20th Century Isms

More than a hundred isms were established in the 20th century, many heralded by published manifestos. After Impressionism opened the floodgates in the late 19th century, a period of intense activity among European avant-garde art groups in the early 20th century led to the dominant Modernist movement. A few years after Picasso had painted his Cubist masterpiece Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, the central icon of Modernism, various artists independently gravitated towards total abstraction. Based primarily in Paris, the Cubists, Futurists, Dadaists, and later the Surrealists, redefined art in the aftermath of World War I.

After World War II, and the global influence of American art and culture, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art became the dominant painting styles. The continuing legacy of Marcel Duchamp's Conceptualism, and the paradigm shift from Modernism to Post-Modernism, expanded traditional notions of art. Installations and multi-media works increasingly supplanted painting as the dominant modes of artistic expression.

By the end of the 20th century, Post-Modernism was already in decline, leading to numerous faux isms predicting new cultural paradigms. WM Verhoeven, for example, lists some remarkably convoluted labels describing literature after Post-Modernism: Extra-Realism, Pop Realism, Dirty Realism, New Realism, Neo-Domestic Neo-Realism, Wised Up Realism, Designer Realism, Post-Alcoholic Blue-Collar Minimalist Hyperrealism, K-Mart Realism, Diet-Pepsi Minimalism, and finally Post-Vietnam Post-Literary Postmodernist Blue-Collar Neo-Early-Hemingwayism (What We Talk About When We Talk About Raymond Carver, 1995).

Adhocism

Architect Charles Jencks coined the term Adhocism in 1968, and used it as the title of his book Adhocism: The Case For Improvisation, co-written with Nathan Silver in 1972. Inspired by Jencks, Tim Parsons and Jessica Charlesworth organised an exhibition titled Adhocism in Chicago, Illinois in 2011.

Jencks viewed Adhocism as the democratisation of design: "Meaningful articulation is the goal of adhocism. Opposed to purism and exclusivist design theories, it accepts everyone as an architect and all modes of communication, whether based on nature or culture".

Caligarism

Caligarisme (Caligarism) describes the impact of the German Expressionist film Das Cabinet Des Dr Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene in 1919. Caligari was extremely stylised, with painted, distorted sets reminiscent of avant-garde theatre. Subsequent Expressionist films were less radical in their production design, though Expressionism dominated German cinema throughout the 1920s, later influencing Universal horror films of the 1930s and the Film Noir style of the 1940s.

Caligarisme
see: Caligarism

Futurism

The pan-European influence of Futurismo (Futurism) was due largely to the rhetoric of the Italian poet Filippo Marinetti. He originally published his Fondazione E Manifesto Del Futurismo in French, as Le Futurisme, on the front page of Le Figaro in 1909. The manifesto called for a celebration of dynamism: "the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed".

Marinetti initially intended Futurism as a literary movement, though his manifesto reads like an anarchic call to arms. The text is explicitly militaristic and misogynist: Marinetti pledged to "glorify war - the world's only hygiene", and promoted "scorn for women". For good measure, he also vowed to "destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind".

This initial manifesto was only the first of many: Marinetti toured Europe, writing or inspiring Futurist manifestos of painting, sculpture, architecture, and theatre. Futurism's primary concern was with movement, and the speed provided by mechanical transportation: artists such as Giacomo Balla painted sequential images of objects and animals in motion. Futurism influenced Vorticism in Britain, and several Russian avant-garde groups: Cubo-Futurism, Rayonism, and Constructivism.

Futurismo
see: Futurism

Imagism

Imagisme (Imagism), coined by Ezra Pound in his book Ripostes (1912), was an early Modernist literary movement promoting clarity of language and precision of poetic imagery. Works by Imagist poets were published in the journal Poetry, and, in 1913, the journal printed FS Flint's essay Imagisme.

Flint listed three criteria for Imagist poetry: "1. Direct treatment of the "thing", whether subjective or objective. 2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation. 3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome".

Pound later published a collection of Imagist poems titled Des Imagistes: An Anthology (1914), including a composition by Amy Lowell, though he later dismissed Lowell's writing as Amygism. Pound was subsequently associated with the Vorticist artists, and Imagism influenced the Objectivists.

Imagisme
see: Imagism

Instantaneism

Francis Picabia's essay Instantaneisme was published in 1924, in a special edition of his magazine 391 titled Journal De L'Instantanteisme. In it, he stressed the significance of rapid, simultaneous actions: "Instantaneism: believes only in today. Instantaneism: believes only in life. Instantaneism: believes only in perpetual movement".

Instantaneisme (Instantaneism) was allied to several parallel isms, such as Simulaneism, Presentism, and Nunism. Initially a member of the French Dada group, Picabia was later associated with the Surrealists.

Instantaneisme
see: Instantaneism

Late Modernism
see: Structural Expressionism

Magical Realism

Franz Roh coined the term Magischer Realismus (Magical Realism) in his book Nach-Expressionismus - Magischer Realismus: Probleme Der Neuesten Europaischen Malerei (1925), to describe the style of German art prevalent after Expressionism. Roh's alternative term Post-Expressionismus (Post-Expressionism) is also widespread, and the trend is most commonly known as Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity).

In naming the new movement, Roh considered several possible isms: "I attribute no special value to the title "magical realism." Since the work had to have a name that meant something, and the word "Post-Expressionism" only indicates ancestry and chronlogical relationship, I added the first title quite a long time after having written this work. It seems to me, at least, more appropriate than "Ideal Realism" or "Verism," or "Neo-Classicism," which only designate an aspect of the movement".

Magischer Realismus
see: Magical Realism

Metabolism

The Japanese architectural concept of Metaborizumu (Metabolism) was established in 1960 with the publication of a manifesto titled Metabolism 1960: The Proposals For New Urbanism. The pamphlet contained essays written by Kiyonori Kikutake, Noboru Kowazoe, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, and Kisho Kurokawa, all of whom were inspired and mentored by Kenzo Tange.

The movement was defined by Kowazoe in his introduction to the manifesto: "'Metabolism' is the name of the group, in which each member proposes future designs of our coming world through his concrete designs and illustrations. We regard human society as a vital process - a continuous development from atom to nebula. The reason why we use such a biological word, metabolism, is that we believe design and technology should be a denotation of human vitality".

Metabolism, like the earlier New Brutalist style, was a utopian solution to urban housing. Specifically, Metabolist buildings were designed to be expandable, flexible, and adaptable structures. The most famous example is Kurokawa's Nakagin Kapuseru Tawa, completed in 1972, which consists of movable, connectable, and replaceable capsule apartments.

Kurokawa wrote two books about Metabolism: Metabolism No Hassou (1972) and Metabolism In Architecture (1977). An updated anthology of Metabolist essays, Metaborizumu To Metaborisutotachi, was edited by Masato Otaka and Noboru Kawazoe in 2005. The label Metabolism itself was originally chosen by translating the Japanese word 'shinchitaisha' into its English synonym.

Metaborizumu
see: Metabolism

New Brutalism

Alison and Peter Smithson's journal paper The New Brutalism, published in 1955, derives the term New Brutalism from Le Corbusier's phrase 'beton brut' ('raw concrete'). The Smithsons cite Hunstanton School, a comprehensive school in Norfolk, as "the first realisation of the New Brutalism in England"; they designed the school (which has since been renamed Smithdon) in 1954.

New Brutalism describes both a style and philosophy of Modernist architecture. Stylistically, Brutalist buildings are somewhat imposing, featuring geometric designs and exposed concrete. Philosophically, Brutalism was a utopian project, often associated with social housing and other urban amenities. In both senses, it influenced the later Japanese Metabolism movement, and Brutalism itself was partly influenced by Japanese architecture.

New Neurotic Realism

Charles Saatchi's New Neurotic Realism exhibition in London in 1999 was an attempt to repeat the phenomenal success he enjoyed with his earlier Sensation exhibition. Sensation introduced a new generation of British artists, personally selected by Saatchi, and he intended to replace them with his New Neurotic Realists. The exhibition was preceded by a 1998 book, The New Neurotic Realism, which used Martin Maloney's painting Rave (After Poussin's Triumph Of Pan) (1997) as its cover image.

Nowism
see: Nunism

Nunism

Nunisme (Nunism), also known as Nowism, was coined by poet Pierre Albert-Birot in an ambitious 1916 manifesto, Le Nunisme, published in his journal SIC: "An "ism" to outlast the others. Nunism was born with man and will only disappear with him. All the great philosophers, the great artists, the great poets, the great scientists, all the flamebearers, the creators of all ages have been, are, will be nunists". The movement was similar to parallel groups such as Simultaneism, Presentism, and Instantaneism.

Nunisme
see: Nunism

Objectivism

The Objectivist poets saw themselves as successors to the Idealists. They were first published in a special edition of the Idealist journal Poetry, edited by Louis Zukovsky, in 1931. The following year, Zukovsky edited a collection of Objectivist poems titled An Objectivists Anthology.

Orphic Cubism
see: Orphism

Orphism

Orphisme (Orphism) was coined and defined by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire in his book Les Peintres Cubistes: Meditations Esthetiques (1913) as "the art of painting new structures with elements which have not been borrowed from the visual sphere, but have been created entirely by the artist himself, and been endowed by him with fullness of reality". Apollinaire used the term principally to describe the works of Simultaneist painter Robert Delaunay, though Francis Picabia (Instantaneism), Pablo Picasso (Cubism), and Marcel Duchamp (Dadaism) were also included.

Orphism is also known as Orphic Cubism, as the Delaunays were initially inspired by Cubism, though Orphism later moved further towards abstraction. Apollinaire identified four categories of Cubism: Orphic, Scientific, Physical, and Instinctive. Of these, he considered Orphic and Scientific the most significant, relegating Physical and Instinctive to a lower level.

Scientific Cubism, which Apollinaire describes as "the art of painting new structures out of elements borrowed not from the reality of sight, but from the reality of insight", included the artists who are now regarded as the pure Cubists, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Physical Cubism is "the art of painting new structures with elements borrowed, for the most part, from visual reality", and was typified by Henri Le Fauconnier. Finally, Instinctive Cubism, directly inspired by 19th century Impressionism, is "the art of painting new structures with elements which are not borrowed from visual reality, but are suggested to the artist by instinct and intuition".

Orphisme
see: Orphism

Presentism

Raoul Hausmann's manifesto Presentistisches Manifest was published in 1920, and its message was 'carpe diem': "Let's seize each second today! Time is an onion: under its first skin there appears, in the light, another and still another. But we want the light!". Presentismus (Presentism), therefore, is allied with parallel movements such as Nowism, Instantaneism, and Simultaneism.

Hausmann was one of the founders of the Berlin Dadaist group. He pioneered the use of photomontage, influencing Russian Constructivism. His most famous work is a sculpture assembled from found objects, Der Geist Unserer Zeit: Mechanischer Kopf (1920), which epitomises the mechanisation of the period.

Post-Expressionism
see: Magical Realism

Post-Expressionismus
see: Magical Realism

Post-Functionalism

In his journal article Post-Functionalism (1976), Peter Eisenman dismissed the late 19th century Proto-Modernist notion that 'form follows function'. His article, published in Oppositions, was partly written in response to Mario Gandelsonas's analysis of Neo-Functionalism, printed in the previous issue of Oppositions.

Eisenman proposed a shift from Functionalism to Post-Functionalism, in which architectural design was not limited by functional necessity: "post-functionalism begins as an attitude which recognizes modernism as a new and distinct sensibility. It can be understood in architecture in terms of a theoretical base that is concerned with what might be called a modernist dialectic, as opposed to the old humanist (ie functionalist) opposition of form and function".

Presentismus
see: Presentism

Seriosismus
see: Seriousism

Seriousism

Expressionist architect Bruno Taut founded the small magazine Fruhlicht, and, in its first issue, he wrote an article titled Nieder Der Seriosismus! (1920). In 2010, graphic designer Alvaro Velosa created a series of posters inspired by an English translation of Taut's article, Down With Seriousism.

Taut criticised the earnestness (which he mockingly called Seriosismus, or Seriousism) of early 20th century architecture: "Death to everything stuffy! Death to everything called title, dignity, authority! Down with everything serious!".

Simultaneism

Robert Delaunay's art was classified by Apollinaire as Orphism, a form of Cubism, though Delaunay himself developed the theory of Simultaneisme (Simultaneism) as a progression from Orphism towards abstraction. Delaunay wrote several essays on Simultaneism, including Simultaneism: An Ism Of Art in El Lissitzky and Hans Arp's book Die Kunstismen (1925). (El Lissitzky was primarily a Suprematist, though his book profiles many of the isms of the 1920s avant-garde.)

According to Delaunay: "simultaneous contrasts and every uneven proportion that results from color, as they are expressed in their representative movement: this is the only reality with which to construct a picture". His theory of abstract colour simultaneity is demonstrated in his painting Contrastes Simultanes: Soleil Et Lune (1912).

Simultaneisme
see: Simultaneism

Structural Expressionism

Structural Expressionism and Late Modernism both describe the architectural style known more commonly as High-Tech. Architects such as Norman Foster and Richard Rogers created buidlings that resemble industrial edifices, with exposed steel frames and other symbols of technological innovation.

The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, designed by Rogers with Renzo Piano, is one of the first and most famous examples of this style. The Centre, which was completed in 1977, is an art museum and library, though it features an exoskeleton of industrial pipes, ducts, and girders.

Synchromism

Synchromism, one of the first avant-garde American art movements, was founded in 1912 by Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Morgan Russell. The artists believed that colours could be arranged harmoniously, like music, creating a synesthetic effect.

The term was coined by Russell, whose first Synchromist painting, Synchromy In Green (1913), is no longer extant. His later canvas, Synchromy (1916), is a typical example of the style.

Tabloidism

Tabloid newspapers are approximately half the size of broadsheets, and they are generally associated with concise, sensationalist journalism. Such content was a prominent feature of 'yellow journalism' at the end the 19th century, during the circulation war between two broadsheets, Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. America's first tabloid newspaper, the New York Daily News, was launched in 1919. It currently competes with the New York Post, which Rupert Murdoch bought in 1976.

Murdoch's The Sun, which he acquired in 1969, is the most famous of the UK's 'red-tops', populist tabloids with red mastheads. Short, bold banner headlines are a tabloid trademark, an infamous example being The Sun's "GOTCHA" from 1982, following the British attack on the Belgrano during the Falklands War.

Tubism

Tubisme (Tubism), coined by the art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1911, describes the work of Cubist artist Fernand Leger. Vauxcelles used the term derisively, just as Louis Leroy had done when he defined Impressionism in the 19th century. Leger's paintings, such as the geometric abstraction of Les Disques (1918), often contained cylindrical forms, leading to Vauxcelles's pun on 'Cubism' and 'tube'.

Leger also directed the influential avant-garde silent film Le Ballet Mechanique (1924). Vauxcelles is also credited with coining the terms Cubism and Fauvism, two of the most significant 20th century art movements.

Tubisme
see: Tubism

[Cerebrism (Cerebrismo), Everythingism (Vsechestvo), Productionism, Noucentisme, Post-Impressionism (Post-Impressionnisme), Cyber-Spatialism, Futurist Photo-Dynamism, Revivalism, Neo-Classicism, Giganticism, Parallelism, Dadaism, Cubo-Futurism, Acmeism, Moto-Noisism, Noisism (Bruitism), Tactilism, Formalism, Fauvism, Neo-Dadaism, Expressionism, Cubism, Analytical Cubism, Synthetic Cubism, Rayonism, Vorticism, Hallucinism, Ultraism, Creationism, Primitivism, Auteurism, Suprematism, Constructivism (Konstructivism), Purism, Hungarian Activism, Skyscraperism, Corporatism, Functionalism, Neo-Futurism, Poetic Realism, Structuralism, Regionalism, Precisionism (Cubist Realism), Totalitarianism, Elementarism, Surrealism, Modernism, Magic Realism (Precise Realism, Sharp-Focus Realism), Magic Realism, Social Realism, Socialist Realism, Neo-Plasticism, Conceptualism, Abstract Expressionism, Lettrism, Multi-Modernism, New Realism, Neo-Realism, Minimalism, Neo-Romanticism, Super-Humanism, Super-Realism (Photo-Realism, Hyper-Realism), Post-Modernism, Corbusierism, Neo-Conceptualism, Ecoism (Neo-Environmentalism), Personism, Individualism, Nativism, Photojournalism, Projectivism, Transhumanism, Spatialism, Spatial Eroticism, Dimensionalism (Dimensionism), Verticalism, Concretism, Plastic Dynamism, Machinism, Thingism, Maximalism, Neo-Functionalism, Plasticism, Rationalism, Neo-Rationalism, Hemingwayism, Cynical Realism, Popism, Abstractionism, De-Constructivism, Fantastic Realism, Diasporism, Photo-Cubism (Photo-Kubismen), Futilism, Stuckism, Neo-Expressionism, Skeumorphism, Jetsonism (Jetsonismo), Correalism, Yellowism.]