Challenging the Status Quo- Pablo Picasso, Jazz, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ernest Hemingway

After WWI a lot of things changed. Overall, society was in a ‘challenge the status quo’ mind set. Movies and sports became popular because of new philosophies brought back from the war, which said that there was no purpose in life than to live.

Still Life with a Bottle of Rum
Cubist artwork from Pablo Picasso

          In Art a new style called Cubism came out. It was a style of art that wasn’t pretty, something expected of art before WWI, which fits with the previously mentioned ‘challenge the status quo’ ideals. The artists who founded this movement were Pablo Picasso and George Braque who took images and broke them into pieces, rearranging them into an abstract work.

In music Jazz became a popular style. Before WWI music was supposed to be composed and then performed back exactly as the composer had written it.  Jazz was basically the exact opposite, you came up with it on the spot, and it was never exactly the same. Jazz tended to be fast paced and a lot more fun, which makes sense if you believe there is no meaning to life.

Falling Water- a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

In architecture Frank Lloyd Wright pioneered the idea of natural architecture. He challenged the status quo with his buildings that mimicked and incorporated nature in their design. He had been refining his style long before WWI but his architecture would not have been popular had it not been for WWI.

Ernest Hemingway in Milian (1918)

In literature before WWI writing had been romantic and flowery. After WWI writers such as Ernest Hemingway had begun to shine with their realistic writing that portrayed the horrors of the world.