Dance
Historically, modern dance scholarship has followed the contours of the field as defined by John Martin, the revered dance critic for The New York Times,…
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Selvon, Samuel (1923–1994)
Samuel Selvon was a Trinidadian writer whose vivid portraits of daily life in both the Caribbean and post-Second World War England garnered international acclaim. Selvon’s…
Ausdruckstanz (1910–1950)
The term Ausdruckstanz became common usage after World War II to designate a widespread dance practice in the early and middle decades of the 20th…
Taller de Gráfica Popular
The TGP was founded in Mexico City in 1937 and although it is still in existence at present, it maintained its original form until the…
Monte Verità (1900–)
During the first two decades of the 20th century, Monte Verità, a hill on the west side of Ascona in southern Switzerland, was the site…
Schwitters, Kurt (1887–1948)
Kurt Schwitters is most commonly associated with Dada, but his relationship to that movement’s aesthetic, political, and philosophical rebellion was ambivalent. Although he was friends…
Lasker-Schüler, Else (1868–1945)
Else Lasker-Schüler can be regarded as the most important German female modernist and is one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist movement. Her…
Acting
Acting on the modern stage ranges from the psychological realism of Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863–1938) to the sensory assault of Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) to the didactic…
One Step
In the years before the entry of the United States into World War I, the One Step replaced the Two Step as the common popular…
Fauvism
French Fauvism (c. 1904–1907) comprised a loosely formed group of painters whose mentor, Henri Matisse (1869–1954), argued for a new approach to painting, integrating the…
Portocarrero, René (1912–1985)
Part of the Cuban vanguardia (or vanguard movement), René Portocarrero broke with the academic style of art that prevailed in Cuba in order to create…
Music and Dance
The histories of modernist music and dance are vast and inextricably related, so much so that it is as daunting to consider them in tandem…
Reinhardt, Max (1873–1943)
Born Max Goldmann to Jewish parents in Baden, Austria and nicknamed “the Magician” by the press, Max Reinhardt was pivotal in establishing theater directing as…
The Pioneer Players (1911–25)
Led by director Edith Craig, with her mother Ellen Terry as president, the Pioneer Players theater society was founded on May 11, 1911 in London…
Kraus, Gertrud (1901–1977)
Gertrud Kraus, a Jewish dancer, choreographer, and teacher, was a prominent representative of Viennese Ausdruckstanz and later a key figure in establishing modern dance in…
Barnet, Boris (1902–1965)
Boris Barnet (b. June 18, 1902, Moscow, Russia; d. January 8, 1965, Riga, Latvia) was a Russian actor, director, and professional boxer. He made his…
Munch, Edvard (1863–1944)
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter, printmaker and sculptor, who experimented with photography and film. He is one of the main forerunners of Expressionism, and…
Ailey, Alvin (1931–1989)
Alvin Ailey counts among the most significant American choreographers of the second half of the twentieth century, and his company the Alvin Ailey American Dance…
Al Said, Shakir Hassan (1925–2004)
Al Said was a prolific and influential artist. He was a founding member of the Baghdad Group for Modern Art (Jama’at Baghdad lil-fann al-hadith) in…
Vitalism
Vitalism is a philosophy of life that ascribes a vital principle or animating life-force to the processes of living organisms. Against the assertions of mechanistic…
Theosophy
The term ‘theosophy’, derived from the Greek theo (‘divine’) and sophia (‘wisdom’), refers generally to divine wisdom and its mystical interpretation. Arising in the third…
White Savages Group
The White Savages Group (Baek-man Heo) was founded in 1930 when Kim Yong-jun (1904–1967) published his manifesto “Upon Founding the White Savages Group” in a…
Palucca, Gret (1902–1993)
Gret Palucca took a distinctive improvisational and pedagogical approach to German modern dance in a career spanning four different political systems in Germany. After studying…
The Provincetown Players (1915–1922)
Founded in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1915 and transplanted to Greenwich Village in 1916, the Provincetown Players was one of the most influential theatrical organizations in…
Comics
The early twentieth century saw the rise of the modern comic strip, the comic book and the artist’s book as distinctive forms of graphic narrative…