*NOTE: This was a slideshow with audio. For the full version, see it now on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_gOezyDhGg. For my US History class, a brief discussion of modernist art in the early years. CC Lisa M Lane Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2012.

1. The 1920s
A Celebration of Modernism
A slideshow by Lisa M Lane
Music by Igor Stravinsky

2. Armory Show
Poster (1913)
Modernism is a
conscious
rejection of the
past. Most
historians trace
the beginnings of
modernism in art
to the Armory
Show exhibit of
1913.

3. Marcel Duchamp, Nude
Descending a Staircase
(1912)
The centerpiece of the
Armory Show was
Marcel Duchamp's
"Nude Descending a
Staircase". This French
work caused a
commotion, for it didn't
look like the art to which
most people were
accustomed.

4. Charles Sheeler, Landscape (1913)
American artist Charles Sheeler displayed his
"Landscape". The geometric shapes were an indicator of
a new modern aesthetic.

5. Constantin Brancusi, Bird in
Space (1923)
During the 1920s, modernism
came into its own. But many were
unprepared. This is Brancusi's
"Bird in Space". It was shipped
from Europe for an exhibition in
1927. Although art works had
been exempt from customs taxes
since 1913, a customs officer
taxed this piece because he did
not consider it to be art. The
resulting court case later
overturned his decision.

6. Louis Losowick,
Chicago (1923)
American modern art
showed appreciation
for the machine age.
Artists used bold color,
geometric shapes, and
spatial organization to
convey a feeling of
immediacy. Flattened
perspective seemed to
make an
announcement of
form, rather than
drawing the viewer in
to the picture.

7. Thomas Hart
Benton,
My Egypt (1927)
This painting of
grain silos is called
"My Egypt". The
title suggests an
analogy between
the pyramids and
these silos, images
of modern
agriculture and
technology.

8. Stuart Davis, Edison
Mazda (1924)
Stuart Davis had been
an artist during the
teens, when he had
designed covers for
magazines like "The
Masses", and exhibited
at the Armory Show.
During the 20s, he used
ordinary objects to show
modern style.

9. Stuart Davis,
Percolator (1927)
This is Davis'
"Percolator" of 1927.
Notice how the design
is becoming more
abstract. This is a
reflection of cubism, an
artistic movement that
began in Europe.
Cubist painters
sometimes portrayed
their subject from
multiple angles
simultaneously, or
visually took their
subject apart.

10. Gerald Murphy,
Cocktail (1927)
Spanish artist
Pablo Picasso,
one of the
originators of
cubism, said that
the work of painter
Gerald Murphy
had a particularly
American style.
Murphy, like
Picasso, studied
painting in Paris
during the 1920s.

11. Charles Demuth,
The Figure 5 in Gold
(1928)
In 1928, Charles
Demuth went
beyond cubism in his
expression of the
number 5.

12. Edward Hopper, The Lighthouse at Two Lights (1925)
Edward Hopper was the most famous among American
painters. His painting of an ordinary lighthouse seems to elevate
it to monumental status. It reminds me of the palaces of the
shoguns in Japan.

13. Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin (Spring Green, Wisc, begun 1925)
Architecture also reflected modernism. Frank Lloyd Wright
designed houses which fit in with their natural surroundings, but
clearly demonstrated modern style, with clean lines and plain
materials.

14. Frank Lloyd Wright, Graycliff (1927)
Frank Lloyd Wright's "Graycliff" in New York was situated
on a cliff overlooking Lake Erie. Again, here are modern
lines in natural surroundings.

15. Frank Lloyd Wright, Freeman House (Hollywood Hills 1923)
Southern California in particular seemed suitable for the clean
lines of modernism.

16. Robert Schindler,
Schindler House
(West
Hollywood, 1922)
The interiors of
modern homes
often reflected the
influences of
Japanese or
Scandinavian
design, worked
into an American
aesthetic.

17. Charles Sheeler,
Cross-cross conveyer,
River Rouge Plant,
Ford Motor Company
(1927)
Photography was an art
form made possible by
modern equipment and
chemicals. It became an
art form in the 20s, and
sometimes an
expression of industrial
ideals. This celebration
of industry was
commissioned by the
Ford Motor Company.

18. Elsie Driggs,
Pittsburgh (1927)
The new dependence on
machinery promised great
benefits to American
society. Modern art
portrayed all that the
modern era had to offer:
efficiency, prosperity, and
progress. It also hinted at
the costs of such
advancements. The new
style was representative of
a changing nation,and the
beginning of the modern
age.