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ART HISTORY 4450 German Expressionism: New Objectivity
Neue Sichlichkeit (New Objectivity) • term: – coined in 1923 by director of Kunsthalle in Mannheim – catchwords intended to express rapid inroads technology was making on life & increasing socialization of production (relate to Max Weber) • context: Weimar Republic (Germany) – era of political turmoil in post-war society • Red Rising (1920) • putsches (e.g., Hitler in 1923) & political executions • French Invasion & laborers’ passive resistance – hyper-inflation
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German New Objectivity • aim: to portray miseries & corruption of everyday life • themes: – alienation of urban life – ills of capitalism • tone: cynical • aesthetic: naturalistic – moved away from subjectivity of Expressionist emotion • exhibition history: – first national exhibition in 1925 was great success – c. 1930 it was on the wane – eventually discarded by Nazis as “degenerate”
Otto Dix (1891-1969) • Self-Portrait as Soldier – setting: WWI • commander of machine gun unit – theme: celebration of strength & violence verging on savagery – meaning: proclaims necessity of struggle & intoxication of destruction w/ no remorse or regrets – composition: dynamic – color: vibrant & symbolic – brushwork: impasto
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Dix • Self-Portrait (c. 1925) – – – – –
composition: stable color: limited range light/shadow: even mood: coolly detached attire: “intelligencia” versus bourgeois – gesture: signals tradition of Northern Renaissance (c. 1500,
e.g., Dürer)
(Left) DIX’s German New Objectivity Self-Portrait (c. 1925) vs. (right) DÜRER’s Northern Renaissance Self-Portrait (c. 1500)
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Dix • Skull (1924) – aesthetic: grotesque – technique: graphic arts based on wartime sketchbooks – theme: indictment of militarism – effect: undermines idea of heroism • destroyed naïve illusions of honorable death
Dix • Woman in front of the Mirror – date: 1923 – significance: brought to trial on obscenity charge – aesthetic: grotesque & erotic – figure: • facial features snoutlike nose • wasted breasts • frontal genitalia
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Dix • Metropolis (1928) – subject: sexual perversion – subject: critical expose of postwar culture/society • prostitution • veteran affairs – composition: dynamic – color: vibrant highlights – light/shadow: dramatic – perspective: linear
(Left) DIX’s German New Objectivity Metropolis (1928) vs. GROSZ’s Dada Metropolis (1917)
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Dix • Portrait of a Jeweler (1923) – theme: attack on bourgeoisie – features: stylized • pursed lips • heaving chest • arms on hips (feminized) – composition: dynamic – color: limited range – light/shadow: naturalistic • creates sense of volume
Dix • The Journalist (1926) – sitter: Sylvia von Harden – figure: savagely unflattering • gaunt & angular facial features • pale complexion – composition: stark – color: warm tonalities – light/shadow: even – mood: fatigue
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Max Beckmann (1884-1950) • essay: “The Artist in the State” – date: 1927 – “Art is the mirror of the God that humanity is” – artist as conscious shaper of transcendent idea – “art becomes a symbol & source of power for the partly still dormant power in responsible human beings”
Beckmann • Deposition (1917) – – – – – – –
influence: German Gothic figures: angular & elongated perspective: tilted aesthetic: expressionistic composition: dynamic color: muted iconography: accurate
– perspective: deliberately mishandled
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Beckmann’s New Objectivity Night (1918-1919)
Beckmann • Departure (1933) – significance: B’s first triptych – context: political & personal crisis due to rise of Nazi regime – forms: relate to late Gothic representations of martyrdom & salvation – format: • center serene otherworldliness • wings violent & sadistic interiors
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Beckmann’s Departure (1933)
Beckmann: mature work (after 1933) • subject matter: allegorical – an “inner immigration” – change coinciding w/ seizure of power by Nazis • labeled a “degenerate” • fled to Amsterdam in 1937 – remained there, except for a half-year's sojourn in Paris, until 1947 – painted in isolation for a decade – had considered the artist a public figure
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Beckmann • Artists w/ Vegetables (1943) – light/shadow: candlelight – figures: seated at table • Beckmann & three fellow German artists, all wartime exiles in Amsterdam – background: enframed • mirror, picture or window (?) • raging inferno – meaning: intellect & spirit holding out against brutish power
Beckmann • Begin the Beguine (1946) – significance: painted upon emigration to US – subject: allegorical – theme: contemporary song – figures: in bondage – iconography: quasi-religious
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IMAGE INDEX •
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DIX, Otto. Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1914), ink and watercolor on paper, 68 x 53.5 cm, Municipal Gallery, Stuttgart. DIX, Otto. Self-Portrait (c. 1925). (Left) DIX’s German New Objectivity Self-Portrait (c. 1925); and (right) DÜRER’s Northern Renaissance Self-Portrait (c. 1500). DIX, Otto. Skull (1924), 10 1/8 x 7 3/4 in., Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LoCA). DIX, Otto. Woman in front of a Mirror (1923). DIX, Otto. Metropolis (1928). (Left) DIX’s German New Objectivity Metropolis (1928); and GROSZ’s Dada Metropolis (1917). DIX, Otto. The Jeweler (1923), Oil on canvas, 36 5/8 x 23 7/8 in., Von der Heydt-Museum, Wupperal. DIX, Otto. The Journalist (1926), Oil on canvas, 47 1/4 x 34 5/8 in., Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris.
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BECKMANN, Max. Self-Portrait (c. 1925). BECKMANN, Max. Deposition (1917), Oil on canvas, 59 1/2 x 50 3/4 in., The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. BECKMANN, Max. The Night (1918-19), Oil on canvas, 52 3/8 x 601/4 in., Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany. BECKMANN, Max. Center panel from Departure (1932-33), oil on canvas, triptych, center panel 84 3/4 X 45 3/8 in., The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. BECKMANN’s Departure (1932-33), with side panels each 84 3/4 X 39 1/4”. BECKMANN, Max. Artists with Vegetable, or Four Men Around a Table (1943), Oil on canvas, 59 x 45 3/8 in., Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis, MO. BECKMANN, Max. Begin the Beguine (1946), oil on canvas, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor.
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