Eurocentric Art and Culture in the close of the Nineteenth Century

Evolving from realism, in which verisimilitude or a near photographic reproduction of a subject was made, the modernist movement towards the end of the nineteenth century had as its goal pure creativity to the ultimate degree possible for each individual artist. Easy communication with the audience, reader and viewer in familiar language, form and content was no longer the objective. It was a break from literalness as evidenced in the poetry of Stephen Mallarme and Paul Verlaine. Similarly, painting was freed from the necessity to be graphic and depicted the first impression made by a scene or an object upon the eye. It was known as impressionist painting, and the works of Monet, Manet, and Renoir are its outstanding example. Imitating art and poetry, music composers departed from “major-minor” system and juxtaposed widely separated chords, like Claude Debussy of France.



This revolutionary shift in various art forms had its reflection in popular culture, subsequently to be known as mass culture. With literacy rates rising after 1870 and increased leisure time due to social legislation, the urban and lower middle classes in Europe began to play an important role in the cultural life of their country as a mass audience. Printing had become a less expensive process giving rise to the so called cheap and affordable “penny press” and “dime novels”. They were neither serious nor had literary merits, but were immensely popular due to their mass availability. The moving picture or the movies were introduced around 1890s and revolutionized the concept of entertainment. These movie theatres catered to people who would not have gone to an opera, a symphony concert or an art gallery. Big time sports made their appearance at this time in Europe and the United States. Most of these sporting events were old, but were the pursuits of upper classes till then. The six day work week provided the worker with a day off so as to participate in such sports or see others to play.