past Nostalgia and MODERNITY Im interested only in expressing basic human emotions tragedy ecstasy doom and so on Mark Rothko Modernist artists respond to the inadequacies of representational art ID: 741509
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Slide1
Nostalgia is a longing for the past.
Nostalgia and MODERNITYSlide2
“I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.”
---Mark
Rothko
Modernist artists respond to
the inadequacies of representational art
to convey emotion directly.Slide3
How do we react to this?Slide4
Sacrifice of Iphigenia,
Marc
Rothko, 1942
Pasiphae and the Bull,
Jackson Pollock, 1943
Modernists also return to myth as a means of making sense of present catastrophe and potential annihilation.Slide5
Jean-Michel
Basquiat
,
Self-Portrait,
1980s
Other important sources included primitive art, the art of children, and the art of the insane
closer to “the source” of life
reassuring Slide6
primitive
modern Slide7
A society characterized by human misery, loss, oppression, deprivation, often created by a tyrant or tyrannical government.
Usually futuristic. Although
The Lord of the Rings
creates a fictional past, Tolkien repeatedly emphasizes a future “falling,” and a passing of goodness that cannot be replaced.
DystopiaSlide8
Historical Context
One catastrophic world war over, another about to begin
Inhuman horrors
British losses in WWI: Dead - 750,000, Seriously Injured - 1,500,000, Claiming Disability - 2,500,000, Shell Shock Victims - 65,000
(Counting casualties from the entire British empire (India, etc.) the death toll rises to 947,023.)Slide9
Trench warfareSlide10
Gas attackSlide11
The Battle of the Somme, 1916Slide12
A condition of pervasive hopelessness, of seeing the end as an
absolute, which causes anguish and alienates us.
Approximately 60 references to “despair” in
LotR
.
To review: Humans
have the freedom to defy this despair, with false hope, if necessary, and to act, even when we know such action is futile. The Master Soul would do this. A Slave Soul would blame others, feel self-pity, and ultimately abandon all hope.MODERN DESPAIRModern DespairSlide13
Galadriel: You offer [the Ring] to me freely? I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this.
In
the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and
despair
!
Boromir
: I will find no rest [in Lorien]. I heard [Galadriel’s] voice inside my head...she spoke of my father and the fall of Gondor, and she said to me: “Even now, there is hope left.” But I cannot see it...it is long since we had any hope.