Industrialism + Art by Grace & Randa

Industrialism & Art

Industrialism & Art An exhibition on artist's reactions to industrialism before and after WWI. Curated by Grace Herndon

Table of Contents Curated Images

Catalogue Entry

Overview Essay

Bibliography

Curated Images

Raoul Hausmann. Mechanischer Kopf (Der Geist unserer Zeit) (Mechanical Head [The Spirit of Our Age]), 1920. Assemblage. 04

Hannah Höch. Das schöne Mädchen (The Beautiful Girl), 1889–1978, 1919–1920. Photomontage and collage, 13 3/4 x 11 7/16 in (35x29 cm). 05

Umberto Boccioni. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913. Bronze (cast 1931), 43 7/8 x 34 7/8 x 15 3/4â&#x20AC;? (111.2x88.5x40cm). 06

Karl Volker. Concrete, 1924.

Carl Grossberg. The Paper Machine (Die Papiermaschine), 1934. Oil on wood 35 7/16 Ă&#x2014; 45 11/16 in 07

Marcel Breuer. “Wassily” Armchair, 1925. Chrome-plated steel, canvas upholstery 30 1/4 × 30 1/4 × 26 3/4 in. (76.8×76.8×67.9cm). 08

Vladimir Tatlin. Monument to the Third International, 1920.

El Lissitzky. Prounenraum (Proun Room) 1923 (reconstruction 1971). Painted wood 320 x 364 x 364 cm. 09

Catalogue Entry In 1902 art theorist Hermann Muthesius described the rise of a “machine aesthetic” in art, or “objectivity”, as a way to use art to promote an understanding of the modern world. Later, the term objectivity would be recontextualized by art historian Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub as a style that almost appears machine made, with an element of precision and sharpness. Even further, objectivity was used by Adolf Behne to describe artworks that were perceived as being about the relationship between man and machine.¹ In Carl Grossberg’s The Paper Machine the spirit of German New Objectivity is embodied in both the way that he 10

creates and presents his image. Part of a larger series in which Grossberg set out to depict twenty-five of Germany’s most important industries, it is obvious that was he was reacting to many of the new mechanisms and technologies put into place to support modern life. The machine became his muse.

The Paper Machine portrays a paper machine. Sheets of paper wrap around a large metal wheel while conveyor belts, bolts and buckets of paint are frozen in time, possessing an idyllic sheen. This machinery is all located in a well lit and immaculate production room that continues off into the distance.

Grossberg’s crisp and almost hyperreal imagery seems to glamorize the factory setting and the ability of modern production methods. His use of so many factory settings as subject matter in his paintings reinforce his preoccupation with the machine’s role in society and in the modern world.² Through his subject matter alone he is reacting to the more and more industrialized world around him along with many other artists at this time such as Dadaist Hannah Hoch and those he worked with during his time at Bauhaus in Weimar. His meticulous attention to detail references both his formal training as an architect but also the motivation to depict as much available information as he could. It was observed that Grossberg aimed to make his artistic decisions as rationally as possible, minimizing human expression and instead mimicking the cold efficiency and clarity of a machine. ³ This type of “machine-like” rendering was

achieved, in part, through Grossberg’s use of color. He chooses to contrast cool grays and light blues with small sections of bright oranges and yellows which are relatively flat in their application. In addition to the vibrancy that this combination creates, these colors are also not true to the actual scene Grossberg is depicting, adding another layer of idealism and order to, what in reality, would be a rather loud and chaotic scene. Art critics have also praised Grossberg’s ability to create both a dynamic and static image within the same frame.4 The directional force of the paper machine angling into the distance holds a tension with the stillness of the image as a whole. His paintings, which are commonly void of human subjects, provide the tranquility of a still-life as well as invite the viewer to place themselves within the image, to face the looming machinery alone.5 These tensions

can create a sense of unease, perhaps reflective of the unease within the relationship between man and machine, a balance of dependence and power. All three understandings of the term “objectivity” by Muthesius, Hartlaub and Behne are wrapped into Grossberg’s The Paper Machine, containing machinery as a subject matter, linework with a manufactured clarity and sharpness as well as the more complex and underlying concept of man’s relationship to machine. Carl Grossberg’s works, particularly The Paper Machine fit into a larger collection of works by other artists dealing with and reacting to the industrialization of the modern world. ¹Barron, S., Eckmann, S., & Bader, G. (2015). New objectivity: Modern German art in the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 203-207 ² Michalski, S. (2004). Neue Sachlichkeit: Malerei, Graphik und Photographie in Deutschland 1919-1933. Köln: Taschen. 25 ³ Kreinik, J. D., Lubar, R. S., Lubar, R. S., Nochlin, L., Cohen, J.-L., McCredie, J., & Köpcke, G. (2008). The canvas and the camera in Weimar Germany: A New Objectivity in painting and photography of the 1920s. (Dissertation Abstracts International.) 57-59 ⁴ Ubu Gallery (New York, N.Y.). (2004). Neue Sachlichkeit: New objectivity : in Weimar Germany : [exhibition, Ubu Gallery, New York, September 21-December 18, 2004]. New York (N.Y.: Ubu Gallery.) 5-6 ⁵ Zamora, L. P. (1995). Magical realism: Theory, history, community. Durham [u.a.: Duke Univ. Press.] 243-245

Overview Essay The futurists of Italy, including Umberto Boccioni, adamantly supported the further industrialization of their country. Many Futurists even advocated for the start of a World War, worshiping the topics of speed, violence, and machinery. However, this movement took place before the actual onset of World War I when many human horrors were experienced for the first time. The political, social and art climates of Europe were forever altered by the atrocities that took place during this catastrophic war. 12

As a consequence, many artists would never look at industrialization and technology the same as many saw these advancements being made as part of the cause of the war. Artists like Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Hoch, Karl Volker and Carl Grossberg all use their chosen works to critique industrialization and the society that brought it along as a direct reaction to World War I. Other artists like Marcel Breuer at the Bauhaus school as well as Vladimir Tatlin and El Lissitzky used their works of art to advocate for a functional application for the arts and positive use for technology in a post-war world. Despite the great variance among reactions to industrialism, artists responding either positively or negatively all tended towards a limited color palette, usage of industrial materials and a minimal usage of human figures as subjects, these formal qualities forming a thread of commonality among their works.

Futurists such as Umberto Boccioni were the most enthusiastic artists about their support for industrialization. They used their art to praise and advocate for industrialization in Italy during the early twentieth century, prior to World War I. Unlike the relationship with industry that most modern artists had after the war, theirs was uncomplicated and strictly enthusiastic. Boccioni in particular is noted for his contributions to the Futurist movement through sculpture, most famously, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. What separated Boccioni from other artists who simply celebrated technology was his focus on the human spirit that brought about industrialization in the first place. His concern with individual expression and the power of man, creator of machine, gave works like Unique Forms of Continuity in Space a strong sense of energy and movement. The swirling shapes were meant to represent the

dynamism of an energetic Futurist Man.¹ The form suggests the subject is possibly a human figure, taking a powerful stance, but is ultimately abstracted by swirling and dynamic shapes meant to primarily embody the spirit of urban life.² After the war, especially in particularly devastated countries like Germany, artists saw their world shed in a more cynical light. The Dada movement arose in 1917 in Germany as an artist’s critique on the logic, rationalism and technology that they believed catapulted the world into the first World War. Members of the Dada movement and lovers for a time, Hannah Hoch and Raoul Hausmann offer their works as some of the most critical commentaries on the society they lived in. Hoch’s works of photomontage had a profound influence on other Dadaists as well as the art world collectively. Hannah Hoch’s reaction to industrialism was unprecedented in an

era where modern art was dominated by male artists. Expectedly, her work focused on the social implications like the role of women in postwar Germany rather than just technology alone. Hoch chose to critique her technologicallysaturated society through the medium of photomontage. In (The Beautiful Girl)

¹Tisdall, C., & Bozzolla, A. (2010). Futurism. (London: Thames and Hudson.), 80-82 ² Arnason, H. H., Mansfield, E., & Arnason, H. H. (2013). History of modern art. 196

she claims that her process of collage was an act of rebellion and symbolic in itself, believing that the German people were blinded by conformity and uniformity brought on by industrialism. Cutting out images, recontextualizing and isolating them was said to have reflected her own alienation within society as well as the increasing alienation of humans in an industrial, fast-paced world. Her use of magazines and other mass produced sources as material hint even further at her satire of mainstream society.³ The subject matter in The Beautiful Girl is representative of “The New Woman,” stripped of her identity and role in society, a depiction of a face being completely removed. Various female body parts float around in the composition, isolated from one another and intermixed with industrial objects such as car parts, a lightbulb and pocket watch. Hoch’s reaction to industrialism was rooted in both process and subject matter. The 14

Beautiful Girl serves as a commentary on the lacking role for women as well as a critique of a dismal postwar society wrapped up in the mundane. Raoul Hausmann, played a similar significant role in both the movement of Dada but also as a voice in the reaction to increased technological advancements in Germany during the early twentieth century. In Mechanical Head (The Spirit of Our Time) Hausmann has combined a wooden mannequin head covered in mass produced, everyday materials such as a tape measure, parts of a watch, a leather wallet, camera parts, a drinking glass, a number plaque, and a jewelry box. The amalgamation of such objects was claimed by Hausmann to represent the way that “human consciousness consists merely of insignificant accessories., applied to the exterior.”4 This can be read as an attempt to communicate a certain emptiness that

the modern man feels in a society or the reduction of man to a mindless robot, certainly enforced by the blank, forward staring eyes of the mannequin head.5 In addition to a commentary on society, Hausmann is referencing the mindless masses that went into war. Dada itself being a critique of the state of society and the world at the time, Mechanical Head (The Spirit of Our Time) easily fits into a larger narrative regarding man’s role in an increasingly industrial society, literally and symbolically being covered by meaningless objects being produced at an alarming speed. In addition to the Dadaist art movement, The New Objectivity was another emergent art movement in Germany following their defeat in World War I. This movement consisted of artists working through post-war despair, nostalgia and hope for the country. The resituation into society provoked

artists like Carl Grossberg to explore the new relationships that man held with machine.6 In The Paper Machine, Grossberg's crisp and almost hyperreal imagery seems to glamorize the factory setting and the ability of modern production methods. His use a factory settings as subject matter in this painting reinforces his preoccupation with the machine’s role in society and in the modern world. Grossberg also aimed to produce a painting which minimized human expression and instead mimicked the cold efficiency and clarity of a machine. The cold image creates almost a void on the page, possibly a reflection of the void caused by trauma from World War I. Another member of the New Objectivity, Karl Volker chose to focus his artistic efforts in grappling with the seemingly vast distance between the life of rural and urban Germans. Germany’s late and rapid industrialization caused a feeling in many citizens that a certain

aspect of German culture was being lost to Industry.7 In Concrete an urban scene is depicted, void of any human subject matter. The intense angle of the street shooting diagonally into the distance as well as the looming architectural structure to the right conjure a feeling of anxiety in the viewer. A factory can be seen in the distance of the painting and dark orange, and red tones coat the walls of each structure. The color and perspective in relation to the urban subject matter depicts a dramatic and anxious reaction Industrialism in Germany. The lack of human figures in the image reference a feeling of void of German culture being replaced instead by factories and cities.

which were neither as enthusiastic as the Futurists nor as critical as Dada and New Objectivity. Instead, both Constructivism and Bauhaus aimed to find a functional application for the arts, melding the technological advancements from the war and art in order to create a positive movement forward. Tatlin, the founder of Russian Constructivism, refocused his energies after the ³ Höch, H., In Ades, D., In Butler, E., In Herrmann, D. F., Höch, H., & Whitechapel Art Gallery,. (2014). Hannah Höch. 12-21 4 Ruhrberg, K., Schneckenburger, M., Fricke, C., Honnef, K., & Walther, I. F. (2016). Art of the 20th century. Köln: Taschen. 439 5 Arnason, H. H., Mansfield, E., & Arnason, H. H. (2013). History of modern art. 228 ⁶ Barron, S., Eckmann, S., & Bader, G. (2015). New objectivity: Modern German art in the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 209, 311-312 ⁷ Barron, S., Eckmann, S., & Bader, G. New objectivity: Modern German art in the Weimar Republic, 175-191

Artists Vladimir Tatlin and El Lissitzky, Russian Constructivists, were heavily inspired by the work of Bauhaus in Germany. Both post war art movements had a unique reaction to industrialism 15

Russian Revolution, on engineering and architecture. Monument to the Third International was Tatlin’s most ambitious work and similarly to Futurist works, was overtly used to advocate his political ideals as well as react to technology and industrialism.8 Monument to the Third International, was never fully constructed due to its massive size. However, with its intended materials being glass, steel, iron and other industrial goods, this work supports Tatlin’s favor of technology. The very form of the sculpture itself was planned to be a spiraling cone. This dynamic shape would thrust into the sky, a physical representation of Russia’s movement into a “utopian future” as Tatlin saw it, filled with advanced useful technologies.9 The intended functionality of Monument to the Third International can also be noted as evidence of Tatlin’s view of art as a vehicle for further industrialization or as a “service to society.” The precision 16

and complexity with which this building would have had to be manufactured reflects a piece of machinery itself. Tatlin also wished to have the floors of the sculpture revolve, further mimicking the moving parts of some type of machinery as well.¹0 A contemporary to Tatlin, El Lissitzky began to create his Proun paintings and constructions in the year 1919. These works, including Proun Room, are abstracted sculptures of imagined, floating cities and urban landscapes. With these three-dimensional works, Lissitzky broke the boundary between a painting and architecture, aiming to move art into the social environment.¹¹ Proun Room itself presents panels of painted wood in order to give the viewer the feeling that they could almost walk into another dimension.¹² Although Lissitzky was concerned by problems of form, his work cannot be separated

from his social motivations. His reaction to the Russian Revolution as well as his later work in propaganda support the idea that Lissitzky was reacting to his further Industrialized and political environment. The calculated element of his works, the commonplace, industrial materials and subject matter of urban landscapes all suggest that Lissitzky supported the further industrialization of Russia post-revolution. The Bauhaus school, starting in Weimar, Germany in 1918 by Walter Gropius was founded on the commitment of artists to functionalism and the idea that art could improve society.¹³ Marcel Breuer, a member of the Bauhaus school, maintained many of the core ideas of its founders. These ideas included the belief that modern manufacturing practices as well as technologies could serve both their intended purpose as well as an aesthetic one. This entire art movement was a reaction to industrialism in

Germany in which art and machinery could go hand-in-hand, even strengthen one another by means of efficiency. The most obvious characteristic of Marcel Breuer’s Armchair supporting his constructive reaction to industrialism is the fact that this chair has the ability to be mass produced. Like many of other works in response to modern technology, Armchair reflects a cold, machine-like aesthetic, but is unique in its ability to actually be produced by a machine itself. Marcel Breuer explains in an excerpt from Metal Furniture and Modern Spatiality that he even sees his artistic creations as serving a technological purpose, “nothing more than a necessary instrument.”¹4 This role and positive relationship to industrialism is supported in the efficient and economic lines within the piece of furniture. The metal frame reflects industrial materials and nothing is included in Armchair that is not completely necessary.

In response to Industrialism and further technologization of Europe, modern artists can be grouped into pre and post war categories. Only the Futurists made work prior to World War I and could so unashamedly advocate for the advancement of technology and even the start of the war because they had not yet witnessed its horrors. After World War I artists can be further split into two categories, those who took a purely critical stance on industrialism and the war like The New Objectivity and Dadaists, and those who viewed industry through a more hopeful lens, including the Constructivist and Bauhaus movements. However, across so many mediums, political climates, locations, art movements and different stances on industrialism, there is still astonishing the overlap of shared sentiments that can be found among artists reflecting on the same topic of industrialism and technology. Whether

the artist has a positive, negative or constructive reaction to industrialism, it can be observed that when regarding this topic there is a common use of industrial materials, a limited color palette and a minimal usage of human figures as subjects.

⁸ Terraroli, V. (2006). Art of the twentieth century: The Avantgarde Movements [Volume 2]. Milano, Italy: Skira. 255-262 ⁹ Taylor, B., After constructivism. 52 ¹⁰ Ruhrberg, K., Schneckenburger, M., Fricke, C., Honnef, K., & Walther, I. F. Art of the 20th century. 445 ¹¹ Ubu Gallery (New York, N.Y.). (2004). Neue Sachlichkeit: New objectivity : in Weimar Germany : [exhibition, Ubu Gallery, New York, September 21-December 18, 2004]. New York (N.Y.: Ubu Gallery.) 5-6 ¹² Arnason, H. H., Mansfield, E., & Arnason, H. H. (2013). History of modern art. 204-205 ¹³ Weber, N. F. (2011). The Bauhaus group: Six masters of modernism. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. 5-10 ¹⁴ Ince, C., Yee, L., & Barbican art gallery (Londres). (2012). Bauhaus: Art as life : [exhibition], Barbican art gallery. London: Koenig Books. 224

Biblio graphy

Arnason, H. H., Mansfield, E., & Arnason, H. H. (2013). History of modern art. Barron, S., Eckmann, S., & Bader, G. (2015). New objectivity: Modern German art in the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Hรถch, H., In Ades, D., In Butler, E., In Herrmann, D. F., Hรถch, H., & Whitechapel Art Gallery,. (2014). Hannah Hรถch. Ince, C., Yee, L., & Barbican art gallery (Londres). (2012). Bauhaus: Art as life : [exhibition], Barbican art gallery. London: Koenig Books. Kreinik, J. D., Lubar, R. S., Lubar, R. S., Nochlin, L., Cohen, J.-L., McCredie,J., & Kรถpcke, G. (2008). The canvas and the camera in Weimar Germany: A New Objectivity in painting and photography of the 1920s. (Dissertation Abstracts International, 69-5.) Michalski, S. (2004). Neue Sachlichkeit: Malerei, Graphik und Photographie in Deutschland 1919-1933. Kรถln: Taschen.

Ruhrberg, K., Schneckenburger, M., Fricke, C., Honnef, K., & Walther, I. F. (2016). Art of the 20th century. Kรถln: Taschen. Taylor, B. (2014). After constructivism. New Haven: Yale University Press. Terraroli, V. (2006). Art of the twentieth century: The Avant-garde Movements [Volume 2]. Milano, Italy: Skira . Tisdall, C., & Bozzolla, A. (2010). Futurism. London: Thames and Hudson. Ubu Gallery (New York, N.Y.). (2004). Neue Sachlichkeit: New objectivity : in Weimar Germany : [exhibition, Ubu Gallery, New York, September 21-December 18, 2004]. New York (N.Y.: Ubu Gallery. Weber, N. F. (2011). The Bauhaus group: Six masters of modernism. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. Zamora, L. P. (1995). Magical realism: Theory, history, community. Durham [u.a.: Duke Univ. Press. 19