Background: Why is the World War I Era closely connected to innovations in the arts?
At the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century , many art forms began to change — significantly. All human creations are an important way to study history. We are accustomed to thinking about history as politics, war, maybe some economics thrown in. But how humans created beauty and expressed their emotions is an equally important historical subject.
We have a human need to find what is beautiful and what is true. That is the definition of “aesthetics” and early last century, definitions of aesthetics were in transition. The 20th century was also a very violent era including global wars and genocides. The arts found a way to to give voice to those emotional truths of violence and anguish, but also to find beuaty in them. This was not the first time in history when art expressed some profound shifts in human perception .
As the early 20th century edged closer to war in 1914, artists found new ways to express the outlook and emotions of their era. Sometimes the term “modernism” is used to describe this early 20th century view. Its arts often defied traditions. It embraced experimentation with new subjects, forms, and formats. Many critics asked “why is that beautiful” or even “is that even art?”. But the artists felt that “speaking their truth” was the essence of their beauty. After all, what is more “beautiful” than someone’s truth?
Modernism, or any artistic expression that breaks tradition or is “ahead of its time”, can be called “avant-garde”. For more on definitions of “aesthetic expressions” of the era, see the Power point below entitled “What are aesthetic expressions?”
video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF1OQkHybEQ
