A simplistic answer to this question is that it was triggered by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria-Hungary and the following July Crisis. The crisis followed a series of diplomatic clashes between Italy, France, Britain, Austria-Hungary and Russia regarding Europe and the colonies reaching back to the 1860's. Tensions between the power bases were high and war was predicted to be inevitable.
As a consequence of the devastation, sociologically, globally, and individually, art and artists, as many professions and individuals, were forced to re-evaluate their place in the world, the meaning of society, their safety in the world, as well as their direct response to the war, including pacifist and proactive responses. Conflict between communities, including artists seemed to reflect the number of factions and "isms" that evolved. Instead of one tradition or evolution of art style or fashion following another in a more linear way, factions and approaches to artistic response to the world seemed to proliferate. it reflects the fragmenting of society and the individual psyche. It must have been like a massive earth quake, rupturing communities and ways of living as well as the perceived safety of ones self, family and future. Internal fragmenting is a normal response to trauma and this is unsurprisingly reflected in the art community and in the way art was then made. The many "isms" resulting from people and groups trying to find their place in the world that seemed to be shattering around them. Trying to re-establish the safety of a group and a new way to express the newness of the war experience may have played it's part in this blossoming or fragmenting (or both) of the wider art community. There were many paintings and drawing produced with a direct focus on war by war artists and artists representing the scenes of war. For example:
Paul Nash "The Menin Road" 1919
Artists also depicted the effects of war on communities, the aftermaths of battle and the lives of people "at home" living through these changes.
Artists also responded with art that seemed to represent the struggle to hold on to familiar images. Cubism was perhaps a natural response to the changes in socity and the desire for something new despite the war. I can't help but see the fragmentation of images so familiar and held affectionately as at least one reflection of the impact of war. During a group discussion we shared our individual research and ideas about various paintings, sculpture and concepts relating to the period of the great war. I was fascinated by the following image by Pablo Picasso, a master of cubism:
The painting has a distinct duality for me of beauty made ugly by the dislocation of the rounded image of a woman and a mandolin into flat angular planes. The grey and darker colours in the background feel like oppression closing in whilst trying to retain the beauty of music making. It is still a beautiful image but your eye has to fight to create the mental adjustment to recreate the beauty. A metaphor for dealing with war and it's consequences perhaps.
The following link is a summary of 10 of the art movements that evolved during and just before the first world war when those sensitive to the changes that probably contributed to the outburst of world war were grappling in their communities and psyches to express what they were sensing in their worlds.
https://www.britannica.com/list/10-modernist-art-movements
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