20th Century Art and History: From World Wars to European Union

Posted on Dec 14, 2024 in History

The Twentieth Century and Contemporary Art

I. The Evolution of the European Map from World War I to World War II: Fascism, Nazism, and Communism

Introduction:

During the first half of the twentieth century, we can distinguish the following periods:

• The First World War, which occurred between 1914 and 1918, showed the rivalry between European countries. During the Great War, another of the great events of the century occurred: The Russian Revolution, which began in 1917.
• The period between the wars. It covers from 1918 to 1939, and its most important phenomena are the economic crisis of 1930 and totalitarianism, especially Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Fascist Italy.
• The Second World War, which occurred between 1939 and 1945.
• The Cold War and decolonization.

1. The First World War

Reasons:

• The arms race.
• The colonial confrontation.
• Alliances between countries: Triple Alliance and Triple Entente.
• The conflict in the Balkans. The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo, was the trigger for war.

The countries involved:

• The Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, who were joined by other countries such as Turkey and Bulgaria.
• The Triple Entente: Britain, France, and Russia, joined by Italy, Greece, Belgium, Romania, Japan, and, crucially, the United States.

The stages of the war:

• The war of movement (1914).
• The war of positions (1915-1917).
• The decisive year (1917): Russian Revolution and U.S. intervention.
• Peace of Paris. The agreements were ratified in the Treaty of Versailles.

The consequences of war:

• Casualties. It is estimated that about nine million people died.
• Territorial changes: separation of Austria and Hungary and the emergence of new countries.
• Germany was punished by having to pay the costs of the war and was stripped of territories and weaponry.
• Creation of the League of Nations to prevent new conflicts.

2. The Russian Revolution

Causes:

• Almost medieval farm system, with serfs.
• Autocratic political system: maximum power of the czars, with an oppressive police system.
• Extension of Marxist ideas.
• Discontent of the population with the First World War.

Evolution:

• Revolution of 1917: abdication of the czar, establishment of a parliament and interim government of Socialists and Liberals.
• Seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky, to end the capitalist system.
• Execution of the imperial family.
• Organization of the Soviet country, cells of workers, peasants, and soldiers. Representatives of the Soviets formed the government, constituted as the Council of People’s Commissars.
• The Bolsheviks formed the Communist Party, in order to end the liberal system, abolish private property, and extend the revolution to other countries.
• Russia withdrew from WWI, and there was a civil war between the Mensheviks, supporters of the czar and peaceful reform, and the Bolsheviks, defenders of the revolution and the demise of private property.
• In 1922, the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was created, and in 1924, a constitution was adopted which contained:
  • The Supreme Soviet is the representative of all citizens of the USSR.
  • The government is elected by the Congress of Soviets.
  • Private property is deleted, and the state directs the decisions and controls the economy.
• Between 1927 and 1939, the dictatorship of Stalin occurred, during which all dissenters were killed or deported. At this time, there was modernization and militarization of the country and collectivization of the countryside, with collective and state farms.

3. The 1930 Crisis

Features:

• Happened after the “happy 20s”, years of economic boom.
• Drop in the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929.
• Dragged down banks and companies.
• Increase in unemployment.

Impact:

• Impact on European countries, as the U.S. had lent money to rebuild after the war.
• Intervention by the U.S. government in economics: New Deal, which established collective agreements to fix prices and promote public employment.
• The crisis was not overcome until the Second World War, with the United States becoming the supplier of Europe.

4. Totalitarianism

Features:

• Radical nationalism. They are linked to the nation, making this a fundamental political argument. The nation, its enlargement, and expansion will be one of the foundations of the system. It is a virulent nationalism, provoked by the bitterness of having been beaten and humiliated, like Germany, or of not having been done justice, such as Italy, unhappy at not having compensation after the First World War.
• Anti-liberalism. The totalitarians are against the political system that emerged in the nineteenth century, which was based on parliamentarism, constitutionalism, and the party system, under the excuse that it divided the country. This liberalism will be replaced by autocratic political systems, whose sole source of power is the leader, the boss: the Führer in Germany or Il Duce in Italy.
• Leadership. These political systems emerge around a figure, who is celebrated and followed fanatically. Hitler and Mussolini are the creators of Nazism and Fascism. Speeches, rallies, radio talk shows, and athletic-military displays will be part of the propaganda of these leaders.
• Anticommunism. Although the procedures and the single ideology system may resemble the totalitarian German and Italian systems to the Russian, they differ in that the former will pursue and oppose workers’ ideologies, particularly communism.
• Sole party. It provides a single political ideology in the country and eliminates, by execution, imprisonment, or deportation, all who oppose or disagree with this ideology.
• Military preeminence. Totalitarian ideologies establish the military superiority in society but also establish a hierarchy and militarization of it. The schools reflect this spirit and educate in these military values.
• Social exclusion. Nationalism, the exaltation of patriotic values, will lead to the exclusion and rejection not only of other ethnic groups like Jews and gypsies but also of any behavior, such as homosexuality, which is not accepted in the single ideology. This leads to the extermination of millions of people.

Italy: Fascism:

• Creation in 1919 of the Fasci Italiani of Combattimento (black shirts).
• March on Rome in 1929, which causes the king, Victor Emmanuel III, to appoint Mussolini prime minister.
• Construction of the fascist state since 1926, around the “Duce”, control of the country by the Fascists, and a full employment policy that gets results.
• “Lateran Accords” with the Holy See.

Germany: Nazism:

Causes:

• Loss of the First World War and humiliating peace treaty.
• Internal disorder.
• Crisis of 1929.

Evolution:

• Creation of the Nazi Party in 1920, based on the union territories of German culture and anti-Semitism.
• Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf”.
• The Nazis created the SA, assault sections, attacking socialists, communists, and Jews.
• Hitler was appointed chancellor by the President of the Republic in 1933. After the Reichstag fire, the Nazis won the elections.
• Deletion of all parties except the Nazi Party, creation of the Gestapo secret police and the SS party police.
• Creation of concentration camps and persecution of Jews.
• Extension of the Führer propaganda through the press, radio, and rallies.
• Dissolution of unions and replacement by the Labor Front.
• Economic self-sufficiency, autarky.

5. The Second World War (1939-1945)

Causes:

• The obligations imposed on Germany by the Versailles Treaty.
• Territorial expansionism, derived from nationalism and colonialism.
• The weakness of European democracies against totalitarianism.
• The Civil War in Spain (1936-1939).
• The crisis of 1930.

The course of the war:

• Annexation of Austria by Germany, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.
• Signature by Italy of the “Pact of Steel”.
• Formation of two blocks of countries:
  • The Axis: Germany, Italy, and Japan, joined by Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia.
  • Allies: UK, France, and, later, the USSR and the United States in 1942.
• Dominance of the Axis between 1939 and 1942.
• In 1941, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States intervened in the war, resulting in the great battles of Midway, El Alamein, Stalingrad, and the Normandy invasion.
• In 1945, Germany surrendered, and then the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred.

Features of World War II:

• Total War, affecting the entire civilian population. 50 million people were killed.
• Mass Extermination: “Final Solution” of Hitler and the atomic bombing of Japan.
• New technology: jet aircraft, aircraft carriers, use of nylon, etc.
• Territorial changes: independence of Austria, return to Japan’s borders, division of Germany into four zones.
• Creation of the UN in 1945 to avoid conflicts.

II. Architectural Renovation from New Materials: Rationalism and Organicism. Painting: Fauvism, German Expressionism, The Birth of Abstraction, Surrealism, and Cubism

Introduction: Characteristics of twentieth-century art:

• New materials and new techniques, due to industrial development at the time, which will affect the art materials and even in formal settings own artistic works. The iron, cement, and glass in architecture, steel in sculpture, and acrylic in painting are some of these elements.
• Intellectualization of Art. Traditional aesthetic canons were abandoned, and original creations were supplanted by forms that are the result of intellectual development. Gradually figuration and academic standards were abandoned to make way for artistic works that are the result of mental preparation. We must know the intellectual and aesthetic system for artists to understand their meaning.
• As a result of the progressive introduction of democratic regimes, artistic works are the fruit of the creative freedom of artists trying to get rid of the demands of customers, in the sense not to follow their tastes and duties, except those who determine the artist.
• Continued twentieth-century innovations and technological progress made in quick succession trends and tastes in art, to multiply the aesthetic trends. Furthermore, as a consequence of ideological pluralism, live artistic movements of different signs at the same time (figuration and abstraction, for example).

1. Architectural Renovation

It is represented by two trends:

• Rationalism: It is based on employment, for construction, of geometrical drawings. These planes are superimposed in space, giving the impression of not being geometrical architecture. The materials used are mainly iron and reinforced concrete. The fundamental objective of rationalist architecture is to meet human needs, with projections or buildings that achieve optimal livability, making the maximum-looking surfaces and most useful. The buildings lack decoration. It reflects the pure architecture, materials, and generally flat decks. The strength of new materials allows the opening of the walls and large windows that illuminate the interior.

Representatives:

• The Bauhaus. W. Gropius and the School of Architecture in Germany. The Nazi regime made teachers of the Bauhaus emigrate to America in 1933.
• Le Corbusier.

Principles:

• Creator of “modulor” construction unit for buildings.
• Wrote: “Five points for a new architecture” and “Towards an architecture,” in 1923.
• Model project for the new contemporary cities.
• Construction materials: iron and cement.

Key works:

• Housing unit in Marseille.
• Villa Savoye near Paris.
• Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France.

• Organicism. The main representative is Frank Lloyd Wright.

Fundamental principles:

• Defend the immersion of the architecture in nature.
• The inhabitants of the architecture are the fundamental element of it.
• Idea how they should be the new towns.
• Creates and disseminates prefab townhouses.

Wright’s major works:

• The Robie House, built in Chicago in 1909.
• Fallingwater, in the woods of Pennsylvania in 1936.
• The Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, 1959.

2. Painting

Characteristics:

• “Vanguard” or “isms” are the pictorial currents that will be happening throughout the twentieth century.
• Reflects historical slumps of the twentieth century and is determined by technological innovations, including photography and film.
• Famous for the first half of the century will be Paris, then moved to New York.

Fauvism:

Its most characteristic features are the use of color in a subjective, arbitrary way, and a return to more primitive forms, but more expressive. Its chief deputy will be H. Matisse.

Fundamental works of Matisse:

• The Green Line.
• Harmony in Red.
• Dance.

German Expressionism and the Source of Abstraction: Kandinsky:

Features:

• Tends to reflect the feelings or emotions of people.
• It is present in the history of German painting but has a higher development in the first half of the twentieth century.
• Recurring formulas, such as exaggerated gestures or print dynamic representation.

Representatives:

• The movement called “The Bridge” or “Blue Rider”.
• V. Kandinsky.

Principles:

• The key to the artistic work is not the way, but the excitement of the viewer.
• The paintings must be like a musical composition, where the notes would be the color patches.
• The painting expresses the inner spirituality.
• Breaks with the view of reality as seen by the human eye, leading to abstraction.

Key works:

• First abstract watercolor (1910).
• Compositions.
• Winter.

Surrealism:

Is closely linked to the current depth psychology developed by Freud, whose principles are:

• The engine of our conduct is in the subconscious.
• The wishes, fears, frustrations, and so on appear in dreams, but disguised.
• In dreams, the signifier has a different meaning to meaning.

The best representative is Salvador Dalí. Features:

• Large capacity for drawing and composition.
• Controversial personality.
• Relationship with the generation of 27: “Un Chien Andalou.”
• Sets the method “paranoiac-critical”.
• Marries Gala, who is his wife, his muse, and his dealer.
• No waiver of figuration.

Key works:

• Woman in the Window.
• The Persistence of Memory.
• Portrait of Mae West.
• The Great Masturbator.
• The Madonna of Port Lligat.

Cubism: Pablo Ruiz Picasso:

Stages and key works:

• Training Stage: Works of canon and traditional style: “Science and Charity”.
• Blue Period: Prevalence of blue: “The Old Guitarist”.
• Pink Period: pink tones and themes of circus: “The Family of Acrobats”.
• Cubism: It opens with “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907).
  • Reduction of geometric shapes reality.
  • Representation of different levels to achieve three-dimensionality.
  • It has two phases: Analytical Cubism (Series of Horta de Ebro landscapes) and Synthetic Cubism (Still Life with Chair Grid).
• In the 1920s, return to classicism and later cycles ago integers to study classical paintings of the painting, as the series Las Meninas.
• In the Civil War, the Republican government commissioned the Guernica to the Paris Exposition of 1937.

III. The World since the Second World War

Blocks and Cold War:

This name is given to the period between 1947 and 1999, characterized by the confrontation between two blocs:

• U.S. and Western European countries with a liberal political system, democratic, and capitalistic economy.
• The USSR and its satellites, where a system of state-led economy and a political system monopolized by the Communist Party flourished.

Features:

• The blocks remained in constant political and military tension.
• The United States boosted aid to western European countries with the Marshall Plan. These countries established the OEEC (Organization for European Economic Cooperation), which was responded to by the USSR creating COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance).
• Russia blocked the overland communication between Berlin and West, to which the United States responded by creating an air bridge. Later, Germany was divided in two: The German Federal Republic (West) and the Republic East Germany (East).
• A wall was built to separate the two Germanys and to prevent leakage from the eastern to the western.
• Two systems of military alliances were created: NATO and the Warsaw Pact, which committed militarily to Western countries and Soviets.
• A climate of peaceful coexistence was established in the Cold War, though it was about to break with the “Missile Crisis”.

Decolonization and the Third World:

The Second World War highlighted the tensions and imbalance that prompted the settlement of non-European territories, showing the development of the First World and Third World poverty.

In Decolonization, or the process of independence of the colonies from colonizing countries, a variety of factors influenced:

• Nationalism emerged in the Second World War.
• The position of the two major blocks (USA and the USSR) was anti-colonization because it hampered their development.
• Protection of the UN to “self-determination of peoples”.

Examples of Decolonization:

• In Asia:
  • China: Independence linked to the Communist Revolution.
  • India: awareness coupled independence the Congress party and the figure of Gandhi. It gets its independence in 1946 and separates India from Pakistan.
  • Burma, Ceylon, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
• In Africa:

Characteristics:

• Base their identity on tradition and African culture.
• They tend to stand together against European colonialism: AU, African Union.

Between 1950 and 1980 obtained its independence:

• Ghana.
• Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Uganda and Kenya.
• Angola and Mozambique.
• Algeria and Morocco.

Conclusions:

Decolonized countries and the developing world met at the Bandung conference call in 1955 and established some agreements:

• The people are entitled to their determination.
• All people are equal, rejecting colonialism.
• It is necessary to promote peaceful cooperation between peoples, prohibiting nuclear weapons and rearmament.

Third World countries have a number of features:

• Prevalence of the primary sector, agriculture, and livestock.
• There are hardly any industries.
• The per capita income is very low.
• Lack of road infrastructure, health, or education.
• State power is very weak.
• Dependent economically on the outside.

The European Union: Formation Process, Treaties, and Institutions:

• Born after the Second World War, as a result of American aid (Marshall Plan) and to coordinate this assistance. Thus OEEC (Organization for European Economic Cooperation) emerged, established in 1948. Later comes the Council of Europe to foster the idea of Europeanism and develop the European convention of human rights.
• In 1951, establishing the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community), formed by five countries, and in 1957 created the EEC (European Economic Union), to which countries were added until 1985. Spain came into this year, forming the so-called Europe of Twelve.
• In the 1990s there have been major changes in the European organization. For the Maastricht Treaty changed the designation and arises European Union decided on a common currency, the euro and the creation of funds for compensation payments, with the ERDF.
• He signed the Treaties of Amsterdam and Schengen, to intervene in armed conflicts and allow the free exchange of people and capital. It establishing the European Central Bank.
• Today’s twenty-seven countries comprising the European Union.

Institutions of the European Union:

• The European Commission. Proposed legislative initiatives.
• The European Parliament, enact laws that are common to all EU citizens.
• The European Union Council, composed of various ministers of the European Union countries.
• The Court of Justice, studying whether laws of the countries are in conflict or not with the laws established by the EU.
• The European Court of Auditors to monitor the financial funds are used properly.