Modernism

Modernism is known as modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term modernism describes the modernist movement in the arts, its set of cultural tendencies and associated cultural movements, originated from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The factors that shaped Modernism are the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by the horror of World War I. In art, Modernism rejects the idea of realism and makes use of the works of the past, transforming it into something new through reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody. It also rejects the persistent certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and the idea of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator. In general, the term modernism is applied to all activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of new industrialized world that was emerging. A big characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness, which often led to experiments with form and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used.
 * What is modernism?

Before Modernism, there was an artistic movement known as Art Nouveau. Other local names were associated with the characteristics of its forms, its practitioners and their works, and schools of thought or study where it was popular. Many of these terms refer to the idea of "newness". Before the term "Art Nouveau" became common in France, le style moderne ("the modern style") was the more frequent designation. Arte joven ("young art") in Spain, Modernisme in Catalonia, Arte nova in Portugal ("new art"), Arte nuova in Italy (also "new art"), and Nieuwe kunst ("new art") in the Netherlands, модерн ("new", "contemporary") in Russia. Many names refer specifically to the organic forms that were popular with the Art Nouveau artists: Stile Floreal ("floral style"), Lilienstil ("lily style"), Style Nouille ("noodle style"), Paling Stijl ("eel style"), and Wellenstil("wave style"). Historians, and writers in different disciplines, have suggested various dates as starting points for modernism. The beginning of the 20th century marked the first time a movement in the arts was described as "avant-garde”, which remained to describe movements which identify themselves as attempting to overthrow some aspect of tradition or the status quo. Much later Surrealism gained the fame among the public of being the most extreme form of modernism, or "the avant-garde of modernism". The first half of the 19th century for Europe was marked by a number of wars and revolutions, which contributed to a turning from the realities of the political and social fragmentation that were taking place, and a further trend towards Romanticism. Romanticism had been, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a revolt against the effects of the Industrial Revolution and bourgeois values, while emphasizing individual, subjective experience, the sublime, and the supremacy of "Nature", as subjects for art, and revolutionary, or radical extensions of expression, and individual liberty. Indeed from the 1870s onward, the idea that history and civilization were inherently progressive, and that progress was always good, came under increasing attack. Two of the most significant thinkers of the period were biologist Charles Darwin, and political scientist Karl Marx. Both thinkers were major influences on the development of modernism. This is not to say that all modernists, or modernist movements rejected either religion, or all aspects of Enlightenment thought, rather that modernism questioned the axioms of the previous age. The human misery of crowded industrial cities, as well as, the new possibilities created by science, brought changes that would shake European civilization, which had, until then, regarded itself as having a continuous and progressive line of development from the Renaissance. The changes that took place at the beginning of the 20th-century are emphasized by the fact that many modern disciplines, including sciences such as physics, mathematics, neuroscience and economics, and arts such as ballet and architecture, call their pre-20th century forms classical.
 * What is it called in different countries?
 * When did it start and why?

­ - Nihilism, the rejection of all religious and moral principles as the only means of obtaining social progress. ­ - Rejection and detournement of tradition: ejection of the obsolescence of tradition and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms. ­ - Challenge to false harmony and coherence. ­ - Modernist architects and designers believed that new technology rendered old styles of building obsolete. ­ - Modernist designers typically rejected decorative motifs in design, preferring to emphasize the materials used and pure geometrical forms. ­ - Modernists sought to defy expectations mainly in order to make their art more vivid, or to force the audience to take the trouble to question their own preconceptions. ­ - Counter consumerism and mass culture: rejection of conventional politics as well as artistic conventions.
 * What are its main characteristics?

WRITING 2

Modern architecture is a term given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament conceived early in the20th century and heavily promoted. For three decades after World War Two it became the dominant architectural style for institutional and corporate buildings. In Spain, the movement was centered in Barcelona and was an essential element of the Catalan movement Modernisme. However Valencia joined the Modernist movement very early. This city has very emblematic modernist buildings, which remain intact to contrast with the futuristic architecture that is being built in recent years.

Some of the main architects of modernism in Valencia are: Antonio Martorel Trilles, Demetrio Ribes Marco, Carlos Carbonell Pañella, José Manuel Cortina Pérez, Francisco Mora Berenguer, Javier Goerlich Lleó, Manuel Peris Ferrando, and Vicente Sancho Fuster. All of these architects have a lot of things in common: the use of very colorful animal forms that reflect the community awareness with respect to nature. The use of these complex forms as decorative elements were used not only like leaned elements, but giving to the building a personality that shows people's life. Other common characteristic is the change of concepts about the house buildings. It represents the new people's lifestyle that modernism brought, according to the concept of city. Modernist buildings in Valencia share some characteristics with its past but it also has unique factors of its own. We can notice how modernist architects use broken ceramic to decorate the façade and the interior of the buildings, the presence of balconies, sculptures both on the outside and inside of the building, and its importance to emphasize the use of colors and materials to create rhythm. The most important thing about all of this modern style, in Valencia or another city all over the world, it’s that a city can develop its arts going to a new era common to the technologic evolution and its own identity. Valencia it’s a city full of personality and cultural identity, but without forgiving its roots has created a city of modern personals buildings according to their own and world culture. Modernism in Valencia is proof of how modern architecture can be expressed and interpreted in many different ways, and that great architecture can be derived from past styles without imitating it, because it always shares a close link with the city and society itself. media type="file" key="writing 2.mp3" width="240" height="20"