DOCSLIB.ORG

Reconsidering New Objectivity: Albert Renger-Patzsch and Die

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Reconsidering New Objectivity: Albert Renger-Patzsch and Die RECONSIDERING NEW OBJECTIVITY: ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH AND DIE WELT IST SCHÖN by MARGARET E. HANKEL (Under the Direction of NELL ANDREW) ABSTRACT In December of 1928, the Munich-based publisher, Kurt Wolff released a book with a new concept: a collection of one-hundred black and white photographs by Albert Renger-Patzsch. Titled Die Welt ist schön, the book presented a remarkable diversity of subjects visually unified by Renger-Patzsch’s straight-forward aesthetic. While widely praised at the time of its release, the book exists in relative obscurity today. Its legacy was cemented by the negative criticism it received in two of Walter Benjamin’s essays, “Little History of Photography” (1931) and “The Author as Producer” (1934). This paper reexamines the book in within the context of its reception, reconsidering the book’s legacy and its ties to the New Objectivity movement in Weimar. INDEX WORDS: Albert Renger-Patzsch, Die Welt ist schön, Photography, New Objectivity, Sachlichkeit, New Vision, Painting Photography Film, Walter Benjamin, Lázsló Moholy-Nagy RECONSIDERING NEW OBJECTIVITY: ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH AND DIE WELT IST SCHÖN by MARGARET HANKEL BA, Columbia College Chicago, 2009 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2017 © 2017 Margaret E. Hankel All Rights Reserved RECONSIDERING NEW OBJECTIVITY: ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH AND DIE WELT IST SCHÖN by MARGARET E. HANKEL Major Professor: Nell Andrew Committee: Alisa Luxenberg Janice Simon Electronic Version Approved: Suzanne Barbour Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2017 iv DEDICATION For my mother and father v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks to those who have read this work in its various stages of completion: to my advisor, Nell Andrew, whose kind and sage guidance made this project possible, to my committee members Janice Simon and Alisa Luxenberg, to Isabelle Wallace, and to my colleague, Erin McClenathan. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii RECONSIDERING NEW OBJECTIVITY: ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH AND DIE WELT IST SCHÖN ...............................................................................................................1 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................................28 APPENDICES A Figures..............................................................................................................33 vii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Die Welt ist schön, 100 photographic records by Albert Renger-Patzsch, edited and introduced by Carl Georg Heise, published by Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1928 .....33 Figure 2: Plate 10, Tropische Orchid, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ..................................34 Figure 3: Plate 36, Weinbergweg. Ellerer Kapley, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ...............35 Figure 4: Plate 93, Bügeleisern für Schuhfabrikation. Fagus-Werk Benscheidt in Alfred, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ...................................................................................36 Figure 5: Plate 56, Kaffee Hag. Plakatentwurf, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ....................37 Figure 6: Plate 27, Natterkopf, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ..............................................38 Figure 7: Plate 60, Blick in den Chor des Lübecker Doms, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ..39 Figure 8: Karl Blossfeldt, Adiantum Pedatum, ca. 1928 ..................................................40 Figure 9: August Sander, Bricklayer, 1928, Gelatin silver print ......................................41 Figure 10: Lázsló Moholy-Nagy, Berlin Radio Tower, 1928, Gelatin silver print ...........42 Figure 11: Moholy-Nagy, From the Radio Tower, Berlin, 1928. Gelatin silver print ......43 Figure 12: Moholy-Nagy, Fotogramm, 1926. Gelatin silver print ...................................44 Figure 13: Comparison of Plate 38 and Plate 50 in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ..................45 Figure 14: Comparison of Plate 4 and Plate 69 in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ....................46 Figure 15: Comparison of Plate 5 and Plate 6 in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ......................47 Figure 16: Cover of Die Welt ist schön, credited to Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1928 .......48 Figure 17: Cover of Die Welt ist schön with promotional sash ........................................49 viii Figure 18: Installation view of Room 1 of the Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart, designed by Moholy-Nagy, 1929 ..........................................................................50 Figure 19: Plate 52, Buchenscheite, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ......................................51 Figure 20: Plate 30, Schafherde, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ...........................................52 Figure 21: Plate 51, Dachpfannenlager, in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ...............................53 Figure 22: Plate 5 and Plate 6 as compared to the full negative image ............................54 Figure 23: Comparison of Plate 8, Plate 67, and Plate 68 in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 ....55 Figure 24: Comparison of contact print of Kaimauer and Plate 29 in Die Welt ist schön, 1928 .......................................................................................................................56 Figure 25: Pages 58-59 in Moholy-Nagy’s Painting Photography Film, 1967 edition ...57 Figure 26: Pages 56-57 and 88-89 in Moholy-Nagy’s Painting Photography Film, 1967 edition ....................................................................................................................58 Figure 27: Pages 130-131 in Moholy-Nagy’s Painting Photography Film, 1967 ed. ......59 Figure 28: Moholy-Nagy, Untitled Photogram, 1925 . ......................................................60 1 RECONSIDERING NEW OBJECTIVITY: ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH AND DIE WELT IST SCHÖN In December of 1928, the Munich-based publisher Kurt Wolff released a book with a new concept: the photographic essay.1 In this iteration, it was a collection of one hundred black and white photographs by a single photographer, Albert Renger-Patzsch, and edited by art historian Carl Georg Heise (fig. 1). Titled Die Welt ist schön (The World is Beautiful), its pages were filled with images of the vast miscellanea of life: orchids and dirt roads, shoe irons and coffee beans, snakes and barrel-vaulted cathedrals (figs. 2-7). Organized into categories like “Plants” or “Architecture,” Die Welt ist schön presented a diversity of subjects visually unified by Renger-Patzsch’s straight-forward aesthetic. Strategically scheduled to appeal to holiday shoppers in the weeks preceding Christmas, the book’s release was accompanied by an aggressive marketing campaign. “The pleasure in looking has reawakened our impoverished Germany,” reads one such ad from December, “…This book with one hundred pictures . is something totally new and is the GIFT BOOK FOR EVERYBODY.”2 Critics, too, marveled at Die Welt ist schön. Renger-Patzsch’s ability to transform plants, machine parts, animals, and 1 For a discussion of the development of the photo-essay format in Weimar, see Daniel Magliow’s The Photography of Crisis: The Photo-Essays of Weimar Germany (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012). 2 As cited in Ulrich Rüter, “The Reception of Albert Renger-Patzsch's Die Welt ist schön,” History of Photography 21, no. 3 (September 1997): 192. 2 buildings into abstract, geometric form was perceived as a revelation. Writer Kurt Tucholsky described the book as “the best of the best.”3 Thomas Mann claimed it realized the spiritualization of technology.4 “I would be unable to name any other work of art by a living painter or sculptor that is comparable to this collection of work in its impact, completeness, personality, and actuality,” wrote art historian Heinrich Schwarz. “The book is a signal,” he claimed, “as it at long last propagates the liberation of photography from the chains of painting.”5 Despite Die Welt ist schön’s wide reception and praise at the time of its release, the book is relatively unknown today. Its forgotten legacy was cemented when it attracted the negative criticism of Marxist philosopher Walter Benjamin several years after its publication. In the essays “Little History of Photography” (1931) and “The Author as Producer” (1934), Benjamin links Die Welt ist schön to the domain of bourgeois artistic fetishism. Laced with anxiety, Benjamin’s essays were formed in reaction to an overwhelming abundance of photographic media, made possible by advancements in print technology. Uneasy with the proliferation of mass media and photography’s capacity to impart political ideology, Benjamin concluded Die Welt ist schön was “…unable to convey anything about a power station or cable factory other than, ‘What a 6 beautiful world!’” This characterization has since situated the work of Renger-Patzsch 3 Kurt Tucholsky (under the pseudonym Peter Panter), cited in Rüter, 192. 4 “The mechanization of the artistic… sounds like the decay and downfall of the soul. But what if the spirit yields to technology and, in the process of doing so, technology is itself spiritualized?” Thomas Mann, cited in Ibid., 193 5 Heinrich Schwarz, cited in Ibid., 192 6 Walter Benjamin, “The Author as Producer” in The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Berger ENG Einseitig Künstlerisch
    „One-sidedly Artistic“ Georg Kolbe in the Nazi Era By Ursel Berger 0 One of the most discussed topics concerning Georg Kolbe involves his work and his stance during the Nazi era. These questions have also been at the core of all my research on Kolbe and I have frequently dealt with them in a variety of publications 1 and lectures. Kolbe’s early work and his artistic output from the nineteen twenties are admired and respected. Today, however, a widely held position asserts that his later works lack their innovative power. This view, which I also ascribe to, was not held by most of Kolbe’s contemporaries. In order to comprehend the position of this sculptor as well as his overall historical legacy, it is necessary, indeed crucial, to examine his œuvre from the Nazi era. It is an issue that also extends over and beyond the scope of a single artistic existence and poses the overriding question concerning the role of the artist in a dictatorship. Georg Kolbe was born in 1877 and died in 1947. He lived through 70 years of German history, a time characterized by the gravest of political developments, catastrophes and turning points. He grew up in the German Empire, celebrating his first artistic successes around 1910. While still quite young, he was active (with an artistic mission) in World War I. He enjoyed his greatest successes in the Weimar Republic, especially in the latter half of the nineteen twenties—between hyperinflation and the Great Depression. He was 56 years old when the Nazis came to power in 1933 and 68 years old when World War II ended in 1945.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Ruhr–Lorraine Union' from Die Welt (11 May 1950)
    'Ruhr–Lorraine union' from Die Welt (11 May 1950) Caption: On 11 May 1950, the German daily newspaper Die Welt comments on the proposal made by Robert Schuman that coal and steel output in Western Europe should be pooled. Source: Die Welt. Unabhängige Tageszeitung. Hrsg. BLEY, Curt ; Herausgeber SCHERER, Hans. 11.05.1950, n° 109; 5. Jg. Hamburg: Die Welt. "Union Ruhr-Lothringen", p. 2. Copyright: (c) Translation CVCE.EU by UNI.LU All rights of reproduction, of public communication, of adaptation, of distribution or of dissemination via Internet, internal network or any other means are strictly reserved in all countries. Consult the legal notice and the terms and conditions of use regarding this site. URL: http://www.cvce.eu/obj/ruhr_lorraine_union_from_die_welt_11_may_1950- en-51cc0e39-9ff6-4488-a685-48d5abeee16a.html Last updated: 06/07/2016 1/3 Ruhr–Lorraine union The unanimous decision of the French Cabinet on the pooling of the entire coal production of Germany, France and the Saar constitutes a huge breakthrough for the European idea. The ship of Europe had run aground. The idea of the European federation, as it is being represented in Strasbourg, found itself facing a crisis that had been created when the catchword Europe was replaced by a discussion of the real economic and political problems of international cooperation. The crisis went so far that a number of European politicians regarded Strasbourg as a matter already settled, that at best might be capable of solving a few more cultural problems. The economic unity of Europe was directed from the of Marshall Plan office in Paris, and security questions were at all events left to the Atlantic Alliance.
    [Show full text]
  • Cyanotype Detailed Instructions
    Cyanotype Detailed Instructions Cyanotype Formula, Mixing and Exposing Instructions 1. Dissolve 40 g (approximately 2 tablespoons) Potassium Ferricyanide in 400 ml (1.7 cups) water to create STOCK SOLUTION A. Allow 24 hours for the powder to fully dissolve. 2. Dissolve 100 g (approximately .5 cup) Ferric Ammonium Citrate in 400 ml (1.7 cups) water to create if you have Chemistry Open Stock START HERE STOCK SOLUTION B. Allow 24 hours for the powder to fully dissolve. If using the Cyanotype Sensitizer Set, simply fill each bottle with water, shake and allow 24 hours for the powders to dissolve. 3. In subdued lighting, mix equal parts SOLUTION A and SOLUTION B to create the cyanotype sensitizer. Mix only the amount you immediately need, as the sensitizer is stable just 2-4 hours. if you have the Sensitizer Set START HERE 4. Coat paper or fabric with the sensitizer and allow to air dry in the dark. Paper may be double-coated for denser prints. Fabric may be coated or dipped in the sensitizer. Jacquard’s Cyanotype Fabric Sheets and Mural Fabrics are pre-treated with the sensitizer (as above) and come ready to expose. 5. Make exposures in sunlight (1-30 minutes, depending on conditions) or under a UV light source, placing ob- jects or a film negative on the coated surface to create an image. (Note: Over-exposure is almost always preferred to under-exposure.) The fabric will look bronze in color once fully exposed. 6. Process prints in a tray or bucket of cool water. Wash for at least 5 minutes, changing the water periodically, if you have until the water runs clear.
    [Show full text]
  • Internal Security and the Fight Against Terrorism in Germany I. the German
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Dokumenten-Publikationsserver der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Dipl.-Soz. Sebastian Bukow Philosophische Fakultät III Institut für Sozialwissenschaften Lehrbereich Innenpolitik der BRD Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin [email protected] Internal security and the fight against terrorism in Germany Nearly periodically the topic of internal security appears on the public agenda of the Federal Re- public. Election Campaigns are held and elections have been won with the promise of more security [cp. 30, p. 13; 33, p. 10; 21]. The subjective feeling of a lack of security in different dimensions of life is omnipresent. The latest security- and monitoring-acts interfere deeply – and at the same time nearly unnoticed – with the daily life of every single citizen. The debate on crime and internal secu- rity is dominated by very emotional and ideological-normative arguments [cp. 18, p. 151]. Objec- tive arguments and evaluations of proportionality are hard to find. I. The German understanding of “Internal security” and its his- torical roots The term “Innere Sicherheit” – internal security – appeared for the first time in the 1960s. From then onwards it has always played an important role in political discussions. Since 1969 the Federal Ministry of the interior periodically published a report on „Innere Sicherheit“ (for the last time in 1994). Since then the term has been established in the political and administrational language. In 1972 the policy of internal security became the quasi status of law by the introduction of the “Schwerpunktprogramm Innere Sicherheit” (programme of emphasis internal security) [25, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Qui Était August Sander? [1]
    Sur les traces d’August Sander Par Bernard Birsinger propos recueillis par Emmanuel Bigler Résumé Bernard Birsinger nous raconte comment il est allé un jour au pays d’August Sander pour voir les lieux où le célèbre portraitiste a vécu et travaillé, en particulier là où il a photographié des paysages. Dans ce voyage, Bernard Birsinger a rencontré des témoins ayant connu August Sander, et il en a rapporté un travail photographique sur les lieux de mémoire de l’auteur des « Hommes du vingtième siècle ». Introduction - Qui était August Sander? [1] FIGURE 1 – August Sander en 1925 1 Bernard Birsinger (BBB [2]) : Dans toute quête culturelle, il est important de connaître le décor et aussi ce qui se cache derrière ce décor. Les biographies officielles à propos de Sander comme celle du Getty Museum [3], du MoMA[4], d’Aperture[5] ou de la Tate Gallery [6] de Londres suffisent-elles à nous renseigner ? Eh non. En plus, en tant que photographe, j’ai toujours encore en tête, de façon lancinante, cette phrase de la célèbre photographe américaine Diane Arbus [7] : « Rien n’est jamais comme on a dit que c’était, c’est ce que je n’ai jamais vu avant que je reconnais », phrase tirée de son livre paru en 1973 aux éditions du Chêne [8]. Et vous ne le saviez pas, ça alors? Il était donc grand temps pour moi de prendre mon bâton de pèlerin et de parcourir par monts et vaux l’Allemagne sur les traces de Sander, pour mener un double projet photographique. En un : mener un « Rephotographic Survey Project » comme celui mené à propos de Timothy O’Sullivan en 1977 [9], aux USA.
    [Show full text]
  • Oral History Interview with Hans Namuth, 1971 Aug. 12-Sept. 14
    Oral history interview with Hans Namuth, 1971 Aug. 12-Sept. 14 Contact Information Reference Department Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Washington. D.C. 20560 www.aaa.si.edu/askus Transcript Preface The following oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Hans Namuth on August 12 and September 8, 1971. The interview took place in New York City, and was conducted by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Interview PAUL CUMMINGS: It's August 12, 1971 - Paul Cummings talking to Hans Namuth in his studio in New York City. You were born in Germany - right? HANS NAMUTH: Right. PAUL CUMMINGS: Could you tell me something about life there and growing up and education and how you got started? You were born in - what? - 1915? HANS NAMUTH: Yes. I grew up during the war years and inflation. I have memories of the French Occupation and shooting in the streets. The French occupied Essen. We had a French deserter living with us who taught me my first French. I went to the equivalent of a gymnasium, Humboldt Oberrealschule in Essen, hating school, loathing school. I would say it was a prison. Eventually I started to work in a bookshop in Essen at the age of seventeen and became very affiliated with Leftist groups in 1932 when everything was brewing and for a moment we didn't know whether they were going to go all the way Left or all the way Right. I think the Communist and the Socialist Parties at the time lost a big chance of gaining power in Germany by not uniting in 1931-1932.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fine Art of Photography Eighth Annual Juried Photography Exhibition 2018 Prospectus
    THE FINE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY EIGHTH ANNUAL JURIED PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION 2018 PROSPECTUS Categories: • Color • Black and White • Non-Traditional (Please note that the Judges’ assessment of which category an entry will be judged is final.) AwarDs: • $500 Best in Show, • Each Category: $250 First Place, $100 Second Place, • Two Honorable Mentions per category Color and Black and White Categories: This is traditional photography. The image has conventional post processing techniQues that enhance the image appearance without changing the pictorial content. Edits and/or effects that changes an image’s appearance from being a normal photograph may be categorized as Digitally Enhanced. Cropping, sharpening, and removal of obtrusive artifacts such as dust specks are allowed. Black and White includes monochromatic and sepia tones. Non-TraDitional Photography (incluDes the following) • Digitally EnhanceD: An image that does not meet the stricter reQuirements for the Color or Blank & White categories, or which has been digitally enhanced beyond the appearance of a photograph. It may have subjects or lighting added, removed or otherwise modified to create the image. • Vintage anD Alternative Printing Processes: Despite having been pioneered decades ago, alternative- printing processes — the photogram, daguerreotype, tintype, collodion, Mordançage and others — are still widely practiced. The 21st century has witnessed increased popularity among these and other organic printing methods, as photographers gravitate to the uniQue, unpredictable and fascinating print characteristics achievable through these time-honored techniQues. This is the perfect opportunity to show off your darkroom skill and creative vision. • Pinhole/Plastic Camera Imagery: This category includes analog photography, e.g. pinhole cameras and plastic cameras like the Holga, Diana and Lomo.
    [Show full text]
  • Shifts in Modernist Architects' Design Thinking
    arts Article Function and Form: Shifts in Modernist Architects’ Design Thinking Atli Magnus Seelow Department of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology, Sven Hultins Gata 6, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden; [email protected]; Tel.: +46-72-968-88-85 Academic Editor: Marco Sosa Received: 22 August 2016; Accepted: 3 November 2016; Published: 9 January 2017 Abstract: Since the so-called “type-debate” at the 1914 Werkbund Exhibition in Cologne—on individual versus standardized types—the discussion about turning Function into Form has been an important topic in Architectural Theory. The aim of this article is to trace the historic shifts in the relationship between Function and Form: First, how Functional Thinking was turned into an Art Form; this orginates in the Werkbund concept of artistic refinement of industrial production. Second, how Functional Analysis was applied to design and production processes, focused on certain aspects, such as economic management or floor plan design. Third, how Architectural Function was used as a social or political argument; this is of particular interest during the interwar years. A comparison of theses different aspects of the relationship between Function and Form reveals that it has undergone fundamental shifts—from Art to Science and Politics—that are tied to historic developments. It is interesting to note that this happens in a short period of time in the first half of the 20th Century. Looking at these historic shifts not only sheds new light on the creative process in Modern Architecture, this may also serve as a stepstone towards a new rethinking of Function and Form. Keywords: Modern Architecture; functionalism; form; art; science; politics 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Making Photos with the Sun
    MAKING PHOTOS WITH THE SUN For her exhibition at Storm King this year, artist Kiki Smith made this artwork, called river light. It is made up of nine brilliant blue flags arranged in a circle. Each flag is an image of sunlight sparkling on water. Kiki took these images from videos she made of the East River in New York City as she walked from her apartment to a nearby pool to swim. To make her flags, Kiki Smith used an almost 180-year- old photography process called cyanotype. A cyanotype is a kind of photograph made without a camera. It is made by coating paper or fabric in chemicals that change color when exposed to light. Then, an object or a transparent photo negative is placed on the treated paper and exposed to the sunlight. Everywhere the sunlight reaches, the paper turns deep blue, but everywhere that it is covered up, where the sun does not reach, stays white. Originally, cyanotypes were used to copy text and architectural drawings. Even though they’re no longer copied by cyanotype, that’s why building plans are still sometimes called blueprints! Anna Atkins was the first person to use the cyanotype process to record other kinds of things beside text and building plans. In 1843 she began placing algae and plant specimens directly onto cyanotype paper and exposing them to light to record their exact size and shape. She included over three hundred of these photograms, or photos made by placing objects directly onto photo-sensitive paper, in the very first book illustrated entirely with photographs, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.
    [Show full text]
  • Dada to New Objectivity, Part 2: Duchamp
    Dada to New Objectivity, Part 2: Duchamp Arp is always given as the paradigm example of this although recent studies suggest that might be an oversimplification. A recent study of Arp seems to find his multi-lingual childhood a model or metaphor for understanding his “multi-lingual” personality as an artist. Arp wrote poetry, was a sculptor and painter, associated with international constructivism, dada, and surrealism. Making this an apt metaphor are the similarities between his creative activities: in poetry, he wrote in both French and German, easily translating one into the other; in painting and sculpture, he is perhaps best known for his reliefs – a medium which fluidly moves from two to three-dimensions as the relief is painted and like a collage but because they are made of wood or other substantial materials, they engage light and shade and volume in real ways as well as pictorial. The myth about Arp’s early reliefs and collages is that he made them entirely according to the laws of chance – that he cut out pieces of paper (or wood) and let them fall to the ground, creating the future work of art without his direction. Although it seems unlikely that he did, in fact, make his works entirely according to chance, it does not seem unlikely that he wanted them to look as though they had been ruled by chance or that he understood the ways in which chance might affect the final work. Certainly, there is no doubt that in these early works there are no references to figures or recognizable forms and that in place of representation, they assert, if not outright flaunt, the materiality of the object.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking New Objectivity in Alfred Barr's Chart of Modern Art in 1936
    Rethinking New Objectivity in Alfred Barr’s Chart of Modern Art in 1936 By Niloofar Gholamrezaei, Ph.D. Candidate at Texas Tech University. I- Introduction Historically, modernism refers to the different artistic movements of the 20th century. However, several sets of definitions have shaped the ways in which one defines modern art1. Perhaps the most dominant definition of modernism drives from Alfred Barr’s catalog, “Cubism and Abstract Art" (fig 1). Barr wrote the catalog for the major exhibition, “Cubism and Abstract Art”, curated by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1936 (MoMA: Cubism and Abstract Art). The show along with the catalogue were meant to present the modern art (MoMA: Cubism and Abstract Art). In the catalog, Barr wrote a concrete history of modernism (Platt, 293). His definition can be considered as one of the first systematic histographies of modern art (293). In his catalog, Barr identifies the modern art movement as a linear removal from realism toward abstraction (293). According to the Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Barr’s narrative “continues to shape the Museum’s presentation of modernism to this day” (Cubism and Abstract Art). Therefore, his definition of modernism has been promoted by the MoMA as the definition of modern art and has remained an influential way of defining modernism. However, such histography was embedded within certain ideologies and propagandas related to the political condition of its time (Platt, 284). Thus, Barr’s notion of modern art contains limitations and problems and needs to be challenged. Among various problems in Barr’s definition of modernism is his exclusion of some artistic movements and trends that did not fit his model, or which contradicted his definition of modernism.
    [Show full text]
  • Or Not to Be [Titled]? Art History and Its 'Well-(Un)Known' Masters
    To be [titled] or not to be [titled]? Art history and its ‘well-(un)known’ masters: introductory remarks Julia Trinkert and Reinhard Köpf When examining medieval monuments in Europe, one sooner or later encounters a series of works of art whose stylistic appearance, iconography, motifs and compositions seem to be closely related. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, these works, have led and continue to lead art historical research to interpretation attempts that are intended to describe the obvious, but not certain, connections. This is where the long art-historical methodological tradition of speculative naming begins. Perceptions that cannot be named in more detail become comprehensible through constructs of attribution to persons who can be named. The perhaps newly discovered artistic connections between individual works gain in importance, visibility and attention through the naming. This is appreciated not only by the experts but also by the press, the interested public and, not least, by potential research project sponsors. In addition, the creation of a speculative name often leads to the construction of a personal network of fictitious employees, who can apparently be distinguished hierarchically on the basis of their skills. Secondary groups of works are assigned to possible successors or pupils by style analyses. This framework therefore offers the possibility of moving further works of art into a closer or more distant context. This discussion focuses on this methodology. Scholarly discourse At the turn of the twentieth century, Wilhelm Vöge (1868-1952) and Adolph Goldschmidt (1863-1944) laid the foundations for an art history of the great continental medieval names.
    [Show full text]