Cultural Apotheosis and Anxiety

The period's cultural production reached fever pitch, as if artists sensed time running out. The Ballets Russes continued shocking and delighting with "The Rite of Spring" in 1913, its primitive rhythms and angular choreography causing riots. Picasso and Braque pushed Cubism toward complete abstraction. Proust retreated to his cork-lined room, racing to capture lost time before time itself was lost.

The Armory Show of 1913, though held in New York, featured numerous French artists and demonstrated Paris's continued cultural dominance. Yet younger artists already rebelled against even recent innovations. The Futurists declared war on the past, including the recent past. Their manifestos calling for destruction of museums and libraries now seem prophetic of the actual destruction approaching.

Women artists achieved new prominence even as time ran out. Marie Laurencin exhibited with the Cubists while maintaining her distinctive style. Suzanne Valadon showed at the Salon d'Automne to critical acclaim. The sculptor Camille Claudel, despite her deteriorating mental health, created her most powerful works. These achievements would be overshadowed by war but planted seeds for postwar recognition.

The cinema evolved from novelty to art form. Pathé and Gaumont dominated world film production from their Paris studios. Serials like "Fantômas" and "Les Vampires" created new narrative forms while reflecting social anxieties about crime and disorder. Max Linder's comedies influenced Charlie Chaplin. The actress Musidora became the first international film star, her image spreading globally just as global civilization prepared to tear itself apart.