New against the old. Modern instead of Modernism. Noucentisme, the cultural and political movement of the early 20th century (1906-1923) was born with the aim to overcome the Catalan art scene that had dominated until then. According to the principles defined by Eugeni d’Ors, it had to recover the roots of the classical world and create a new language and iconographic universe.

The essay and poetry were the main literary genres of Catalan Noucentisme, and names such as Josep Carner, Enric Prat de la Riba and Pompeu Fabra mark the beginnings of the movement.

If the Noucentisme broke with modernism, the Avant-gardes broke with the Noucentisme. It arose in Europe between the first and second world wars as a reaction against the power and the aesthetic tastes of the bourgeoisie. It included artistic movements such as Cubism, which reinterpreted space and used geometric shapes; Futurism, which challenged classical beauty; Dadaism, characterised by negation and confusion; and Surrealism, which focused on the absence of reason in the creation.

In Catalonia the leading names of the avant-garde literary movement were poets such asJoan Salvat-Papasseit, Carles Sindreu, Joan Josep M. Junoy and J.V. Foix.