The Early 20th Century: The Age of Anxiety

Broadway Boogie Woogie, by Piet Mondrian,1943

This Mondrian painting is actually a jazz score | Jason Moran | MoMA BBC | THE WAY I SEE IT

Piet Mondrian's work took nearly a lifetime to master. As it goes for most creative genius. As a young adult, he studied Impressionism and later developed a curiosity for cubism. After moving to New York City during WWII he fell in love with the boogie wooogie beat. Which inspired him to create balance and harmony, with color and light, and influenced by jazz music. The way Jason Moran sees it, Mondrian created a jazz score. By breaking down the very nature of the art form, he found inner peace with creating music in colorful cubes. He embraced the uncertainty, leaning into the rhythms of music, and found harmony in the spaces he created with bold lines in their purest forms. 

Mondrian's work evolved over his lifetime and continues to inspire abstract art. His later work became fabric prints for clothing and many other mediums. We can look back at his works of art and see the influences that helped evolve his artwork. During this era, the world was flooded with anxieties from so many different issues that were being exposed through media and modern warfare. 

Now that I know a little more about the influences of this painting, I really dig it even more. How neat that through the inspiration of the boogie blues beats, Mondrian was able to create a musical score through abstract art in its purest form. Music does have a way of uniting, and that is how to combat anxiety. Coming together in harmony to dance off those blues. Mondrian was able to paint his abstract thoughts, showing the word from a different perspective of a musical score. I would like to have a copy for home. 

Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction, 1922

https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/318/4118

Taeuber-Arp worked as a teacher of art and was part of the Dada movement. She used her skills in the crafts to express herself in several different mediums. She breaks free from traditional marionette styles, by using more geometric shapes and exposing the connecting joints.

The Dada movement was started in response to WWI. Artists fled to Switzerland during WWI, where they were able to explore new media to understand what led the world to war. Cabaret Voltaire became a safe space for exiled artists who formed the Dada movement, that spread through Europe and New York. 

Using readymade materials, artists created collages and other pieces of art to express what was going on around them. There was a lot of fear growing and uncertainties causing more anxiety around the world. Art became an outlet for expressing what was happening around them. Dadaism gave room for artists to process the growing anxieties of the 20th Century as modernization developed, so did the worries about the future. 

Although Taeuber-Arp was not recognized as an artist until 1977. She was a performer, architect, and many other trades during her career. I would enjoy studying her style of art. There is so much to learn from her works of art. During her time crafts were considered domestic work, but she worked to move beyond that mold with her abstract geometric marionettes. These dancing dolls on strings would be fun to have as replicas for exploration play in 3D art. You can explore her art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York or visit an exhibit video here.

Two Children are Threatened by a Nightingale (1924) by Max Ernst

Max Ernst's was part of the Dadaism movement and then moved into surrealism. This masterpiece is one of his known pieces. Surrealism used the study of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Using art, Ernst explored the unconscious and dreams. Painting things to be not always as they seem to give a different perspective. The red gate is coming out of the frame, welcoming you into the dream world. It seems peaceful until you look closer and see the gray figures. One reaches for the door knob and the other figure runs in terror with a knife. There is a long wall that brings you closer to see what's going on in the background. Ernst was able to use collage and paint with other materials to bring the frame into the painting as well. 

The title makes you think, "Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale"? Is this what anxiety looks like? How does anxiety feel during this time era? I can appreciate surrealism for exploring the subconscious by using art to access inner dialog to gain access to the root causes of anxiety. Using art to express emotion is a very helpful tool to process complex emotions. Especially during a time when there wasn't enough knowledge on how to process anxieties. 

I really admire Ernst's masterpiece, and not sure where I would put this piece of art. Maybe in a therapist's office? I wouldn't want to frighten a client though. Perhaps it's best to stay in New York at the Museum of Modern Art? This is a really catching painting or collage? It says it is made with oil-painted wood elements and cut-and-pasted printed paper on wood with a wood frame. I really enjoyed learning about all the different mediums artists explored during the early 20th century. Modernization gave lots of wiggle room to explore in the art world, which helped process all the anxieties that came with the turning of the century.

Works Cited:

Broadway Boogie Woogie. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piet_Mondrian,_1942_-_Broadway_Boogie_Woogie.jpg#/media/File:Piet_Mondrian,_1942_-_Broadway_Boogie_Woogie.jpg

MoMa. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78682 

Piet Mondrian's Artistic Evolution. The Canvas. https://youtu.be/ZRH4a5vzvEM?si=vTcvxKbHbNBOAgzZ. 

HOW TO SEE | Sophie Taeuber-Arp, The Museum of Modern Art. https://youtu.be/6jKnqBa15JA?si=XtKVwIefiWuvkMNf

Sophie Taeuber-Arp: An Introduction. https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/665

Sophie Taeuber-Arp. The making of the marionettes. https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/318/4118

Introduction to Dada. https://smarthistory.org/modernisms-1900-1980/dada-and-surrealism/dada/

Surrealism https://smarthistory.org/surrealism-intro/

Max Ernst, Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale. by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. https://smarthistory.org/ernst-two-children-threatened-nightingale/

Artchive. https://www.artchive.com/artwork/two-children-are-threatened-by-a-nightingale-1924-by-max-ernst/