament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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