Modernism is a movement that permeated many disciplines, including painting, sculpture, dance, music, literature and philosophy, and was influenced by politics, scientific and technological innovation, and the Industrial Revolution.
In particular the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by the horror of World War I, were among the factors that shaped Modernism. Modernism term encompasses a variety of specific artistic and philosophical movements including symbolism, futurism, surrealism, expressionism, imagism, vorticism, dada, and others. The guiding principles of this movement were a break from old traditions.
Cubism
Cubism is a style of painting and sculpture developed in the early 20th century, characterized chiefly by an emphasis on formal structural the reduction of natural forms to their geometrical equivalents, and the organization of the planes of a represented object independently of representational requirements. The Cubist principle is to reject the inherited concept that art should copy nature, or that they should adopt the traditional techniques of perspective, modeling, and foreshortening. Cubism favorite motifs were still lifes with musical instruments, bottles, pitchers, glasses, newspapers, playing cards (1997.149.12), and the human face and figure.
Juan Gris (Artist)
Juan Gris was the Third Musketeer of Cubism, and actually pushed Cubism further to its logical conclusion until his ultimely death in 1927 at the age of 39.
Originally named Jose Victoriano Gonzalez, he adopted the pseudonym by which he is known after moving (1906) to Paris. The Spanish artist Juan Gris, b. Mar. 13, 1887, d. May 11, 1927, was, with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, one of the first and greatest exponents of the cubist idiom in painting.