The Early Modern Era (1900-1939)

The Early Modern Era was an era that the was highly influenced by African Americans, and also struck by the horrors of the very first World War. Even though it was a time of growth, I would like to focus on the effects of World War 1 on the arts and music. The first World War began in the year 1914, when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered by a Serbian nationalist in Bosnia. Following this, Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Central Powers fought against the Allied Powers. It lasted 4 years and used mainly trench warfare and modern destructive weapons. Not only did it cause a large amount of casualties, it also caused a change in art and music.

A Pastoral Symphony, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the year 1922 shortly after he returned to England is a confusing piece. It is constructed of four movements, almost all of them being slow and strange. Funny, this piece is, because it does not even allude to landscape at all. Instead, the beautiful sounds we hear are to allude to the trenches and holes and destroyed terrain of WWI. From the Guardian.com, I read "The pastoral title is, I think, almost ironic, since what Vaughan Williams is doing in this piece is turning the idea on its head, so that instead of being a source of comfort, this pastoral is instead a confrontation with loss, with lament, with death." I could not pass up the opportunity to quote that because I just thought it was the most brilliant way to describe this piece. This piece was too amazing to not feature as part of my exhibit, so here it is, in all of its glory. 

Next, we have The Trench, was painted in 1923 via oil on canvas by Otto Dix in what I believe to be Germany. Otto Dix used expressionist despair to create works that seem savage to the human norm. In this next painting, you'll see the gruesome painting and style he used. The backstory to Dix is that he served in the German army during WWI as a machine gunner. His role in the war changed him enough to make him produce this gruesome, yet marvelous piece of art. The painting was so gruesome, that the Wallraf-Richartz Museum hid it behind a curtain to make sure no one saw it, because it showed dismembered and decomposing bodies of the soldiers that took part in the war. I do appreciate this painting, but I do not necessarily like it. As you can see it is composed of four panels placed neatly together.

The last piece I'll showcase is the Down with Liebnecht, which was created in 1919 by George Grosz, is a pen and watercolor piece also from Germany. Here, we see a prostitute, politicians, and profiteers. Oddly enough, it shows how brutal and energizing the impact was. His art became more about disillusioned figures and disfigured bodies in this work of art. In all honestly, I do not like this piece at all. The use of dark lines and ominous characters is not attractive in this watercolor painting.

 References:

"Otto Dix." Otto Dix. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016. <http://history-world.org/otto_dix.htm>. 

Hernandez, Juliana. "The Trench Warfare by Otto Dix." The Impact of War:. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016. <http://impact-of-war.blogspot.com/2011/05/trench-warfare-by-otto-dix.html>. 

History.com Staff. "World War I History." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 30 Oct. 2016. <http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-i-history>. 

Jones, Jonathan. "George Grosz's Dada Drawings Show How the First World War Upended Art." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 03 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2016. <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2013/oct/03/george-grosz-first-world-war-art-jonathan-jones>. 

Service, Tom. "Symphony Guide: Vaughan Williams's A Pastoral Symphony." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 11 Aug. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2016. <https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/aug/11/symphony-guide-vaughan-williams-pastoral-symphony>. 

"Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 3 'Pastoral'" YouTube. N.p., 05 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2016. <https://youtu.be/-KF2Kb6pIaE>.