Friday, February 18, 2011

Let's Get Started!


Different art forms during the 20th century, especially those of film, dance, and art, shared many commonalities and reflected similar ideologies. This blog will be particularly focusing on the 1927 German film Metropolis, Vaslav Nijinsky’s Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun ballet, and the artwork of Tamara de Lempicka as seen in the Art Deco movement. What stands out in Metropolis is the extreme mechanization of the work place and the “jerkiness” of the characters’ movements to reflect this mechanization. The lack of fluidity is also present in machine Maria’s sultry dance that she performs at the club, and her odd movements only further exemplify that she is a machine. Similarly, the ballet movements in Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun are modernized, especially when compared with traditional ballet of the past. The faun’s movements are jerky and unique, maybe not necessarily to show that he is a machine per se, but rather to show his lack of humanness. When looking at Tamara de Lempicka’s artwork, one can see the humanness of the subjects, but the geometric forms detract from the reality of the people and add a mechanized quality to them. This surrealism depicted in these three art forms demonstrates the impact that the rise of the machine had on society during the early 20th century. In addition to the role of the machine in the aforementioned artwork, these three art forms also reflect femininity and a more advert sexuality. The female form is celebrated.

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