Introduction to Modernism
Modernism represents a pervasive intellectual and cultural movement that has profoundly shaped the arts, architecture, and societal structures since the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It is characterised by a departure from traditional forms and values, often embracing abstraction, novelty, and a belief in progress and control.
The modern project, in its essence, is inherently violent, seeking to manage, control, and alter the world to conform to a utopian vision of a better future. This inclination to fix perceived wrongs by political or systemic means, rather than through individual transformation, is a hallmark of modern thought.
Core Ideologies and Characteristics
Modernism is underpinned by a distinct ideology that has influenced numerous facets of life. Modernist architects and artists, for instance, are often driven by an ideal that verges on ugliness, perceiving distinction in universal dislike for their work.
This approach contrasts sharply with traditional aesthetic principles. A fundamental characteristic of modernism is its relentless pursuit of novelty; designs are often created using computer programs to generate unique and unconventional forms, with awards frequently bestowed for unprecedented creativity rather than beauty or functionality.
A critical aspect of the modern project is its tendency to impose dichotomies, creating a gridlock in understanding. These include the separation of the supernatural from the natural, mind from body, fact from value, and subjective from objective.
This dualistic framework, while critiqued by Postmodernism for its internal contradictions, has fundamentally shaped modern perception, contributing to a default Atheism and Nihilism where being is objectified as valueless fact and value is subjectivised as unreal. The inability to perceive the sacred or spiritual within this framework necessitates a radical shift, an imperative to dismantle the framework of modernity itself.
Architectural Modernism and its Impact
Architecture and urban planning are considered among the most important art forms, influencing human orientation, self-perception, and social relationships. Modernist architecture and city planning, however, are frequently associated with deep alienation in modern living.
This alienation stems from habitation in abstracted spaces that lack a discernible centre, community, or relational coherence. Modernist buildings are often generic, mundane, or bizarre, prioritising profit maximisation through cost-cutting or a narcissistic pursuit of novelty.
Specific features and impacts of modernist architecture include:
##### - Reductive Aesthetics:
Modernist architecture is often a reductive art form, producing structures that are unrelatable and fail to evoke emotional responses. This approach is perceived as an abstraction of human experience, fostering an abstracted human or global consumer devoid of cultural expression.
##### - Deliberate Ugliness:
The prevalence of aesthetically unappealing contemporary architecture is largely a deliberate choice by architects. Ideological conditioning in architecture schools often dismisses classical traditions as historical, backward and irrelevant, associating them with negative historical aspects such as classism, Racism, and slavery, thus discouraging the development of skills needed for beautiful, humane, and climate-responsive design.
##### - Brutalism:
A particular modernist style, brutalism, embodies a Nihilistic desire for humanity to inhabit inhumane spaces, serving as a reminder of human horror or mortality. These structures often appear empty, requiring the invention of elaborate narratives to justify their existence.
##### - Lack of Readability and Soul:
Unlike classical architecture, which possesses an inherent readability due to ordered elements like three-part facade divisions and symmetrical window placements, modernist buildings frequently lack such intrinsic order.
This absence of a craftsman's touch and meaningful ornament results in structures perceived as soulless, failing to create a participative space that enhances an inhabitant's sense of purpose.
##### - Climatic and Cultural Disregard:
The global proliferation of modernism has led to a reductive architecture that ignores local cultural expressions and climatic adaptations.
Abandonment of traditional, evolved solutions, such as sloped roofs in areas prone to heavy rainfall, results in practical problems like structural leakage. This detachment from organically adapted, place-specific designs disregards centuries of architectural evolution.
##### - Urban Planning Failures:
Modernist urban planning often creates fragmented, specialised spaces. This manifests in massive blocks, uneven density, and the construction of high-rises for the extremely wealthy, leading to inhospitable, windswept urban environments. The transition to skyscraper development has not necessarily increased density and has often led to a loss of community and livability.
Modern Art and its Controversies
Modern Art has been a site of significant controversy, both in its aesthetic principles and its societal role. A radical view posits that art possesses no inherent value, challenging the notion of art for art's sake.
True art is participative, serving a purpose, with liturgical art representing its highest form.
The departure from this participative ideal, particularly during The Renaissance and accelerating through Romanticism, is seen as leading inevitably to Postmodern art, characterised by increasing idiosyncrasy and a divorce from collective participation. Pop culture, for instance, reflects this degradation, offering individual choices rather than unitive experiences.
The longing for true communal engagement often manifests in phenomena such as cosplay or intense fandoms, as individuals seek to imbue fictional narratives with the significance typically found in liturgy.
Beyond theoretical debates, modern art has been directly implicated in forms of psychological torment. During the Spanish Civil War, French artist and architect Alphonse Laurencic designed a Modern Art Prison in 1938 for Republican forces with the explicit aim of torturing Nationalist prisoners. These cells were conceived as three-dimensional modern art paintings, drawing inspiration from surrealists like Salvador Dalíand Bauhaus artists such as Wassily Kandinsky. Features included:
- Disorienting Visuals: Walls adorned with surrealist patterns and dynamic lighting effects were intended to induce distress and confusion.
- Physical Debilitation: Sloping beds at extreme angles prevented sleep, irregularly shaped brick floors obstructed movement, and stone seats were designed to cause occupants to slide off.
- Sensory and Temporal Manipulation: Prisoners were subjected to amplified metronomes and misleading clocks that ran fast, exacerbating hunger and disorientation. Modernist art was also used as an instrument of torture when Nationalist prisoners in Murcia were forced to watch Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel's surrealist film _Un Chien Andalou_, which notoriously features a graphic scene of an eyeball being sliced open. The Nazi regime, backers of General Franco, had previously condemned modern art as "degenerative."
Modernism's Historical Contexts and Evolution
Modernism is not an entirely new phenomenon but rather a recurring pattern throughout history, appearing as an excess or an extreme in cycles.
Examples include the complex mathematical patterns in 13th-century French music, the lewd and monstrous imagery in the margins of Medieval church architecture, late Roman mosaics depicting crumbs and decomposed items, and the overtly modern sensibilities found in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
These historical instances suggest that an experimental space, often confined to the fringes of mainstream culture, exists to explore extremes. Modernism, in its contemporary manifestation, brought these extremes to the forefront, declaring them the essence of the modern world.
In the context of the Cold War, Modern Art, particularly Abstract Expressionism (featuring artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko), was covertly funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a weapon in a cultural war against Communism.
The CIA sought to promote an image of the West as devoted to freedom of expression and intellectual achievement, contrasting with the regimented social realism favoured by the Soviet Union.
Abstract Expressionism was seen as new, fresh, and creative, celebrating the individual and forming part of an arsenal of freedom against Stalinism. Ironically, many of these artists had previously been Communists or communist sympathisers, having survived the Great Depression through government-subsidised social realist art.
Despite its promotion abroad, modern art faced significant domestic hostility in the United States, being perceived as subversive of American values.
Congressman George Dondero, for example, believed modernist art was part of a global conspiracy, arguing that styles like Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Expressionism, Abstractionism, and Surrealism aimed to destroy through disorder, machine myth, ridicule, aping the primitive, brainstorms, and denial of reason, respectively.
President Truman also dismissed modern art as the work of "half-baked, lazy people." This domestic opposition led to the cancellation of exhibitions and public scrutiny of artists, highlighting the tension between the artistic avant-garde and prevailing public and political sentiments.
The CIA's operations in supporting modernist art were consequently conducted covertly, utilising a network of phony foundations, wealthy philanthropists, and prominent museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art, as fronts.
Critiques and Consequences of Modernity
Modernity is critiqued for its inherent violence, its desire to control and transform reality to fit an idealised vision of a better world. This approach, which prioritises political action over personal transformation, is a source of deep alienation.
The alarmist environmental crisis, for instance, is viewed as a direct consequence of modern thought's tendency to treat the world as a "standing reserve" of exploitable physical potential.
The abstract nature of modernist architecture and art, while sometimes incorporating aspects of a clean aesthetic and authentic materiality, has contributed to this era of alienation.
The prevalence of generic, soulless buildings designed for profit maximisation or a narcissistic pursuit of novelty reflects a systemic issue within the architectural profession. Architectural education's ideological conditioning against historical traditions has created a talent deficit in designing humane, beautiful, and climate-responsive environments.
Ultimately, modernity's framework of dichotomies leads to a state of default Atheism and nihilism, hindering the perception of the sacred or spiritual. To transcend these limitations, a fundamental dismantling of this framework is proposed, allowing for a renewed understanding of experience that integrates traditional wisdom with the insights gained from modern exploration, fostering an art that is both embodied and culturally relevant.