Modern art had deep roots in the 19th century and "...drew
on the powerful emotional quality of Van Gogh
and on the bold color and
line
of Gauguin..." (Witt 408). Contemporary intellectual currents,
such as Freudianism, infleunced art as artists sought
to
depict the "deep, hidden drives of human beings..." (408).
Artists rejected
the dehumanizing materialism of bourgeois capitalism. Then, the Great War's
cataclysm
of death and destruction heightened their condemnation of traditional values,
rendered absurd or ridiculous the entire apparatus of the Western past.
"It
is hardly surprising that the mechanized mass killing[s] of the First World
War"
drove artists and other thoughtful individuals to despair. (409).
[ Klimt and Klee and Kirchner ]
[ Munch and Dali ]