Modern Architecture, Art Movements and Iron Structures in the Twentieth Century
Architecture in the Twentieth Century
The first third of the twentieth century saw Bauhaus, Modernism and industrial architecture transform cathedrals, factories and cities. Architects used new materials such as concrete, steel and glass alongside classic materials such as wood and stone, and prefabricated elements allowed rapid construction and simplified structural calculation.
Characteristics: The architecture of the period responded to the needs of industry, transport, schools, hospitals, administration and culture, rejecting ornament and favoring clean geometric lines, horizontals and verticals.
German Pavilion
(Mies van der Rohe, 1929, rebuilt 1986)
The pavilion represented Germany at the Barcelona International Exposition. It was demolished after the exhibition and later rebuilt. Its freedom of plan and use of marble, glass and steel expressed the spirit of modernity.
Savoy Villa
(Le Corbusier, 1929-31)
Bauhaus Building
(W. Gropius, 1923-25)
Organicism
Characteristics: In the United States of the 1930s, architects began to criticize the coldness and minimalism of rationalism, seeking buildings integrated with nature that embraced the people who lived in them.
Kaufmann House
(1935-37, F. Lloyd Wright)
An example of the symbiosis between architecture and landscape. Built over a rock where water flowed, the house incorporates stone walls that blend with the rock, which is part of the natural site. The design seeks to integrate the house into the landscape without needing decoration. Wood and aluminum were used, while glass blurred the boundary between interior and exterior. The house was conceived as a refuge for those who live in it, and it influenced Scandinavian architects such as Alvar Aalto.
Cubism
Characteristics: The early twentieth century brought innovation. Cubism broke with the tradition that Rodin had championed, introducing dynamism and the fragmentation of life. It used materials, the absence of mass and new spatial voids.
Sculpture
The Prophet
(Gargallo, 1933) Using multiple viewpoints, it represents a prophet who is deformed. Cast in bronze, with its voids, the sculpture creates a final result that increases the expressiveness of the figure. The axis of the column connects with the square, creating two lines. The arm is placed at an angle that accentuates the deformed space of the body and the other shapes. The transparency of the mass allows the sculpture to be viewed from many points of view and at different times of day, and the figure can be turned to see the forms that are hidden.
Abstraction
Characteristics: Sculpture: Figure Reclining (Moore, 1938). Primitivism arranges the forms of classic sculpture into new versions. It combines materials, using bronze and marble, with an expressive character. The human figure is depicted with empty spaces that create a magical mystery of the human form. The technique concentrates on the empty spaces and emphasizes the forms of the body. The representation of the void accentuates the mystery of humanity.
Painting
Two great groups: the avant-garde of the twentieth century, from 1945 (Fauves, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism and abstraction), and after 1945 (abstract expressionism, informalism, pop art, hyperrealism and optical/kinetic art).
Composition IV ()
Fauvism
Characteristics: Born in Paris in 1905, Fauvism has its roots in symbolism and post-impressionism. It emancipated color from the form and objects it painted. Complementary colors were juxtaposed, and color carried the expressive weight of the work. Art was a vital impulse. African art, Oriental art and primitive art provided a starting point for the technique, and the paintings have the force of their colors. The chiaroscuro and the perspective were replaced by a two-dimensional, flat space, with thick paint and colors that convey the emotion of the artist to the viewer.
The Green Line
(Matisse, 1905) He did not want to show a copy of reality but the experience of life. A woman is depicted with a green line that divides the face into two parts, where light and shadow meet. The line is the key element of the painting, and the contrast of colors, not the quadratic perspective, organizes the composition.
Cubism
Characteristics: Cubism has a visual logic and a rational spirit. Its painters thought of painting as a system that represents the essentials of objects. Cézanne, Picasso and Braque began to work by breaking down perspective. Objects are seen from different viewpoints simultaneously. Another influence came from primitive arts. Romanesque painting, with its absence of perspective, and the incorporation of the concept of time, allowed the depiction of movement over time.
Landscape of Estaque
(Braque, 1908)
The Ladies of Avignon
()
Neoplasticism
Characteristics:
Three Naked Women in the Forest
(Sunyer, 1913-15)
Tableau II
(Mondrian, 1921-25)
Iron Architecture
Characteristics: Late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Eiffel Tower
(Gustave Eiffel, 1887-89) The work represents iron architecture. It brought renovation and modernization to construction, with materials that are resistant, light and practical. Reinforced concrete (cement and iron) was also used. It helped to improve cities and served the function of an exhibition. Industrialized architecture used prefabricated materials, where pieces were assembled quickly, with a workforce that did not need to be highly qualified. Its artistic character lay in its rapid assembly and low cost. The tower is 305 m tall, and 320 m with its antenna. Its 125 m-high base supports 10,100 tons of iron, 18,000 pieces of iron and 2,500,000 rivets.