Introducing Modernism: A Graphic Guide

Introducing Graphic Guides

by Chris Rodrigues, Chris Garratt (Contributor)

Modernism is usually thought of as a shock wave of innovations hitting art, architecture, music, cinema and literature - the work of Picasso, Joyce, Schoenberg, movements like Futurism and Dada, the architecture of Le Corbusier, T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and the avant-garde theatre of Bertolt Brecht or Samuel Beckett. But what really defines modernism? Why did it begin and how long did it last? Is Modernism over now? Chris Rodriguez and Chris Garratt's brilliant graphic guide is a brilliant exploration of the last century's most thrilling artistic work - and what it's really all about.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Art, History, Politics, Art History, Education

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Leonard Gaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This encompasses most intellectual and artistic movements (painting, music, literature, architecture, cinema) in Europe and America, from the end of the 19th century to a couple of decades after the Second World War. In other words, according to the author, modernism starts with Marx and the examination of modern industrial capitalism, and covers almost everything from there: symbolism, impressionism, cubism, futurism, expressionism, surrealism, abstraction. In literature, this would include Charles Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, T.S. Eliot, André Breton, Bertolt Brecht, Ernest Hemingway, Jorge Luis Borges, Samuel Beckett.

Apart from being a name dropping fest, this little volume lays out a few landmarks and includes a couple of interesting questions on the matter: modernism and technology, modernism and philosophy, modernism and politics, modernism and advertising, etc. Still, the subject is covered in a rather thin layer of analysis, so don’t expect anything solid or substantial. Just a brain snack.

[Alireza · Rating 2 out of 5]

این کتاب خلاصه ای از تاریخ هنر و ادبیات مدرنیستی است و بسیار موجز به آثار این دوره و تاثیر آنها نگاهی می اندازد. کتاب در مورد فلسفه دوره مدرنیسم هیچ نگاهی ندارد و در رابطه با سیاست در اوایل قرن بیستم تا اواسط آن کمی متناقض برخورد می کند. در مجموع می توان گفت نگاه کتاب به مقوله ادبیات کمی کمونیستی است اما گاهی سعی می کند دیدگاهی معتدل را در پیش بگیرد.
نسبت به تصاویر کتاب قبل از خواندنش خوشبین بودم، اما فهمیدم قرار نیست تصاویر کتاب چاشنی طنز داشته باشند.

[Rishab Katoch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modernism is a vast movement that encompasses within itself many "isms", which impacted many spheres of western society around the turn of the century. It's influence can be traced in subjects as varied as art, architecture, politics and philosophy.

The book is actually pretty fun and does a decent job of introducing the reader to some key ideas and influential figures of the movement. The heading of each chapter is a question which is explored briefly in the chapter. Personally I found the pictures a bit useless and gimmicky. Overall it's a decent primer to modernism.

[Aslı Can]

Oradan buradan bildiğim şeyleri kafamda derli toplu bir hale getirmeye yaradı. Güzel, sistemli ilerleyen bir kitap. Merakı tam olarak doyurmak gibi bir şansı yok bu tarz kitapların ama yol açmak adına güzel bir başlangıç olabilir.

Bu tarz kitaplardan beklentim sorduğu soruları tarafsız sunması ama yazar sık sık tarafgir yargılarda bulunmuş ve yönlendirici sorular sormuş. Bu yüzden her söylenene kanmamak için biraz dikkatli okumakta fayda var derim.

[Zohreh hooshangi · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتاب بیشتر برای منظم کردن ذهنتون درباره مدرنیسم و طبقه بندی دانسته ها مناسبه . در این کتاب با انبوهی از اسامی مواجه می شین که ممکنه مرتبا مجبور بشین تو گوگل سرچ کنین.
البته تمرکز کتاب بیشتر ادبیات و هنره و موضوعات دیگه کمتر پرداخته شده.
کمیک ها و نقل قول هاش جالب بودن و خوشم اومد.

[moi, k.y.a. · Rating 3 out of 5]

modernizm 101 desek yeridir.
tam bir giriş niteliği taşıyan kitap modernizm kavramını tarihsel, kültürel ve sanalsal anlamda hızlıca ele alıyor. kitaba dair en sevdiğim ayrıntı oluşturulan kronolojiydi. onları kendime ayrıca alıp dosyaladım, çok işlevsel.

[Castles · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very general survey of the subject and mainly focuses on the arts, but that’s pretty good for a very short introduction, I suppose.

I keep wondering which reader are they aiming for with this book series.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This illustrated guide to Modernism is appropriately overwhelming -- pages are often dripping with bold-faced names of artists, writers, and thinkers who could be considered part of this movement that spanned arts and culture throughout the world. That said, the author and artist often assume that the reader is familiar with many of these names, ideas and movements; I had to stop and look up a few things while reading this book. (Not necessarily a bad thing, but a lost opportunity within the book itself to define some key concepts or accomplishments.) I understand that a book about modernism can't be completely impartial, as the author notes in the bibliography, but I found that the book could be oddly forgiving of some artists while oddly judgemental of others, including a dig at Gertrude Stein that just seemed like a cheap shot. The use of advertising talking-head avatars at certain points in the book make it unclear whether the authors are espousing their own ideas, or sharing genuine criticisms and observations about Modernism, particularly towards the conclusion of the book. I appreciate, though, that the book pulls no punches in pointing out the very commercial nature of many artists (such as Picasso and Dali) which was certainly part of the reason so many of the movement's ideas ended up crossing the boundary into the world of advertising, marketing, and modern-art-as-investment.

[Viji (Bookish endeavors) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before reviewing this book,I would like to take you to the place where I read this. It was a place with thousands of books and I read this sitting in a corner by the philosophy shelf(there were chairs but I felt this way better). And there were many old books,and many new. I like the smell of old books better than the new ones. And it feels good to touch those books,most of which we have to touch as if it's going to crumble at the slightest force. And whenever I go there,I feel like I could spend my whole life there without ever coming out. And that's why I travel some 800+ kilometers every month just to come here. I am talking about the State central library in my state,Kerala. I just love the place.
So that's it for the background.
Well.. The only problem here is the book I am going to review doesn't need all this introduction. It isn't so good nor is it much informative. Like the title says,it's a graphic guide. The only other book I read in this series was the one on 'consciousness'. And that book was interesting and made many topics very simple to understand. The topic called modernism isn't as complex as consciousness. So we can't say it made things simple. But it did a good job at bringing things closer to heart,especially because of the pictures. As a first step into the subject,this book is a good one.

[Olfat]

It's good, fast, and intense introduction, but I think I enjoyed Introducing Postmodernism more.

[Bryson Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book.

[Taïssa D'Joos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The language wasn’t always that easy to understand

[Mohamed Jaafar · Rating 3 out of 5]

خفيف، لطيف.

[Daniel Cabarcas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buena revisión histórica de todos los procesos que influyeron en la conformación del modernismo. Desde su nacimiento hasta su muerte, con todas las referencias necesarias y con una generalidad que invita a curiosear por fuera de la obra, Modernismo para principiantes es un buen libro introductorio.

[Tamara Zann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice introduction. Easy to understand the concepts with engaging pictures.

[Animesh Mitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5-ordinary, mediocre book.

[Samantha Issa]

I don’t think I have enough experience with encyclopedic(?) books like these to give it a starred rating, though it certainly is no beginners’ introduction. If I didn’t take economics and American government in high school and courses like “Understanding the 20th Century through Music”, English and American Literature, introduction to cultural anthropology and filmmaking, I would only know a few names mentioned in the book.

But yeah, I borrowed this book from the library because I got into mid-century modern design, though I didn’t see it mentioned in the book. But it was an interesting history of modernism anyways. And it was fun seeing names of people and movements I studied in the aforementioned subjects I took, and now being able to connect them to modernism. It gave me a lot of food for thought and fodder to think about zeitgeist in my Christian viewpoint. The graphics were entertaining and sometimes elicited a few laughs. However, I found some typos… Nevertheless, if you’re interested in this topic, try this one out.

[The Adaptable Educator · Rating 5 out of 5]

An in-depth overview of an ambiguous subject

The subject line speaks for how I enjoyed this book... Not a graphic novel, but an overview written to the casual reader and academic alike, only without all the stuffy, academic rhetoric and jargon!
I love the flow and humour the author provides while offering points of view on a very arguable topic. I've learned how to better explain Modernism to people who ask my view on artworks, including my own.
I'm stoked to read more of these graphic guides!

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t understand why people disliked this so much. It was a good introduction which, if it dropped names, dropped the right ones! Kidding aside it did a good job of introducing the important ideas and themes of modernism. The graphics were unnecessary as far as I was concerned. The one irritant for me was that I realized that every book in the series has the same page count! This leads to lots of blankness on the page at least in this one.

[Damián González · Rating 1 out of 5]

Me cuesta mucho poner cosas positivas de este libro. A mi entender no cumple por dos grandes motivos: como guía introductoria es muy pobre, quiere abarcar demasiadas preguntas (bastante complejas) en pocos párrafos. Por otra parte, su contenido gráfico no me resultó atractivo, lo noté muy poco conectado con el texto y sin encanto. No complementa la lectura, no aporta nada.

Lo único bueno es que es cortito y se termina rápido, pero aun así no lo recomiendo.

[Manabjyoti Biswas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Connections were made from Literatures, Movements, Art, Figures, Technology etc with modernism. So it is like a brief summary with some thought provoking questions with no answer or vague answers that just give you the idea and after which, it is your choice to dwell deeper into the subject. It is an interesting read for anyone who just want to know how modernism came to be and how it was influenced.

[José · Rating 4 out of 5]

People voting this poorly (below 3 stars) cannot be in any way aware of what an introduction is. As an introductory read this is quite entertaining and very clear, albeit suffering from a too superficial view on a few topics and a somewhat excessive namedropping on the others (the instances where this happens are, fortunately, very rare).

[Steph De Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not one of the better instalments in the “Graphic Guides” series: it attempts to cover far too much ground and, consequently, its treatment of topics is often vague, cursory and disjointed. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

[Brendan McWalters · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like the art and style, but the content is a mishmash of random historical thoughts over the 19th and 20th centuries. The lines between modernism, it's predecessor (which is never quite made clear) and postmodernism are blurred to be non existent making the title of the text quite misleading.

[Brent · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like these formats and this series in particular, but this one seemed to use clip art - or bad comics and cartoon art - more than a real visual-verbal blend - in order to teach. Meh.
I still learned some broad outline stuff.
Mildly recommended.

[james · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read with a lot of cool imagery! The writing felt a little all over the place at times. I suppose that’s what happens when an author packs a lot of small bits of information into a short book on a big topic. I look forward to reading more books in this series!

[Manuel Papilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit lost at some of the heavier parts.

[Saravana Sastha Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick overview

[Joody · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information were too many, too short. l felt lost many times. Yet, it's a good introduction to the modernism movement.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Touched on Heidegger's view of phenomenology, which was the subject of the two books I had just finished reading. The synchonization continues !