February 02, 2022

Modernism Around The World

44 minutes

Murals which aimed to synthesise the history and culture of Mexico, Japanese novels exploring urban alienation, an exhibition of Bauhaus paintings from Germany which inspired a generation of Indian artists.

Presenter Rana Mitter is joined by Jade Munslow Ong, Christopher Harding, Maria Blanco, and Devika Singh.

Amongst the Modernist writers and artists mentioned are:

Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro

Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and poet Manuel Maples Arce

Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral

Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, and painter Wifredo Lam

Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges

Indian writer and artist Rabindranath Tagore, and artist Amrita Sher-Gil

South African writers Olive Schreiner, Roy Campbell, Solomon Plaatje, Rolfes Dhlomo

Japanese theorist Okakura Kakuzō, and writers Edogawa Ranpo, and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Image: the Indian polymath and modernist Rabindranath Tagore

Image credit: Keystone France/Getty Images

Part of the Modernism season running across BBC Radio 3 and 4 with programmes marking the publication in 1922 of Ulysses by James Joyce, a reading of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, a Words and Music playlist of readings from key works published in 1922 and a Sunday Feature on Radio 3 looking at the "all in a day" artwork.

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