Modernism: The Artwork, Science, and Architecture of the Early Twentieth Century

On the eve of World War I, a growing tension within the social order of Western civilization manifested itself in artistic works of nearly every medium. Modernist artists and philosophers increasingly viewed traditional forms and social arrangements as a hindrance of progress, and were therefore socially recast as revolutionaries - as "overthrowing" rather than "enlightening." World War I and its subsequent cataclysmic upheavals sired not only the failure of previous status quo, but also the birth of the machine age. In the 1920s, modernism was finally permitted to fully evolve, expand, and redefine the age.

Modernist art concentrated pure form, color, emotion, and ideas. Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter and sculptor. Picasso's work is often categorized into periods - the Blue Period (1901-1904), the Rose Period (1905-1907), the African-Influenced Period (1908-1909), Analytic Cubism (1909-1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912-1919). Picasso's Le Demoiselles d'Avignon was the first great manifesto of modernist painting. It depicts a group of nude prostitutes parading before their customers. Because of his many innovations, Picasso is widely considered to be the most influential artist of the twentieth century. The cubist movement, which analyzed natural forms into planes, angles, and geometric shapes, had a number of followers. Its innovations gave rise to a host of other twentieth century art movements, including the early work of the surrealists and abstract expressionists.

Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist, is often regarded as one of the greatest physicists, intellectuals, and cultural symbols of all time. Einstein's many contributions to science include his special theory of relativity (specifically mass-energy equivalence, E=mc²) as well as his general theory of relativity. In 1921, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in Theoretical Physics. Prior to the work of Einstein, scientists would typically observe things, record them, and then simply find a piece of mathematics that would adequately explain the results. Einstein, however, worked in reverse. As stated in The World As I See It, he believed that, "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science."

Frank Lloyd Wright is, ultimately, America's most famous architect. Wright uniquely practiced what is known as organic architecture - he sought to forge a relationship between the building site, the building itself, and the needs of the client. Houses in wooded areas, for example, made heavy use of wood; desert houses had sprawled floor plans and made use of heavy stone and cinder block. His most famous private residence was that of Fallingwater, constructed for Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Kaufmann Sr., in Bear Run, Pennsylvania. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, contrarily, is probably his most recognized urban masterpiece. In his buildings as well as his homes, Wright conceived virtually every detail of both the external design and the internal design. He was one of the first architects to innovate and supply custom-made furniture that functioned as an integral part of the entire structure's composition.

In the first fifteen years of the twentieth century, a series of writers, philosophers, and artists made a break with the traditional means of composing literature, painting, music, and architecture. In the spirit of modernism, Spaniard Pablo Picasso rose to fame and became the most versatile, influential contemporary artist of his time. The growing movement in art also paralleled such developments as the Theory of Relativity in physics, pioneered by renowned physicist Albert Einstein. Wisconsin-born architect Frank Lloyd Wright meanwhile developed a series of highly individualized architectural styles that evolved to influence the entire course of American architecture and building. Modernism aggressively demolished the tired and overplayed cultural traditions of centuries past, overthrowing the status quo and defining a staggering future for the twentieth century and beyond.