City Life Project

            Progress, an interesting concept. The idea that we should always be moving forward is that of intelligence. Many people acquire a highly misconstrued view of what is actually taking a step in the right direction. During the early 1900’s the question of “Is this progress?” was being asked by everyone but the top of the social pyramid. Both good and bad came out of this era in history but mainly what people were given was a higher appreciation for nature and the natural world around them. The ends justify the means here, however, the abhorrent urban living standard, the growth of architecture, the art nouveau movement and the rise of photography as an art all lead to the people wanting more of the natural world in their daily lives.

            Simple putridity was the standard in which most people lived in during the early nineteen hundreds. Their homes so crowded sometimes, with multiple families to one room. It is impossible for the people of modern America to grasp this concept, being that most children have their own room sometimes even their own bathroom. Being wealthy could help one escape most of the cities problems but unfortunately it could not aid you in escaping the towering steel buildings, the smog in the air from pollution or even the stench of rotten feces on the street. Apart from the wealthy, the poor and lower middle class had more pressing matter to worry about. Sickness plagued many of the people in the city. Because of the forced close living space, often times if one member of the family got sick the whole family and other tenets sharing their home would contract the disease as well. Around thirty million people at this time period lived in cities, or thirty percent of the population, and about one in three people were close to starvation. People weren’t being payed well enough to afford food, let alone medicine. Most of these issues were caused by the overcrowding problem, too many people trying to get too little. The crowding problem could be attributed mainly to the structure of most cities. The idea of using steel girders was being popularized and cities began to grown up instead of growing out. This allowed for massive apartment complexes to for and even skyscrapers. These tall skinny buildings squeezed people together, proliferating all kinds of filth and disease and discontent. Architect Louis Sullivan was most known for his work in building skyscrapers and he began to build on the people discontent by trying to achieve a higher exposure to the natural word through features such as large windows for more light and less geometric shapes. His pupil, Frank Lloyd Wright, built even more on his idea.

            Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the worlds most know architects. Frank Lloyd Wright built a bride in to the modern world as we know it through his architecture. He had this fantastic idea of making things more modern but at the same time more natural and simplistic. He used low pitched roofs to reflect the parries flat land, he used stained glass to not only allow the light in but to color it in a meaningful way. He most people know his style as being very horizontally based, and in this way he showcases the things that are not simply horizontal lines. He had stone vases the would be basically just lines but then the plants would grown out of them. This is to make your eye focused on not just the stone, but the plant. He wanted people to get a spiritual appreciation of architecture and nature.  He saw no point in having the modern world completely separate from the natural world so he combined them together in a way most soothing to the eye. He stated at a time “Using this word Nature…I do not of course mean that outward aspect which strikes the eye as a visual image of a scene strikes the ground glass of a camera but that inner harmony which penetrates the outward form...”. This quote is very fascinating in how He feels about nature. He spells Nature with a capital N, treating it as some higher being to be respected rather than mowed over. In a Time when building were sheer lines and cold grey steel, This architect gave them curving arches, mosaics, stained glass, and plant like carvings. People were striving for this. They were living without the natural world and they wanted what they couldn’t have. Frank Lloyd Wright helped to show them just how elegant the natural world can be. He was also one of the bigger names in the Art Nouveau movement which was highly popularized during this time.

            Art Nouveau showed up for about a fifteen year period in American and made a huge impact on the status quo of art in that short amount of time. As previously mentioned, people needed to escape from their mechanical world. And often times people show their emotions and beliefs through their artwork. This artwork targeted the organic motif. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, these artists began to add flowers and vines to their sculptures and paintings and such. This was a way to add a little bit of natural life into the life’s of the people forced to live without it. People wanted to escape the idea of modernism in art and William Morris did that. Morris was a key member of this movement and fought against Victorian design. The artists of this time got back to the basics. The threw out the idea that sculpture and painting were the only true forms of art. The people wanted changed so they changed everything. Seeing the world through these artists’ eyes gave the common people of the time period a higher appreciation for what is organic to the world. The artists drew the vines and people together with such respect that its obvious how they felt towards the subject. Another form of art that was being made popular during this time period was that of photography.

            Photography has always been a fascinating subject to human beings. The idea that one can take a picture of exactly how something appears in just that moment of time is astounding. When Kodak released a camera in 1888 that was available to the upper middle class, the genre took off. People took pictures of everything and it wasn’t until later that it became respected as an art form. Considering Kodak’s logo “Just press the button and we’ll do the rest” I see why. Photography became understood to be more about the subject matter and making a point rather than showing actual skill. Ansel Adams became a big name in photography. He was an environmentalist at this time, wanting to remind people of the organic world that they had forgotten. His pictures are all of natural settings never with any humans. The black and white simplicity of the photographs made the contrast in his photos pop out to the viewer’s eye and make them want to look at it. He did a great job at educating people in this matter. He is often criticized for showing a doctored world to the public. The world isn’t as natural as it seems but he did what he felt was needed to be done.
            Through all of these forms of art people have grown to a higher level of understanding and care for nature and have come to realize that the modernism can include organic material rather than just that of machinery. The unhappiness that these cities bred set the ball in motion for actual progress. after all, progress cannot begin until there is discontent. People have a nasty way of wanting what they cant have, and i feel as though this is a great example of this. For example the Art Nouveau movement was overtaken by the Art Deco movement which involved lots of geometric shapes and illustrated ideas such a cubism. However seemingly "modern" this new art form was one can still see how the concept of how important nature is to human life stuck with it. Where the style changed much of the subject matter remain to be about natural life. 

Sources:
Art Nouveau History - I used this Source for an overview of the Art Nouveau movement and what the key ideas of it were.
Art Nouveau - Very brief look into the art Nouveau movement. i used this to acquire further questions about the movement.
Louis Sullivan - Used this source for a look into Sullivan's life. this source gave me some key points about the man to further research such as his modernism and key role in the art Nouveau movement in architecture.
Artlex - This source provided me with a description of Art Nouveau and what its roots were. This was especially helpful because it provided pictures after its descriptions.
Khan academy, Photography - I used this source for an overview of the development of photography. this also gave me a good incite into how people viewed it as a lesser art form because of its ease of use and how it later developed into being a more respected form of art.
Sierra club, Ansel Adamas - This source gave a great description of how this photographer played a part in the rise of photography. It also discussed the validity of the meanings behind his photos.
Loc. Urban Live - This source was very helpful in giving me numbers that i could use to help prove my points about life in the cities during this time period.
Frank Lloyd Wright bio - This entire website was immensely helpful in giving me information about the architects life growing up, his architecture, and his personal philosophies about nature. I i acquired a fantastic quote about nature from here.
Frank Lloyd Wright: A Gatefold Portfolio- This book has flip out pages of Frank Lloyd Wrights buildings and his plans for said building. it provides descriptions about how each house is significant and different. I used this book while beginning my research to get a good start on learning about his personal style.
Frank Lloyd Wright Inside and Out - This book, like his portfolio, also provided pictures along with descriptions. This one, however, went much more in-depth with the symbolism and beliefs behind the specific features of his homes.
American History - Alan Brinkley - This textbook allowed me to achieve a nice starting point for my research. It also gave me a lovely  description of th problems of Urban life and the development of people trying to make nature a priority.

Ansel Adam's black and white photograph of a valley and mountain

An art nouveau door, showing the movements adherence to nature ideals

vase incased in vines and flowers to show the art nouveau's dedication to natural ideals

Crowded city life in the early 1900s