Fault lines caused by an ancient earthquake

Faultlines in 20th century art

• Straightness vs curvilinearness
  • Straight lines and geometric designs: art deco, International Style, De Stijl, minimalism, cubism
  • Curvilinearity: Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Surrealism
• Wit vs seriousness
  • Wit: Dada, Surrealism, Pop art, Postmodernism
  • Serious: High Modernism (literature, architecture, arts)
• Cult of beauty vs the cult of ugliness (or sexuality vs asexuality)
  • Beauty: Art Nouveau, Symbolism
  • Ugliness: High Modernism, Pablo Picasso, Samuel Beckett, Abstract Expressionism

The classification above is indebted to Sex in History by Gordon Rattray Taylor (see Matrism and Patrism) and the work of Camille Paglia, especially Sexual Personae. Both theorists classify along Apollonian and Dionysian axes.