Art of Uncertainty
The Interwar Period: 1919-1939 Germany (Weimar Republic), 1919 "Stormtroopers Advancing Under Gas," Otto Dix Germany after the war...
During the Weimar Republic, Germany went through a tumultuous time of change. Germany had not just lost the war, some Germans felt Germany was losing it's culture. Some artists felt that Germany had also lost its mind. They captured those feelings through a new art movment called Dada. This art movement used a new technique called *photomontage.* This was the process of cutting out pictures from magazines and pasting them together. The artwork that the Dadaists produced was like other art of the times: it reflected the changes in society and criticized the times people lived in. Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919 Key Art Movements
Cubism Dadaism Surrealism Futurism Photomontage (Collage) "The Dance of Death," Georges Grosz "Republican Automatons," Georges Grosz *Dada Messe,* Raoul Hausmann Art and Politics (Part I)
Dada also made fun of an Austrian-born political extremist who promised to avenge the defeat of Germany in WWI and deal once and for all with the *eternal enemies of the German people*--the Jews... "Don't Worry, He's a Vegetarian," John Heartfield DADAISM Kurt Switters started the "photocollage" movement known as "Merz" in Berlin, Germany...these were the Berlin Dadaists.
Origins of the word *Dada*
1.Romanian word for *yeah right* 2.sarcastic remark
Origins of
movement Arose during WW1 in Zurich, Switzerland Forms of Dada art
●visual ●poems ●theater ●political manifestos Messages of Dadaism ●anti-war ●anti-middle class ●pro-revolutionary ●pro-anarchistic Facial Injuries from WW1 ●modern plastic surgery ●nursing homes for disfigured people ●business for *tin noses, metal jaws* While this is a modern version, this art piece shows how soldiers with facial injuries wore masks for the rest of their lives. Dadaism and World War One
Art historians have recently noted the similarity between the Dada technique for cutting up faces of people in magazines to make new faces, to the facial injuries and surgeries many soldiers endured after the First World War...
These pictures might shock you...
Cubism
While Cubism came before Dadaism, it had many things in common. First, it used photomontage, in order to capture the randomess of many perspectives-at-once...
But Cubism, while not German, was very political. Like Dada, Cubism attacked injustice and was very revolutionary. CUBISM Origins of Cubism ●Began in 1907 ●Spain and Italy ●Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque Style of Cubism ●objects broken up ●re-assembled in abstract form ●objects have multiple points-of-view ●random angles Influences on Cubism ●psychology ●photographic technology ●African and Polynesian art ●reality is *abstract* Politics of Cubism Pablo Picasso: Spanish communist Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
When the fascist governments of Germany and Italy backed the fascist forces of Generalismo Francisco Franco in Spain, German and Italian warplanes bombed the northern Spanish town of Guernica.
In protest, Pablo Picasso painted this picture... *GUERNICA* Art and Politics (Part II)
About the same time Cubism was created, another art movement also was created. This was called Futurism. It called for the destruction of the past and the start of a new era of heroes. It worshiped technology. And war. Like Dadaism and Cubism, Futurism used photomontage was well. Futurism also captured many-perspectives-at-once. Like Dadaism and Cubism, Futurism was also political. But not in the same way. Futurism (the Dark Side) ●Futurists borrowed Cubist styles, but not politics... ●Many Futurists became *fascists* *Armored Train (Death Train)* Art and Society (Part One)
Art moved in a profound direction when it was inspired by the creator of psychology, Sigmund Freud, and tried to recreate the dreams and nightmares that lurked in the minds of people. A new art movement was born...surrealism.
Surreal: the intense irrational reality of a dream.
Surrealism used a combination of photomontage and oil paints. While it was not just located in Germany, it did have some important German artists. SURREALISM Origins of Surrealism ●1920s, grew out of Dadaism ●André Breton wrote 1924 manifesto Influences on
Surrealism Sigmund Freud (modern psychology) ●the subconscious ●dream interpretation Influences... automatic writing and drawing Beliefs of Surrealism ●Revolution against art and tradition ●World Revolution (communism and anarchism) *Persistence of Memory,* Salvador Dalí *L'Ange du foyer ou Le Triomphe du surréalisme,* Max Ernst Art and Politics (Part III)
While Cubism and Surrealism stopped using photomontage, artists continued to used photomontage. Artists used this style and it became known as *collage.* Artists would continue to use it for politics. But it would still have some of the same styles and subject matter of Dadaism, Cubism and Surrealism. Photomontage (Collage) Meaning of the word ●German word ●means *fitting* or *assembly line* Origins of Photomontage Berlin Dadaists ●Kurt Schwitters ●Hannah Hoch ●John Heartfield ●Raoul Hausmann Beliefs of artists Profile: Hannah Hoch ●German artist ●lived in Berlin during the Weimar Republic ●criticized mass culture beauty industry
Politics and Photomontage
During the Weimar Republic artists used photomontage to criticize the weakness they saw in Germany. Unlike conservatives, they saw the recognized the weakness in Germany's democratic system, where the middle class and rich usually joined together to stop anti-militaristic political parties.
These artists also commented on the decadent life they saw in the Weimar Republic, and the freakish sight of war veterans without arms and legs, but who still wanted revenge for Germany's defeat in WWI and hungered for another war.
These longings for renewed war led to the fascists (Nazis) coming to power... Anti-Hitler Collages
As the Nazi Party became more and more popular, and more Germans voted for them in elections, artists produced art that attacked Adolf Hitler. They told Germans that Hitler was nothing more than a puppet of the rich.
John Heartfield was one of the most outspoken German artists who criticized Hitler. His art continues to inspire people today. "The Real Meaning of the Nazi Salute," John Heartfield "Adolf the Superman," John Heartfield What do you think the artist is saying here?