“Golden Era” modernists

[tonyb]

It was brought to my attention that Piet Mondrian, he of the primary colors and block forms and rigid right angles, was born on this date, March 7, in 1872. He died in New York City in 1944.

His early work was much more figurative — paintings depicting windmills in his native land, bucolic scenes, etc. Watching his creative evolution is fascinating to those of us into that sort of thing.

I’ve noted elsewhere that the artists and designers most associated with what the casual observer would categorize as post-War modernism predate the “greatest generation.”

Ahead of their time? Maybe more like defining the future?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most of the familiar jokes about "modern art" were in wide circulation in the 1910s, as the Dadaists were declaring to anyone who'd listen that "art is dead." It just took a while for the message to sink in.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
And then the backlash. Note what the Nazis called “degenerate art,” and how the top Nazi himself, once an aspiring painter, was anti-modernism. It’s little wonder the Bauhaus couldn’t survive under that regime.

 

[tonyb]

Even I was a bit taken aback by the 1910 date of this Josef Hoffman design.

Yes, 1910. You could look it up.

 

[polarWhite]

I am compelled to mention Le Corbusier in terms of "ahead of his time" or "defining the future". I am still seeing current generation of architects "borrowing" his Villa Savoye design all over the places...