Sandro Bocola - The Art of Modernism ONLINE

Sandro Bocola The Art of Modernism Art, Culture and Society from Goya to the present day Translated from German by Catherine Schelbert and Nicholas Levis Prestel Verlag, München - London - New York, 1994 616 Pages with 401 monochrome llustrations. Format 14,8 x 22,5 cm. ISBN 3-7913-1889-6 Hardcover with color dust jacket. The book was also published in a german and a spanish edition . The book is readily available on the internet. www.amazon.co.uk In this webpage the over four hundred illustrations are not shown because of copyright issues on the internet. Website: www.sandrobocola.com Mail: sandro@sandrobocola.com

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Content

Part One - The New Paradigm

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Foreword

I. Introduction

1. Main Theses

• Thesis I: The Two Principles of Artistic Creation
• Thesis II: The Cyclical Course of Artistic Development
• Thesis III: Four Fundamental Artistic Attitudes

Footnotes: I. Introduction

The End of the Modern Era

1. A Historical Overview

• The Deification of the Human Being
• Political Absolutism
• The American War of Independence and the French Revolution
• The Struggle for a New Social Order
• Scientific and Technological Progress
• The Industrial Revolution
• European Imperialism
• The Socialist Ideologies

2. The 19th-Century View of the World and of the Human Being

• The Scientific-Philosophical View of the World
• The Esoteric View of the World

3. The Art of the 19th Century

• The Position of the Artist in 19th-Century Paris
• Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
• Noble Sentiments and Human Grandeur: Neoclassicism and History Painting
• Yearning and Passion: from History Painting to Romanticism
• The Quest for Meaning: from Romanticism to Symbolism
• The Dignity of the Mundane: from Romanticism to Realism

Footnotes: II. The End of the Modern Era

III. Pictorial Reality and the Beginnings of Modernism

1. The Reality of Perception

• Édouard Manet and the Primacy of the Present
• Claude Monet and the Primacy of Light

2. The Reality of Order

• Georges Seurat and the Primacy of Analysis
• Paul Cézanne and the Primacy of Synthesis

3. The Reality of Emotion

• Vincent van Gogh and the Primacy of Love
• Paul Gauguin and the Primacy of Longing

4. The Reality of the Irrational

• Edvard Munch and the Primacy of Fear
• James Ensor and the Primacy of Delusion
• Summary

Footnotes: III. Pictorial reality and the Beginnings of Modernism

IV. Invisible Reality and the Aesthetics of Universality

1. Universality as Timelessness and Indivisibility: ‘ Naïve’ and ‘Primitive’ Art

• Primitive Art and the Primacy of Magic
• Henri Rousseau and the Primacy of Belief

2. The Universal as a Structure: from Cubism to Neoplasticism

• Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and the Primacy of Form
• Piet Mondrian and the Primacy of the Spiritual

3. Universality as Energy: from Fauvism to Abstract Expressionism

• Henri Matisse and the Primacy of Color
• Wassily Kandinsky and the Primacy of Instinct
• Summary

Footnotes: IV. Invisible Reality and the Aesthetics of Universality

V. The New Paradigm in the World-View of the Modernist Era

1. The World-View of Modern Physics

• Quantum Theory
• The Special Theory of Relativity
• The General Theory of Relativity
• Philosophical Aspects of the New Physics

2. The Psychoanalytic View of the Human Being

• Three Basic Theses
• The Psychic Apparatus
• Metapsychological Points of View
• Philosophical Aspects of Psychoanalysis

3. The Social Revolution

• The First World War
• The Russian October Revolution
• The Search for a New World Order
• The Search for a New Social Order
• A New View of the Human Being

Footnotes: V. The New Paradigm in the World-View of the Modernist Era

Part Two - Crisis and Renewal

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VI. Crisis and Renewal

1. On the Essence of the Classical

2. Art as Riddle: Marcel Duchamp and the Onset of Absurdity

• The Confrontation with the Avant-Garde
• The Creative Breakthrough: the Beauty of Indifference
• Concept and the Power of Coincidence
• Regarder voir: the Myth of Impotence
• Negative Presence as a Stylistic Device
• The Chess Player
• The Last Word: Etant donnés

3. The Confrontation with Progress

• The Idealization of Progress: Futurism
• The Mystification of Progress: Suprematism
• Progress as Mission: Constructivism
• The Refusal of Progress: Dadaism
• The Problem of Progress and the Nature of Mannerism

4. Attempted Cures: Modern Baroque

• The Structural Tendency: Constructivism between Intuitive and Mathematical Order
• The Realistic Tendency: from Pittura Metafisica to Neue Sachlichkeit
• The Symbolist and Romantic Tendency: Emblematic and Figurative Surrealism
• The Crisis of Individual Consciousness
• Summary

Footnotes: VI. Crisis and Renewal

VII. The Political Revolt Against the Modernist Idea

1. National Socialism

• Hitler’s Apprenticeship
• The Ideology of National Socialism
• An Attempt at a Psychological Interpretation
• The Seizure of Power
• The Party Apparatus
• The Persecution of the Jews
• Cultural Policy
• Ein Staat, ein Volk, ein Führer

2 The Second World War


Footnotes: VII. The Political Revolt Against the Modernist Idea

VIII. Triumph and Consummation

1. Mystic Fusion through Ecstasy and Meditation: Abstract Romanticism

2. The Medium is the Message: Modern Realism

• The Ambiguity of the Real: Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg
• The Credo of the Trivial: American Pop Art
• The Myth of America and British Pop Art
• Reality Transfixed: Nouveau Réalisme
• The Reality of Illusion: Hyperrealism
• The Significance of Pop Art and Nouveau Réalisme

3. The Ideology of the Impersonal: Abstract Classicism

• The Intrinsic Value of Color: Post-painterly Abstraction
• The Intrinsic Value of Form and Material: Minimal Art
• The Intrinsic Value of the Number: Concrete Art
• The Intrinsic Value of Movement: Op Art and Kinetic Art

4. Magic and Ritual: Modern Symbolism

• The Void and the Abstract Symbol
• Joseph Beuys and the ‘Inability to Mourn’
• Arte Povera and Land Art

5. Taking Stock

• On the Structure and Dynamics of Artistic Development
• On the Question of Values

Footnotes: VIII. Triumph and Consummation

Part Three - Fragmentation and Decline

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IX The Loss of Reality: The End of Modernism

1. A Historical Overview

• On the Way to the Open Society: From Zero Hour to the Sixties
• The Reversal of the Seventies
• The Collapse of the Soviet Union
• The Media Revolution

2. The Narcissistic Crisis

3. The Art of the Post-Modern Era

• The Art World in the 1980s
• Opportunism and the Rejection of Innovation: The Primacy of Disrespect

Footnotes: IX. The Loss of Reality: The End of Modernism


Bibliography