Modernizm

Modernizm, or modernism, is a broad cultural and artistic movement that emerged in the late 19th century and continued into the mid-20th century. The term is used in several languages to denote contemporary avant-garde tendencies that sought to break with academic tradition and to reflect the realities of modern life, including industrialization, urbanization, and scientific progress. Across fields, modernizm shared a focus on form, technique, and perception, emphasizing experimentation and the search for new ways to express reality.

In literature, modernizm favored experimentation with narrative structure, fragmentation, and the exploration of consciousness and subjectivity. In the visual arts, it encompassed movements toward abstraction, simplified form, and new relationships between color, space, and light. Architecture and design stressed functionalism, the use of new materials such as steel and reinforced concrete, and a departure from historic revival styles. In music, composers pursued new scales, rhythms, timbres, and structural approaches.

Regional variations existed, reflecting local cultures and histories while sharing core aims: to capture the experience of modern life and to challenge established conventions. The movement influenced poetry, prose, painting, architecture, music, theater, and film, and it interacted with broader social and political currents of its time.

After World War II, many modernist tendencies gave way to new movements and debates, though modernizm remains a reference point in discussions of modern art, literature, architecture, and culture in many languages.