Nihilism
Most broadly, Nihilism is the rejection of meaningful moral or religious values. Nihilism is often associated with moral Relativism, extreme Skepticism, and Pessimism. First used…
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Dadaism
Dada began in Zurich, Switzerland, in the midst of World War I. Several expatriate artists converged in the city to escape the brutal and seemingly…
Surrealism Overview
Soupault’s publication of Manifeste du Surréalism in 1924. Rising in the wake of the First World War, Surrealism revolted against a world that had become…
Expressionism
Expressionism was one of the foremost modernist movements to emerge in Europe in the early years of the twentieth-century. It had a profound effect on…
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844–1900)
Friedrich Nietzsche, the son of a Lutheran minister, was a German philologist, philosopher, and iconoclast. He is best known for his controversial but powerful reevaluation…
Dadaism in Film
Members of the Dada cultural and artistic movement began to experiment with film as a means to disseminate their stylistic partialities and cultural values through…
Tzara, Tristan (1896-1963)
Born Samuel (Samy or Sami) Rosenstock in Moineşti, Romania, Tristan Tzara was an avant-garde poet, performer, critic, and film director. Together with Hugo Ball, Hans…
Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang theory is a scientific model of the universe that posits a state of dense, centralized matter before the current, observable expansion of…
Mavo
Mavo was a coterie of vanguard artists, designers, and poets centered on Tokyo between July 1923 and late 1925. It sought to politicize art amid…
Ivanov, Georgy Vladimirovich Ivanov [Иванов, Георгий Владимирович] (1894–1958)
Along with Khodasevich and Tsvetaeva, Georgy Ivanov was one of the three great Russian poets of émigré Paris – and the most important representative of…
Hedayat, Sadegh (1903–1951)
Sadegh Hedayat was an Iranian writer and intellectual who was responsible for introducing Modernism to Iranian literature. His short stories and novellas are the best…
Wilde, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills (1854-1900)
Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, essayist, author and poet, and one of Victorian England’s chief proponents of Aestheticism. His works are often characterised by…
Yokomitsu, Riichi (1898–1947)
Riichi Yokomitsu was a Japanese novelist who, as one of the founders of Shinkankaku-ha [New Sensation School], helped introduce European avant-garde literature into Japan during…
Group 1890
Group 1890 was a short-lived, but highly influential collective of Indian artists formed in 1962. It was composed of twelve members—Jeram Patel as secretary, Raghav…
Fascist Modernism
Fascist modernism is an artistic and literary movement emphasizing extreme nationalism, romantic anti-capitalism, and cultural renewal most closely associated with Fascist Italy, Vichy France, and…
Chen Yingzhen (1938– )
Chen Yingzhen is a prolific writer and influential cultural critic from Taiwan. Born Chen Yongshan in Miaoli County, Chen started to publish fiction in 1959…
Kristensen, (Aage) Tom (1893–1974)
Tom Kristensen was the most influential exponent of Expressionism in 1920s Denmark. During this period he wrote both poetry and novels that gave voice to…
Can Xue 殘雪 (pen name of Deng Xiaohua 鄧小華) (1953–)
Can Xue (pen name of Deng Xiaohua) is a Chinese writer and literary critic whose work has gained a following for its avant-garde themes and…
Greenberg, Uri Tzvi (1896–1981)
The Hebrew and Yiddish poet Uri Tzvi Greenberg was born in 1896 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in a shtetl, or village, called Biały Kamień in…
Shawn, Ted (1891–1972)
The self-proclaimed “Father of American Dance,” Ted Shawn attained international prominence as a professional dancer and choreographer. Along with his wife Ruth St. Denis, Shawn…
Conrad, Joseph (1857–1924)
Joseph Conrad was one of the foremost British novelists of the modernist period. Many of the narrative innovations he developed appeared a decade or more…
Laban, Rudolf (1879–1958)
Rudolf Laban was one of the leaders of Ausdruckstanz (“expressionist dance”) in Germany. He worked as a dancer, choreographer, writer, educator, movement analyst, ballet master,…
Expressionism
Expressionism was one of the foremost modernist movements to emerge in Europe in the early years of the twentieth-century. It had a profound effect on…
Surrealism Overview
Soupault’s publication of Manifeste du Surréalism in 1924. Rising in the wake of the First World War, Surrealism revolted against a world that had become…