Modernisme

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Modernisme (Catalan pronunciation:

Catalan culture, one of the most predominant cultures within Spain
. Nowadays, it is considered a movement based on the cultural revindication of a Catalan identity. Its main form of expression was Modernista architecture, but it also encompassed many other arts, such as painting and sculpture, and especially the design and the decorative arts (cabinetmaking, carpentry, forged iron, ceramic tiles, ceramics, glass-making, silver and goldsmith work, etc.), which were particularly important, especially in their role as support to architecture. Modernisme was also a literary movement (poetry, fiction, drama).

Although Modernisme was part of a general trend that emerged in

.

Modernisme was active from roughly 1888 (the

Miquel Blay
.

Main concepts

Duana de Barcelona (Customs House), by Enric Sagnier

Jocs Florals
and the political milieu which promoted them.

Modernistes largely rejected bourgeois values, which they thought to be the opposite of art. Consequently, they adopted two stances: they either set themselves apart from society in a bohemian or culturalist attitude (Decadent and Parnassian poets, Symbolist playwrights, etc.) or they attempted to use art to change society (Modernista architects and designers, playwrights inspired by Henrik Ibsen, some of Maragall's poetry, etc.)

Architecture

The Castle of the Three Dragons in Barcelona

The earliest example of Modernista architecture is the Castle of the Three Dragons designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner in the Parc de la Ciutadella for the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition. It is a search for a particular style for Catalonia drawing on Medieval and Arab styles. Like the currents known in other countries as Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Liberty style, Modern Style and Vienna Secession, Modernisme was closely related to the English Arts and Crafts movement and the Gothic Revival. As well as combining a rich variety of historically-derived elements, it is characterized by the predominance of the curve over the straight line, by rich decoration and detail, by the frequent use of vegetal and other organic motifs, the taste for asymmetry, a refined aestheticism and dynamic shapes.[2] While Barcelona was the centre of Modernista construction, the Catalan industrial bourgeoisie built industrial buildings and summer residences (cases d'estiueig) in many Catalan towns, notably Terrassa and Reus. The textile factory which is now home to the Catalan national technical museum mNACTEC is an outstanding example.

Antoni Gaudí is the best-known architect of this movement. Other influential architects were Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and later Josep Maria Jujol, Rafael Guastavino and Enrique Nieto.[3]

Architects

Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona

There were more than 100 architects who made buildings of the Modernista style, three of whom are particularly well known for their outstanding buildings: Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch.

  • hyperbolic paraboloid, the hyperboloid, the helicoid and the conoide.[4]
  • Lluís Domènech i Montaner created a genuine alternative architecture. Along with Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas he worked towards a modern and international style. Domènech continued on from Viollet-le-Duc, his work characterized by a mix of constructive rationalism and ornaments inspired in the Hispano-Arab architecture as seen in the Palau de la Música Catalana, in the Hospital de Sant Pau or in the Institut Pere Mata of Reus.[5] His Hotel Internacional at Passeig de Colom in Barcelona (demolished after the 1888 World Fair) was an early example of industrial building techniques.
  • Neo-Gothic is also apparent in his Codorniu Winery (Caves Codorniu, 1904). He built Casa Amatller and Casa Trinxet
    .

Other architects

The Sagrada Família, an icon of Modernisme, by Antoni Gaudí

UNESCO World Heritage

Some of the works of Catalan Modernism have been listed by

World Cultural Heritage
:

Literature

In literature, Modernisme stood out the most in narrative. The nouvelles and novels of decadent writers such as

Gothic novels. Still, works not influenced by those sources, such as Joaquim Ruyra's slice-of-life tales of the North-Eastern Catalan coast are perhaps even more influential than that of the aforementioned authors, and Rusiñol's well-known L'auca del senyor Esteve (roughly "The Tale of Mr. Esteve"; an auca is a type of illustrated broadside
, similar to a one-sheet comic book) is an ironic critique of Catalan bourgeoisie more related to ironic, pre-Realist Catalan costumisme.

In poetry, Modernisme closely follows Symbolist and Parnassian poetry, with poets frequently crossing the line between both tendencies or alternating between them. Another important strain of Modernista poetry is Joan Maragall's "Paraula viva" (Living word) school, which advocated Nietzschean vitalism and spontaneous and imperfect writing over cold and thought-over poetry. Although poetry was very popular with the Modernistes and there were many poets involved in the movement, Maragall is the only Modernista poet who is still widely read today.

Modernista theatre was also important, as it smashed the insubstantial regional plays that were popular in 19th-century Catalonia. There were two main schools of Modernista theatre: social theatre, which intended to change society and denounce injustice—the worker stories of Ignasi Iglésias, for example Els Vells ("The old ones"); the Ibsen-inspired works of Joan Puig i Ferreter, most notably Aigües Encantades ("Enchanted Waters"); Rusiñol's antimilitaristic play L'Hèroe—and symbolist theatre, which emphasised the distance between artists and the bourgeoisie—for example, Rusiñol's Cigales i Formigues ("Cicadas and Ants") or El Jardí Abandonat ("The Abandoned Garden").

Linguistics

Modernista ideas impelled L'Avenç collaborator Pompeu Fabra to devise a new orthography for Catalan. However, only with the later rise of Noucentisme did his projects come to fruition and end the orthographic chaos which reigned at the time.

Decline

By 1910, Modernisme had been accepted by the bourgeoisie and had pretty much turned into a fad. It was around this time that

Josep Vicent Foix or Salvador Dalí being clearly similar to the rebellion of the Modernistes, what with Dalí proclaiming that Catalan Romanticist Àngel Guimerà
was a putrefact pervert. However, the ties between Catalan art from the 1930s and Modernisme are not that clear, as said artists were not consciously attempting to continue any tradition.

Modernista architecture survived longer. The Spanish city of Melilla in Northern Africa experienced an economic boom at the turn of the 20th century, and its new bourgeoisie showed its riches by massively ordering Modernista buildings. The workshops established there by Catalan architect Enrique Nieto continued producing decorations in this style even when it was out of fashion in Barcelona, which results in Melilla having, oddly enough, the second-largest concentration of Modernista works after Barcelona.

See also

References

  1. , p. 253.
  2. .
  3. ^ Mackay, David, 'Modern architecture in Barcelona, 1854-1929', Barcelona, 1985. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2012-08-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ http://noticias.arq.com.mx/Detalles/9955.html. Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Arquitectura modernista". www.arteespana.com.
  6. ^ es:Salvador Vinyals
  7. ^ https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/320/multiple=1&unique_number=364 Official List of the UNESCO Site "Works of Antoni Gaudí" (1994, 2005)
  8. ^ https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/804/multiple=1&unique_number=950 Official List of the UNESCO site "Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona" (1997)

External links