Subject: Arts: Art & Artists

Art: Transatlantic Modernism Series

Art historian and author Wanda Corn (The Color of Mood; The Art of Andrew Wyeth; Grant Wood) examines the cultural dynamics that linked art circles in Paris and New York in the opening decades of the 20th century, focusing on painting, sculpture, art films, literature and the decorative arts. Produced by the Stanford University Channel. Programs available on 20 individual DVDs, Digital Streaming Files or Videos; also in a 20-Disc Set. For pricing call in US: 800.876.2447/Intl. 603.434.9262 or e-mail

List of Titles

1. Transatlantic Modernism: An Introduction 1

Paris and New York in the Early 20th Century. During the early 1900s, the lifestyles of Americans and Europeans changed dramatically in response to a host of revolutionary inventions and initiatives. Writers, musicians, and artists were not immune from this influence, as evidenced by the exciting innovations Click for more

2. Transatlantic Modernism: An Introduction 2

Paris and New York c. December 1910 By the first decade of the 20th century, both New York City and Paris had undergone significant infrastructural changes that catapulted them into the modern age. Between 1850 and 1910, Paris was transformed into a sprawling city of "grand boulevards" and imposing monuments, Click for more

3. Sociological Profile of the Avant-Garde

When the term avant-garde first surfaced in a cultural context in the late 1800s, it was applied to a group of French writers who radically opposed the status quo. Since then the term has acquired a prescient dimension, suggesting writers or artists who were creatively, technically, and inspirationally ahead Click for more

4. Paris: Symbolism and Abstraction

The avant-garde artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Paris and New York enthusiastically endorsed a fusion of Symbolism and Abstraction. Unlike the traditionalists for whom subject matter mattered and realism ruled, Modernist artists focused on the process of art and on the potential experiences evoked Click for more

5. NY: Symbolism and Abstraction in the Stieglitz Circle 1

"'Steiglitz in Focus' - Alfred Stieglitz. Brilliant, opinionated, and often tactless, he would do more than anyone in America to persuade the art world that photography deserved a place alongside painting and sculpture." -Smithsonian Magazine
The Stieglitz Circle - Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Click for more

6. NY: Symbolism and Abstraction in the Stieglitz Circle 2

Alfred Stieglitz's Second Circle, composed of American artists, displayed a kind of abstraction that was based on organic forms and influenced by the heritage of the Hudson River School, the sublimity of nature, and transcendentalist philosophy. Their works defined a group aesthetic that was purely American. Artist Click for more

7. Paris: Cubism and Futurism

Marsley Hartley, an American artist of Alfred Stieglitz's Circle, traveled in Europe, primarily Germany, between 1912 and 1914 and again in the '20s and was influenced by the experimental work being done at that time, most notably intuitive abstraction, an early type of cubism. Iron Cross of 1914 is a Click for more

8. Gertrude Stein: "The Mother of Us All"

Gertrude Stein, a collector, salonier, and writer, played a pivotal role in promoting cubism as a bonafide art form in the early 20th century. Born in 1874, raised in Oakland, and schooled at Harvard and Johns Hopkins University, Stein relocated to Paris in 1903, where she readily embraced the experimental art Click for more

9. The Loss of Innocence: The Armory Show of 1913

The International Exhibition of Modern Art, sponsored by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, offered to the American public its introduction to the avant-garde art of Europe. Informally called the Armory Show of 1913 because it was so large that it had to be held in a military armory, this exhibition Click for more

10. WW I: Parisians in New York

Marcel Duchamp and his group in Paris were investigating motion, both man-made and natural, and in their analysis viewed motion as a metaphor for modern life. These artists took the traditional human figure and merged it with the modern machine. Then they humanized the machine, creating a dichotomy between the mechanical Click for more

11. Marcel Duchamp (Alias Rose Selavy)

"'Duchamp and New York' - It came as a great surprise to Marcel Duchamp that in New York, when he arrived here for the first time, in 1915, he was considered a famous person. He did not fully comprehend the American reaction to his 'Nude Descending a Staircase.'" -The New Yorker Magazine
Marcel Duchamp, Click for more

12. Paris: Apres la Guerre

Avant-garde art in Paris changed radically after World War I, with its horrors of trench warfare and poison gas. France suffered in a way that New York could not understand. There was a new kind of realism or classicism after the war, and art became more conservative and tied to traditions. Two experimental films produced Click for more

13. The New NY: Stella, Weber and Sheeler 1

Among the post-war, avant-garde artists in New York, there were no major losses from World War I. France had been devastated by the war and fell behind industrially, looking to the United States as the leader. The United States was experiencing prosperity, and there was a rise in national pride, a need to establish Click for more

14. The New NY: Stella, Weber and Sheeler 2

Just as Joseph Stella, who was influenced by the Futurists, rendered New York in paint as the technological sublime, Charles Sheeler photographed and painted New York as the majestic. He abstracted the form from the machine age vistas, turning the buildings into Cubist shapes. Sheeler's New York is more Click for more

15. On the Margins: Stettheimer and Demuth 1

"'Camping Under Glass' - Stylish, in fact, hardly begins to describe Florine Stettheimer's work. It is besotted with style as an end in itself, and its delight in quotation naturally endears it to postmodernist taste." -Time Magazine
Recent scholarly research has indicated that two additional American painters Click for more

16. On the Margins: Stettheimer and Demuth 2

"'Charles Demuth Amid the Silos' - Luckily or not, Charles Demuth painted one picture so famous that practically every American who looks at art knows it. 'The Figure 5 in Gold, 1928,' is a prediction of pop art." -Time Magazine
Charles Demuth is best known as a precisionist artist, creating Cubist Click for more

17. An American in Paris: Gerald Murphy

"'Modern Love' - Numerous influences are plain, but Gerald Murphy jumped ahead of his time with a laconic style that was prescient of big-scale abstraction and of Pop art." -The New Yorker Magazine
After World War I, Europe became obsessed with all things American, especially cultural fads and assembly Click for more

18. The "New Negro" Arts Movement

Stanford professor Wanda Corn guides viewers through New York and Paris in the 1920s helping to break the stereotyping of African-Americans during this decade. We learn that between WWI and WWII nearly two million blacks, from the south and the West Indies, migrated to Harlem, bringing a diversity of black voice Click for more

19. Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, companions in life and art in spite of a 23-year age differential, symbolized the unusual juxtapositions characteristic of the American modernist period. In this program, Professor Wanda Corn uses representative samples of O'Keeffe's paintings and Stieglitz's photographs Click for more

20. Transatlantic Modernism: Conclusion

Transatlantic Modernism came to a natural ending between 1930 and 1935 when the Depression affected both the culture and art. The playfulness, optimism, and prosperity of the 1920s soon evolved into a different type of art in the 1930s, breaking the spell of the machine age. The transatlantic flow stopped when the Click for more