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Modern Art
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The 20th Century
Early 20th century architecture turned to a functional direction, serving buildings' inhabitants. Less ornaments, more symmetry and a simpler style - all of which characterised the international style, the "Bauhaus" - a movement originating in Germany, that argued "a design serving its purpose is by nature fine and charming". This style was enthusiastically accepted in the modern world. One can find much resemblance to the phenomenon of composers of the so-called "functional music" (in German: Gebrauchsmusik) (like Hindemith and Kurt Weill) who wanted music whose purpose is to serve the masses, and get closer to them and their daily lives.
In the field of painting and visual art in general, one can see throughout the entire century, in all of its styles and trends, a tendency to disqualify traditional painting and conventions, bonding the artist, and to focus on "form" rather than on "subject". Different directions and trends were formed during the 20th century, with greater freedom of creation than ever, and avant-garde becomes accepted and even mainstream. Exploration and discovery of new ways of creation, bring richness in artistic style on the one hand, and on the other hand, alienates the masses from modern art. That is because of their difficulty to understand and enjoy it.
In music, too, conventions widely accepted till the late romanticism, were abandoned. Tonality, harmony and other past concepts were replaced by new diverse ways of artistic expression. Modern music is hard to listen to and orchestras are required, by the audience, to perform the classical repertory on a regular basis; many of them oppose 20th century music as a whole. Styles such as the "twelve-tone" system (dodecaphonic) and serialism are considered difficult for listening. Other styles introduce electronic and electro-acoustic means. Several artists operate within minimalist or "primitive" patterns. Jazz was embraced by some modern composers; film music is a channel of making a living for many composers. Only a few of the composers of art music truly attempted approaching their audience and created "applied" music that would be interesting for the common person. Like many kinds of artists, most modern composers entrenched themselves into making "art for the sake of art", paying a heavy price in audience's willingness to listen to their work.

Important Genres in Modern Art
Cubism * Abstract * Surrealism * Pop Art
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