HUMAN EMOTION IN

MODERN ART
 Our presentation is intended to reveal both
human emotion and modernist elements within the
most representative art domains, namely painting,
architecture, music, photography and dance.
Moreover, emotion is transposed by means of
distinctive methods, such as motionless frames in
painting, architecture and photography or sound
frequencies and rhythmical vibration in music and
dance. In addition to this, we also encounter unity
in diversity, due to the multiple languages used by
the creators: language of colour, sound and motion.
 OVERALL PERSPECTIVE

“Every jest is an earnest in the womb of time”.

(The Quintessence of Ibsenism - George Bernard
Shaw)

Irrespective of its being Renaissance, Enlightenment,

Classicism, Romanticism, Victorianism or Modernism,
art is permanently caught in between tradition-
innovation, acceptance-rejection. The idea of change is
initially perceived as a joke, being laughed at or even
unconsidered, but eventually it is rendered conventional
and accepted as the norm. Consequently, today’s renewal
will undeniably become tomorrow’s tradition.
 MODERNIST ART
Modernist art started as an experiment, because
it questioned all things, tackled taboo subjects,
such as reality, conflicts and social issues. At the
same time, the artistic faith was conceived as the
artist’s duty to express himself, to create himself
an identity, succeeding in plunging as deep as
possible into human emotion with a view to
offering a path to essence, a spiritual reality
beyond appearance.
“A work of art can only come from the interior of man.
Art is the form of the image formed upon the nerves,
heart, brain and eye of man.” (Edvard Munch)

In a modern world, where art is no longer a mirror of

reality, but a construct of the mind, achieved by means of
“nerves…brain and eye of man”, emotion “heart” comes
to complete the whole creative endeavour rendering a
totally new and deeper meaning to the creation. Taking
into account that each and every person is a unique entity,
whose essence lies in one’s inner impulse, an art producer
may convey a meaning which becomes relative, due to the
fact that the receiver may interpret it in many different
ways according to one’s own perception.
 “There can be no knowledge without
emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet
until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To
the cognition of the brain must be added the
experience of the soul.” (Arnold Bennett)
HUMAN EMOTION IN
MODERNIST PAINTING
 In as much as painting is concerned, we should
enlarge upon modernist features and highlight the
main artistic currents (impressionism, post-
impressionism, expressionism, modern style,
cubism, futurism, surrealism) that overshadowed
the artistic period between the 19th century and the
20th century.
 IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING

Regarding the impressionist movement, we should

mention as its most representative features the
tendency to break the rules and to use colours which
give the impression of melting into each other, along
with creating works which looked unfinished or
unpolished. The impressionists approached subjects
found in real life, trying to capture the invisible from
the visible, therefore providing an original vision.
“Camille Monet, sur son lit de mort”
(Claude Monet, 1879, oil on canvas)
“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. To such an extent indeed
that one day, finding myself at the deathbed of a woman who had been and
still was very dear to me, I caught myself in the act of focusing on her temples
and automatically analyzing the succession of appropriately graded colors
which death was imposing on her motionless face.“ (Claude Monet)
In his attempt to nourish his profound artistic passion, Monet
succeeds in seeing, even in the death of his beloved, an
opportunity to capture the impossible in an artistic creation that
aims to seize the remaining moments of life. Therefore, the art
of creation goes beyond any human power of understanding.
Approaching the death subject, his painting reveals
contradictory feelings, joy of fulfilling his artistic faith and
torment of mourning the person he deeply loves. This aspect is
further enhanced by his technique of using certain colours, such
as grey, blue, white and black. Grey suggests desolation and
depression, while blue nuances evoke opposing inner states:
sadness and artistic fulfilment. The non-colours, white and
black, may allude the idea of purity in love and the darkness of
immanent separation. Consequently, the invisible (deep and
profound love) becomes visible in the act of creation (the dead
woman’s face).
 “Femme à l’ombrelle
tournée vers la droite”
(Claude Monet, 1886)
“Paint what you really see, not what you think you ought to see; not the
object isolated as in a test tube, but the object enveloped in sunlight and
atmosphere, with the blue dome of Heaven reflected in the shadows.”
(Claude Monet)

The painter filters reality through his own consciousness,

enveloping the creation in subjectivity, in order to
emphasize his own artistic standpoint. This painting
presents a subject found in real life, in the middle of nature
and the focus is not put on the individual’s face, but on the
scenery as a whole. Nature witnesses and reflects the
woman’s inner turmoil and this is made visible by means
of the wind blowing, clouds moving and flowers
blossoming which suggest the idea of change and
uncertainty regarding the future.
The shadows which veil her face transmit a possible loss
of identity or the artist’s interest in revealing her inner
thoughts. On the opposite, the sunlight creates an
atmosphere of serenity and divine protection.
 “Psyché”
(Berthe Morisot, 1876)
“The paintings and sculptures are but mere reflection of the
inner spirit. How can we ever come close?” (Berthe Morisot)

The emotion of the inner universe is perceived on the girl’s

face, through the medium of a material device, the mirror,
and transmitted to the viewer as a double introspection in the
human soul.
The title is significant, because it points to the
psychological turmoil inside the human personality and to
the human hidden nature. The artist’s canvas transposes, to
the eyes of the receiver, the abyss of the human mind (the
unconsciousness) by “mere reflections of the inner spirit”.
Her rhetorical question is open to multiple perspectives,
having at its core the effort of the artist, in general, to render
an insight into the complexity of the human mind.
 POST-IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING

Post-impressionism appears as a reaction

against Impressionism and its artistic creed
has as its main core the desire to unveil the
unknown, to reach abstraction and to give
the artist the possibility of aspiring to inner
depth.
“Champs de blé aux corbeaux”
(Vincent van Gogh, 1890)
“In both figure and landscape … I want to get to the point
where people say of my work: that man feels deeply, that man
feels keenly.” (Vincent van Gogh)
Van Gogh’s ambition is to make the receiver feel that his works of art
are pieces of the author himself. The paintings are imbued with vivid
emotion that trespasses the canvas touching the viewer’s heart.
The symbolism of colour in Vincent van Gogh’s artistic creations is
fundamental. At this level, we may distinguish two main plans: that of
cold colours (dark blue, black and dark grey) and that of warm colours
(different yellow nuances). The former may suggest sadness, damnation,
desolation and eventually death. The latter may be associated with God
and divine light, while the three paths, going practically nowhere, imply
the uncertainty of life and the difficulty of making the right choice. The
crows connect the two worlds, symbolizing evil predictions, death
approaching.
 EXPRESSIONIST PAINTING

The expressionist current focuses on

language, as means of expressing emotion
at its deepest level. Moreover, the technique
adopted by the Expressionists consists of
aggressive colours and deformed shapes,
aiming at finding a consensus.
“Two nudes (Lovers)”
(Oskar Kokoschka, 1913)
“The life of the consciousness is boundless. It interpenetrates the
world and is woven in all its imagery... Therefore, we must
hearken closely to our inner voice.” (Oskar Kokoschka)

Kokoschka’s painting tries to reveal the unconscious drives of

a couple of lovers and we are presented with the return to the
primordial origins where the lovers seem to be engaged in a
process of achieving primal unity. Moreover, they can be
perceived as the Adam-Eve primordial couple, after being
banished from the Eden garden. They are overwhelmed with
remorse, fear and desire of redemption.
In as much as the colours are concerned, they appear
aggressive creating a veil around the pair, expressing deep
emotion at the level of the unconsciousness.
Taking everything into consideration, the advice of the artist
himself is always, when painting, to follow his inner voice,
namely to reflect a truth of his own personal thinking, his own
true self.
 MODERN STYLE

Modern style is a highly decorative

and aesthetic trend, making use of
various expressive materials.
“Lovers Embracing
About to Engage in a
Passionate Kiss ”
(Gustav Klimt, 1895)
“Whoever wants to know something about me – as an artist which alone is
significant – they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to
recognize what I am and what I want.” (Gustav Klimt)

The work of art is the most representative for an artist, as

he is exquisitely expressed through it. Its highly decorative
feature is represented by the use of the special frame with
roses which makes the painting even more original.
The love of the couple is shadowed by the dark sides of
the human soul which are embodied by the images behind
the two lovers, namely phantoms, skeletons, dead people,
revealing different stages of the woman’s inner spirit. On
the other hand, they may suggest the dangers that could
shade upon their affective relationship.
 CUBIST PAINTING

Cubism challenged perception by its choice of

monochromatic colours and dismantling form
emphasizing thus an intellectual rethinking of art.
Multiplication of angles of vision is by far the
innovation brought to the fore by the cubists,
presenting a multifaceted reality, praising a
geometrical form. Cubism may be the object of
many disapprovals, rendering the works highly
abstract and fragmented. In addition to this, the
cubist experimental tendency reveals itself once
more in the so-called technique of collage.
“Weeping Woman”
(Pablo Picasso, 1937)
“What I want is that my picture should evoke nothing but
emotion.” (Pablo Picasso)
As the quotation reveals, Picasso’s art is oriented towards
showing emotion, by a truly innovative technique
(geometrical shapes) which is meant to have a strong
impact upon the viewer, whose role is to provide a
meaning to the artistic representation.
“Weeping Woman”, the chosen painting, confirms the
cubist method and the intended multidimensional
perspective. Abstraction and fragmentariness are the main
striking devices whose main objective is to challenge our
perception. Regarding the emotional charge, the painting
consists of an overflow of feelings imprinted on the
woman’s face such as: despair, fear, compassion,
suffering. The strong colours enhance once again the
feeling of guilt and sacrifice (red), sadness (blue), sickness
or hope of redemption (green).
 FUTURIST PAINTING

Futurism, as opposed to cubism, brings

to the viewer’s eye dynamic images, by
drawing on the impressive strength of
perception and memory. Emotive
expression finds itself as primary in their
creative process.
“States of Mind I –
Those Who Leave”
(Umberto Boccioni,
1911)
“There is neither painting, nor sculpture, nor music,
nor poetry. The only truth is creation.” (Umberto
Boccioni)

The author states that, even though the artistic language

differs, they find unity in the act of creation, highlighting
one of the modernist predominant features, unity in
diversity.
As the title depicts, the creation wants to capture the
various states of the human mind, being it conscious or
unconscious. The turmoil at the level of the mind is
presented as an atmosphere of a general colour storm.
Colours melt into each other in the attempt to play upon the
viewer’s expectations and to capture different parts of the
mind. The vivid colours add dynamism to the painting,
expressing a feeling of anxiety and confusion.
 SURREALIST PAINTING

Surrealism exploits the fusion of dream and reality,

expressing high degree of psycho-pathology. Their
works reveal psychic automatism in its pure state, the
viewer being bestowed the opportunity to face a
spontaneous creation. The surrealist obsession with time
and duration discloses the opposition between
chronological and personal time.
“Remorse or Sphinx
Embedded in the
Sand”
(Salvador Dali, 1931)
“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it
considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” (Salvador Dali)

Surrealists are highly innovative, bringing a new vision

to the fore. Their aim is to reveal the essence and to leave
aside the constraints which limit our imagination.
The painting selected projects us in a world of dream
which is always hunted by the harsh reality, suggested by
the sharp rocks. The emotion which detaches from this
work of art is helplessness, impossibility to escape the
inner turmoil and, as the title suggests, remorse.
The reflection on the sand may refer to the unconscious
state and its unpredictability.
 HUMAN EMOTION IN
MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE
 GENERAL ASPECTS
Modernist architecture (Modern Style) combines the
functional and the aesthetic obtaining an overall harmony. In
addition to this, new techniques and materials are used due to
the technological innovation, acquiring an international style,
easy recognizable and intended to cross boundaries.
As far as the technique employed is concerned, it reveals
itself as decorative, using curvilinear designs.
Another feature consists in the combination of faith in
improvements of industrial society and rejection of stylistic
eclecticism. Modernist architecture is characterized by the
presence of exotic trends, the regional tradition not being
sacrificed.
The Art Deco movement further brings into attention the
desire to make art organic, using soft curves, angular shapes,
free fluid forms, thus developing a strict symmetrical style.
“Architecture can't fully represent the chaos and turmoil that are part of
the human personality, but you need to put some of that turmoil into the
architecture, or it isn't real.” (Frank Stella, an American painter and
printmaker, a significant figure in minimalism and post-painterly abstraction)

Being a human creation, the architectural achievement has

to be always a reflection of the human personality. The
human nature finds itself integrated in the spatial
surroundings, and it automatically animates the living space.
Further on, we will enlarge upon the works of Charles
Rennie Mackintosh and Louis Comfort Tiffany, trying to
enhance the cooperation between human feelings and
geometrical shapes in interior design. Comfort, serenity,
vividness are some of the sentiments distinguished when
seeing a Mackintosh or a Tiffany work of art.
Mackintosh White Wooden Chairs with furnished seat
 Mackintosh Chairs (ash wood chair with furnished seat,
cushion chair and wooden chair at Orsay Museum, France )
 Mackintosh Style Coffee Table in Canadian Hard Maple with
Mahogany inlaid squares and Mackintosh round table (1904) named
after The Glasgow School of Art. Circular revolving “Lady Susan”
centre section can be adjusted up to one inch in height, by means of a
hidden lever, ash wood stained black and ash wood stained walnut.
 Mackintosh Stained Glass Windows (I. Moonshine Leaded
Lights), Redhouse Farm, Whitley Bay, England.
 Mackintosh Stained Glass Windows (Rose and Stained
Glass Window from Hill House writing cabinet, Glasgow,
Scotland)
 Tiffany’s Lamps (Dragon Floor lamp, Library lamp, Water-lily
table lamp)
“A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much
as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.” (F. Lloyd
Wright)

Organic architecture developed as a response to

rationalism, praising emotiveness in the artistic process.
The architect should be an artist that should follow his/her
inner path and not give birth to a mere copy of every day
reality.
The Art Deco creators try to achieve a harmonious
synthesis of the work of art blending natural elements with
artificial materials (developed due to technological
innovations).
This feature is vividly embodied in the architectural
works of F. Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, whose main
concern was directed towards the exterior design.
 Villa "Le Lac" in Corseaux, Switzerland, called the "Petit Maison" by Le
Corbusier for his relatives in 1923 (a view from the garden towards the lake).
Cedar Rock House, in Kentuck Knob, near Pittsburgh
Rock House
 HUMAN EMOTION IN
MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY
“I prefer to photograph people and try to capture an emotion which can be
universally understood. Photography is the language I use to translate other
cultures.” (Tina Manley – photographer specialized in documentary
photography of families )

Photography is a modernist innovation par

excellence which, even though a still frame,
succeeds in capturing the genuine essence of the
human soul. It is endowed with an universally
understood language, expressing emotions felt by
each and every individual, irrespective of the
cultural identity.
Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand and Man Ray are
some of the most representative photography
artists and we will have an insight into their
emotive expression.
Equivalent (Alfred
Stieglitz, 1929)
Hands of Georgia
O’Keefe (Alfred
Stieglitz)
"I wanted to photograph clouds to find out what I had learned in forty years about
photography. Through clouds to put down my philosophy of life – to show that (the
success of) my photographs (was) not due to subject matter – not to special trees
or faces, or interiors, to special privileges – clouds were there for everyone…"
(Alfred Stieglitz, "How I came to Photograph Clouds". Amateur Photographer and
Photography)

Stieglitz is known by his passion for capturing the

impossible by photographing clouds which reveal the
calmness or chaos of the human sensations. His secret lies
in the fact that he acquires during his experience in
photography a philosophy of life, meaning seeing in
simple and taken for granted things something worth to be
transposed in an artistic manner.
The two previous photos reveal different aspects of the
human inner flow of emotions, namely the darken clouds
that predict a terrible storm may testify eternal unrest and
the lead burdens of life, while the contorted hands express
anger, suffering, despair or incapacity to change destiny.
Blind Woman (Paul
Strand, 1917)
 Silver Lining of the Blackout, Portsmouth (Paul
Strand)
“I like to photograph people who have strength and dignity in
their faces; whatever life has done to them, it hasn't destroyed
them. I gravitate towards people like that.” - Paul Strand

As subjects of his artistic creation, Paul Strand decides to

probe deep into the nature of things and of the individual,
sustaining strongly his interest in seizing all stages of the
human condition.
The “Blind Woman” photography, with its protagonist
who, in spite of her poor condition and of her disability,
succeeds in transmitting on the viewer human dignity and
the power to overcome the difficulties of life, provoking a
deep impression and a strong feeling of compassion.
Whereas, in the other picture, the artist exploits the light
effects, capturing the essence of a moonlight landscape.
Melancholy embraces the art lover in his/her pursuit for a
deeper meaning.
Prayer (Man
Ray, 1930)
 Jacqueline
Goddard (Man
Ray, 1930)
 “I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the
imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the
things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an
existence.” (Man Ray, Interview in Camera - Paris; reprinted in "Man
Ray: Photographer", ed. by Philippe Sers, 1981).

This quotation emphasizes the main difference which could be

outlined between photography and painting. The former is endowed
with life and it is spontaneous and intense, while the latter has, as its
main source of inspiration, the complex human inner world.
Nonetheless, they are both striving to reveal genuine human emotions,
despite the language selected.
The artist surprises a moment of deep emotion: when driven by the
inner desire of praying, the individual returns to the primordial state of
being, engaged in a completely humble and submissive behaviour.
Nudity may suggest the nakedness of the body, as well as the bareness
of the soul in front of Divinity. In addition to this, the body of the
woman may lead to the idea of primordial force, of source of life,
giving the impression of a foetus in a womb.
 Achieved by means of a special technique, the technique of photograms,
the photo reveals a woman’s silhouette. The woman appears to be
deprived of identity, as the features of her entire body are not clearly
distinguished by an external instance. The picture resembles a foggy
night, where the moon is embodied by the woman who may offer a
glimpse into the maze of the human mind, into the unconsciousness.
Unexpectedly, the obscurity and confusion diffused by the picture give
the impression of transparency of the human mind and, at the same time,
they ease the viewer’s attempt to probe deep into the unknown of the
human universe.
As an overall view, the modernist photography succeeded in rendering
as fairly as possible, feelings and emotions that were transmitted until
then, only by means of painting: joy, suffering, anger, fear, as well as
melancholy or despair. Both of them have been exploited widely, so as to
render possible the impossible, to reveal the unseen from the seen and to
capture the human complexity. The renewal regarding photography
consists in the fact that it has the capacity to surprise unique moments of
our lives and another aspect, which is worth mentioning, is the fact that,
even though it is a motionless frame, it still preserves the vivacity of the
initial moment.
HUMAN EMOTION IN
MODERNIST MUSIC
 “Jazz is the vernacular of the
human soul.” (Geoffrey Latham, an
American writer, photographer and musician)

Art uses different types of languages in

order to express its artistic creed. In as
much as music is concerned, its language
is the genuine vernacular of the human
soul, as emotion is woven deep in its
structure, both in its rhythm and vibration.
The musician transposes into words and
sound his/her own heart beats echoing in
the listener’s ears and heart.
 GENERAL OUTLOOK

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form, which

originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African
American communities in the Southern United States from a
confluence of African and European music traditions. The
style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue
notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the
swung note.

As with many words that began in slang, there is no definitive

etymology for jazz. However, the similarity in meaning of the earliest jazz
citations to jasm, a now-obsolete slang term meaning spirit, energy,
vigour and dated to 1860 in the Historical Dictionary of American Slang,
suggests that jasm should be considered the leading candidate for the
source of jazz. Other proposed origins include French jaser, meaning to
chatter or chat, and French chasser, meaning to chase or hunt. Although
they cannot be ruled out absolutely, such derivations lack empirical
supporting evidence and must be considered provisional.
 Early blues was commonly structured around a repetitive
call-and-response pattern, a common element in the African
American oral tradition. A form of folk music which rose in
part from work songs and field hollers of rural Blacks, early
blues was also highly improvisational. While in European
classical music elements of interpretation, ornamentation and
accompaniment are sometimes left to the performer's
discretion, the performer's primary goal is to play a
composition as it was written.
As the music has spread around the world, it has drawn on
local national and regional musical cultures, its aesthetics
being adapted to its varied environments and giving rise to
many distinctive styles.
 MAIN JAZZ STYLES

In New Orleans and Dixieland jazz, performers took turns

playing the melody, while others improvised
countermelodies. Some of the representative figures of this
jazz trend were W. C. Handy and Louis Armstrong. By the
swing era, big bands were coming to rely more on arranged
music: arrangements were either written or learned by ear
and memorized - many early jazz performers could not read
music. Individual soloists would improvise within these
arrangements. Although it was a collective sound, swing also
offered individual musicians a chance to 'solo' and improvise
melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very
complex and 'important' music. Here the most striking
figures were Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.
 Later, in bebop, the focus shifted back towards small
groups and minimal arrangements; the melody (known as the
"head") would be stated briefly at the start and end of a piece,
but the core of the performance would be the series of
improvisations in the middle. Some of the representatives
were Thelonious Monk (pianist) and Lester Young. Later
styles of jazz, such as modal jazz abandoned the strict notion
of a chord progression, allowing the individual musicians to
improvise even more freely within the context of a given
scale or mode. John Coltrane was one of the innovators in the
domain. The avant-garde and free jazz idioms permit, even
call for, abandoning chords, scales, and rhythmic meters.
Keith Jarrett has been prominent in defending free jazz from
criticism by traditionalists in the 1990s and 2000s. In the
early 1980s, a lighter commercial form of jazz fusion called
pop fusion or "smooth jazz" became successful and garnered
significant radio airplay. Smooth jazz saxophonists include
Grover Washington, Jr., Kenny G, Najee and Michael
Lington.
“Jazz is a feeling, more than anything else.
It isn't music, it’s language...” (Enos
Payne, an American pianist and educator)

The cradle of jazz music is located deep

inside the musician, where it ceases to
be just music and it becomes the
language of the soul, transmitting to the
listener the inner feelings of the
producer. Emotion is once more present
in the act of creation, as well as in the
act of interpretation. Taking everything
into consideration, we may therefore say
that jazz is timeless, as it is the language
of the soul.
HUMAN EMOTION IN
MODERNIST DANCE
"A shot can show you only one gesture, which is like hearing only one
note of a piece of music, or one word of a poem. The more painstaking
the photograph, the more pointless the effect. You don't see the change
in the movement, so you don't see the rhythm, which makes dancing.
The picture represents a dancer, but it doesn't give the emotion that
dancing gives you as you watch it."- Anonymous

As well as photography and painting, dance tries to express

feelings, states of mind or even glimpses of an inner force.
Painters, such as Degas with “The Dance Hall” or Renoir
with “Dancing Pair”, attempt and succeed in seizing
movements of the body which expressed intensely woven
sensations and memorable feelings. Their interest in
movement is brought to the fore, because the dance
transforms itself into a form of expressing feelings and
emotions. Therefore, if the painting succeeds in capturing
one defining moment to transpose a feeling, the dance by
means of its vivacity, rhythm and succession of movements
is characteristic to a myriad of sensations and emotions
developed during an entire dance.
The Dance Hall (Edgar Degas) and Dancing Pair (Pierre Auguste
Renoir)
“I use dancing to embellish, extend or enlarge upon an existing emotion.”
(Gower Champion, an American Theatre Director, choreographer and
dancer)

Ballet is a type of performative dance, which was first encountered

at the French courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
developing later on in England, Italy and Russia. Its name has the
origins in Italian “balletto”, a diminutive of “ballo” which means
“dance”. It is best known in the form of Late Romantic Ballet Blanc, a
ballet in the romantic style and often considered the pure classical
form of ballet. This name refers to the scenes in which the ballerina
and the female corps of ballet all wear white, the traditional mid-calf
length white tutu. “Les Sylphides” is an act romantic reverie, non-
narrative ballet blanc, whose main character, the poet, dances with
ghostly sylphs (nymphs, fairies) in a forest. Mikhail Fokine is the
driving force behind the project, which evolve from a single number,
Moonlight Vision, in 1907, growing to a larger work called Danse sur
la musique de Chopin the following year, and finally expanding in
1909 to Chopiniana, the completed ballet's initial title.
It is one of the first plotless ballets ever presented in Europe and it
was a great success. Fokine uses a number of celebrated orchestrators
in fashioning Les Sylphides, including Taneyev, Lyadov, Glazunov,
Tcherepnin and Stravinsky.
“Ballet is not technique but a way of expression that comes more
closely to the inner language of man than any other.” (“That Thing
Called Ballet”, George Borodin, a Russian writer)

Dance is certainly a form of art that completes

its nature by communicating non-verbally
different spiritual states, beyond the potential
constraints imposed by any technique adopted.
Dance reveals an “inner language” brought to life
by means of motion and soft gestures arouse from
the human inner world, be it joy, anger, passion or
freedom. A true dancer will always create, by
means of his dance, a strong impression on the
viewer, due to the fact that he/she transmits, by the
‘technique’ employed, inner states. In addition to
this, the dancer is engaged in a permanent
exchange of emotions with the audience.
 OVERALL CONCLUSION

To conclude, our virtual tour through significant

artistic branches aimed at revealing both
modernist renewals and emotive expressions of
the art creator. We all know that the modernist
artistic creation praised the bond between the art
producer and the art receiver to assign new
meanings to the work of art. Therefore, we
warmly invite you to craft your own meaning (s).