What is modernism? When and why did it begin? And has it really been eclipsed by postmodernism? Replies to these questions are often vague or confusing.
This book explores the radical aesthetics of Picasso, Joyce, Schoenberg and other avant-gardist masters. Art, architecture, music and literature were all transformed in this shock-wave of innovation, a set of complex responses to the technological, industrial and scientific revolutions of modernity itself. This book is a stimulating guide for readers perplexed by this crucial formation of 20th-century culture.