This sixth installment of the collection offers a clear and pragmatic approach to the great historical events, the different artistic movements and the main characters that marked the twentieth century and the beginnings of the 21st century.
To give substance to these intentions, the construction of the book is organized around three clearly defined periods:
* the Belle Epoque (before 1914), * the Entre-deux-guerre, * and the after 1945.
Within each of these periods, the global historical context is discussed, then the various plastic or literary movements and finally the great musical currents (learned music, jazz and popular music) that crossed it. Thus, in the movement of architectural trends or decorative arts (Art Nouveau, Art Deco, "international" style ...), the main plastic movements are contextualised:
- Post-Impressionism, - Symbolism, - Nabism, - Fauvism, - Cubism, - Expressionism, - Futurism, - Dadaism, - Surrealism, - Abstraction ...
The abundant illustrations punctuating the 240 pages bring the indispensable complement which contributes to the good understanding of the extraordinary creative abundance in an environment as much marked by the explosion of technical progress as by the levels of barbarism and cruelty never before reached by Man in the course of his history ... Complementarily to this presentation, Jean Pierre Caens throws several bridges (entitled Matches) between the fields of arts and music or literature to properly situate the various artistic productions in their social environment economic or political.
Some examples of these "matchmaking": Petrouchka * (Stravinsky) and Violin and Grapes (Picasso) 9th Symphony * (Malher) and the work of Gustave Klimt Five Pieces for Piano * (Schoenberg) and Abstraction (Kandinsky) Parade * (Erik Satie) and Dadaism (Marcel Duchamp) 4'33 "(John Cage) and minimalism" plastic "Ornithology * (Charlie Parker) and the beat generation (Jack Kerouac) Rock around the clock * (Bill Haley) and pop art (Andy Warhol) rap, slam * (hip hop) and street arts (tag, graffiti) ...
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