Modernist Aesthetics, Maragall, and the Artist's Role in Society

Modernist Theater: Synthesis of Arts

The modernists saw the theater as a perfect venue to create a new art, capable of synthesizing full artistic expressions, from poetry to drama and music. The aesthetics of Symbolist Maeterlinck brought several innovations.

The scenic terrain and different solutions for the representation of a play took on great importance, aiming to capture the viewer's attention through suggestion and the creation of a specific environment. To serve this goal, the following elements should be carefully prepared:

• Light
• Interpretation
• Scenery
• Sounds
• Smells

Joan Maragall: Poetry, Prose, and Modern Ideology

Maragall's poetry was based on the simple expression of real feelings and experiences through visions of nature. He rejected the native rhetoric of Romanticism. His prose was very abundant and includes newspaper collaborations, a collection of letters, speeches, and prefaces.

He fought the conformism and mediocrity of his society with a dynamic, cosmopolitan, and modern ideology. According to John Carpenter, Maragall is characterized by the rejection of pessimism. Morality, for him, was anything that tends to exalt life, thus enhancing the poetry that expresses life in its entirety.

The Artist and Society: Conflict and Renewal

Art as Commodity vs. Passion

Society often considers art as a commodity, unlike artists, who consider it a place for passion and rebellion. Artists believe it is necessary to open the door to everything that modernity means—progress—while society only thinks of necessary exchange but is incapable of carrying out that change through the artist.

This conflict occurs within an industrialized, bourgeois civilization. The tradition was that generations would pass down the shop or work in the family, without question or doubt. A generation that wants to be an artist, rejecting this tradition, is considered a Lost Generation. Why abandon the family trade to become an artist?

The Role of Noucentisme

The situation changed only with the appearance of the Noucentistes, a group of young writers who managed to introduce the artist successfully into society.

Defining Total Art and Modernity

The desire for renewal and modernity was not limited to literature. There was a need for a total art that would break the boundaries between genres and the various arts. Arts that had previously been considered minor by the academy—such as forge work or engravings—were brought to the foreground and claimed importance alongside others.

Artists of all kinds gathered at public events and gatherings. Through art, they sought to recreate a world that was intuitive and imagined. Art was conceived as an autonomous activity that makes sense by itself and can opt out of life, working instead as an intensification of life. It is seen as both a passion and a rebellion.