Noucentisme

Architectural movement

Noucentisme (, noucentista being its adjective) was a Catalan cultural movement of the early 20th century that originated largely as a reaction against Modernisme, both in art and ideology, and was, simultaneously, a perception of art almost opposite to that of avantgardists. In 1906, Eugeni d'Ors coined the term following the Italian tradition of naming styles after the centuries (for example, Quattrocento, Cinquecento, etc.) and using the homonyms nou (nine) and nou (new) to suggest it was a renovation movement. The same year two essential works for Noucentisme were published: Els fruits saborosos by Josep Carner and "La nacionalitat catalana" by the Conservative politician Enric Prat de la Riba.

Despite certain similarities between the movements, it opposed Modernisme, the previous movement, and the radical and individualist views and Bohemian lifestyle most of its proponents engaged in. Noucentisme glorified order and what they saw as the spirit of the 20th century and an idealist expectancy of change. The novel was largely excluded in favour of poetry, which was more useful to convey the spirit of the style. The style as a whole shows a predilection for a Classicist approach, Europeanism, Modernism and a struggle to perfect the literary style of language. Artists and politicians were close collaborators. Its main defining features in poetry are a return to Apollonian classicism, a very refined and accurate language, objectivity and rejection of abrupt feelings and a particular interest in nature. Its stylistical origins in the tradition started by Josep Torras i Bages, the Escola Mallorquina ("Majorcan School") led by the Conservative Joan Alcover and the priest Miquel Costa i Llobera, the French Parnassian poetry and the Symbolists are obvious in most of the works produced in the period that spans from 1906 to approximately 1923. The Vienna Secession was a key influence to their ideal of beauty in architecture. The architect Rafael Masó i Valentí (1880 1935), works mainly in Girona and its regions, is one of the clearest promoters of nineteenth century architecture. The architects of the first period, as Josep Maria Pericas mix and nineteenth century modernist elements, especially in civil engineering. Its most prominent adherent, Josep Carner, known by his epithet of "prince of the Catalan poets" and produced very elaborate, ornate poetry, reminiscent of the Baroque and still admired for his beautiful style and refined language. In the following decades, though, the name of the movement has acquired a negative connotation of an excessively affected and artificial literature, just the opposite of Moderniste Joan Maragall's Romantic theory of "the living word", that is, spontaneity in creation. Painters and sculptors of the Noucentista period are Joaquim Sunyer, Joaquín Torres García and Manolo Hugué (who was a close friend of Picasso).