Modernism in our text is defined as stylistic innovations, its willingness to disrupt traditional syntax and form, to mix together modes or levels of writing that had often been kept separate, and to risk irregularity and experimentation in order to challenge the audience’s preconceived notions of value and order.
The two pictures shown in class may be used here to explain the above definition. The first picture painted before the 20th century was brighter, colorful, and consisted of basic geometrical shapes like circles, and squares and the women seemed to be happy in their home. The picture signified life and there was the presence of the element of warmth.
In contrast, the second picture that was painted after the world war was in an urban setting of people waiting for the instruction from a pedestrian signal to cross the road. The people were painted in shades of gray; they had straight and emotionless faces, and looked more like the walking dead.
Modernism reached the United States in 1913 in the form of the Armory Show and consisted of abstract paintings by not-so well-known American and European artists. The art was not accepted by a large section of the population and the
Prohibition of the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the 1920-33 failed but nonetheless this was what people called a “noble experiment”.