Modern Art Climax: The formal climax to these decades of rapid ndustrialization was the Great Exhibition of the Vorks of Industry of All Nations, opened in 1851 >y Queen Victoria at the Crystal Palace, Joseph 'axton's new marvel of glass and steel in Lon-lon. Visitors came from all over the world to ;aze at the wonders of modern art climax manufacture. At-endance totaled six million. The exhibition sig-laled not only a new prosperity and stability, iut a new mood of Victorian self-confidence, 'he pioneer of the Industrial Revolution had suc-eeded-had avoided civil upheaval and was ready 3 show the world how to combine great material .'ealth with advances in religious toleration, hu-lane legislation, and free institutions. When the ged Duke of Wellington died the next year, it eemed that a previous age had come to its end.
Clippers.-In the merchant marines of the world, it was quite a different story. It is an anomalous fact that sailing vessels reached their spectacular climax in the course of the 30 years after steam spanned the Atlantic in 1838. The clipper ships, first the American and then the British, set up speed records that far surpassed any earlier achievement. The Flying Cloud, the Cutty Sark, and the other "greyhounds of the sea" that made those records are still more widely remembered than any other merchantmen, although the packets rendered more useful and long-lasting service. The term "clipper," unlike "packet," did not denote a vessel with a special function, but simply one that was fast and, to use the modern art climax word, streamlined. All the so-called clippers had speed and fine lines in common, but little else.
However, synthetic cubism did not reach its climax in collages with their scraps of real life stuck together, but in Picasso's use of paint and brush, in the way he would put together a number of coloured areas like pieces of paper which had been cutout.
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Photography
