Catalan Modernism: Art, Society, and Literature
The Modernist Movement
Modernism was the movement that emerged in Catalonia between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the aim of transforming traditional Catalan culture into a modern culture.
The promoters wanted to bring Catalonia into Europe. They believed that traditionalists had to banish all aspects of Catalan culture and introduce innovative ideas.
Modernism and Society
Bourgeois Hegemony
The restoration of the Bourbon monarchy was accompanied by a period of social peace that helped to ensure that the bourgeoisie became the dominant social class in Catalonia.
But at the end of the nineteenth century, successive crises affected the economies. A Catalan bourgeoisie was making in producing, causing discontent towards the state. Nationalist parties were created.
The working class was reorganized into unions. After a period of strikes that were not achieving their objectives, anarchist groups began exploring terrorist attacks.
The Modernist Artist
They were the sons of artists who sought through their art to change the society in which they lived. They wanted total freedom to follow their inspiration. Representative artists are Santiago Rusiñol and Joan Maragall, the two heirs to textile manufacturers. They could devote themselves to their creations without ever leaving the status of wealthy burghers.
Modernism and the Synthesis of the Arts
The interests of the artists of the time were very different:
- Music – Catalan composers were inspired by the songs and poetry in popular music of Catalonia. An important fact was the foundation of the Orfeó Català. Thereafter, choirs proliferated throughout all the towns of Catalonia.
- Painting – They assimilated Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist currents and received influence from the British Pre-Raphaelites.
- Sculpture – They worked in groups in the service of architectural sculpture. The most prominent example is the Palace of Catalan Music.
- Architecture – They lived during an era of Art Nouveau splendor. Notable architect: Antoni Gaudí.
Modernism, which was concentrated mainly in Barcelona, tried to bring together all the arts.
The Two Main Currents of Literary Modernism
Symbolism
It is a trend characterized by the fact that it considers the real world to be a reflection of a reality that transcends it. The followers of this movement faced society and created a work that transformed the search for an ideal beauty as expressed through symbols. One of the tendencies of this movement is decadence, characterized by stylistic features inherited from Romanticism. Symbolism was much influenced by narrative and theater.
Vitalism
This is a current of literature characterized by the central role that women play in life as a deep background where it revolves around. Followers exalt the will; the artist must help change society. In Catalonia, it often interacted with regenerationism, giving rise to a literature understood as social work, with a nationalist character and vitality. The most representative was Joan Maragall.
First Stage
It is considered that Modernism in Catalonia stemmed from two cores:
The L’Avenç Magazine
A group of young students proposed to continue the Catalan progressive magazine and created the future. After a period of irregular publication that ended with the demise of the magazine, it began running again, this time without interruption. Collaborators were gradually incorporated. The goal was to make modern Catalan literature. The editors attacked everything that seemed old and defended the modern aesthetic. The magazine opted to modernize the language and started a campaign of language reform, under the guidance of Pompeu Fabra.
The Modernist Festival of Sitges
Rusiñol promoted the celebration of the first Modernist Festival of Sitges, an exhibition consisting of a pictorial and literary event behind closed doors. The second Modernist Festival meant that all Catalan intellectuals and artists had to fight for a common goal: the modernization of the country. In the first place, Rusiñol delivered a speech, and then a performance of the play The Intruder was given. The party was instrumental in the spread of Modernism.