Copyright by Rachel Beth Newman 2018
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Max Ernst Was a German-Born Surrealist Who Helped Shape the Emergence of Abstract Expressionism in America Post-World War II
QUICK VIEW: Synopsis Max Ernst was a German-born Surrealist who helped shape the emergence of Abstract Expressionism in America post-World War II. Armed with an academic understanding of Freud, Ernst often turned to his work-whether sculpture, painting, or collage-as a means of processing his experience in World War I and unpacking his feelings of dispossession in its wake. Key Ideas / Information • Ernst's work relied on spontaneity (juxtapositions of materials and imagery) and subjectivity (inspired by his personal experiences), two creative ideals that came to define Abstract Expressionism. • Although Ernst's works are predominantly figurative, his unique artistic techniques inject a measure of abstractness into the texture of his work. • The work of Max Ernst was very important in the nascent Abstract Expressionist movement in New York, particularly for Jackson Pollock. DETAILED VIEW: Childhood © The Art Story Foundation – All rights Reserved For more movements, artists and ideas on Modern Art visit www.TheArtStory.org Max Ernst was born into a middle-class family of nine children on April 2, 1891 in Brühl, Germany, near Cologne. Ernst first learned painting from his father, a teacher with an avid interest in academic painting. Other than this introduction to amateur painting at home, Ernst never received any formal training in the arts and forged his own artistic techniques in a self-taught manner instead. After completing his studies in philosophy and psychology at the University of Bonn in 1914, Ernst spent four years in the German army, serving on both the Western and Eastern fronts. Early Training The horrors of World War I had a profound and lasting impact on both the subject matter and visual texture of the burgeoning artist, who mined his personal experiences to depict absurd and apocalyptic scenes. -
A Comparative Study of the Conception and Changes of the German Woods by Germans Throughout History Seen Through Art
A comparative study of the conception and changes of the German woods by Germans throughout history seen through art Anna Henryson 13015491 Module: CP6013 BA Fine Art (Photography) The Cass Dissertation April/2016 Contents List of illustrations I. Introduction II. 19th century III. Nature preservation and the forgotten art IV. The German woods in the present V. Conclusion Bibliography 2 List of Illustrations 1. Maps of the World, Map of Germany, 2013, p. 6. 2. Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, Study of oak trees (recto), 1800, p. 9. 3. Caspar David Friedrich, The Chasseur in the Forest, 1814, p. 10. 4. Caspar David Friedrich, The Cross in the Mountains, 1812, p. 11. 5. Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, 1818, p. 12. 6. Ernst Barlach, The Seventh Day (Der siebente Tag) from The Transformations of God (Die Wandlungen Gottes), 1922, p. 15. 7. Hans Thoma, The Hiker in the Black Forest, 1891, p. 17. 8. Werner Piener, Hügellandschaft mit Feldern, p. 18. 9. Anselm Kiefer, Occupations, 1969, p. 19. 10. Anselm Kiefer, Varus, 1976, p. 20. 11. Joseph Beuys, Feuerstätte I und Feuerstätte II (Hearth I and Hearth II), 1968–74 and 1978–9, p. 22. 12. Joseph Beuys, 7000 Oak Trees, 1982, © DACS, 2016, p. 23. 3 Introduction ‘A well ordered ideal of ecology… can only stem from art… Art is then, a genuinely human medium for revolutionary change in the sense of completing the transformation from a sick world to a healthy one.’1 A quote from Joseph Beuys, one of the leading artists during the later part of the 20th century and one of the co-founders of the Green Party in Germany. -
Fascist Ecology: the Gr" Een Wing" of the Nazi Party and Its Historical Antecedents Peter Staudenmaier Marquette University, [email protected]
Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette History Faculty Research and Publications History, Department of 1-1-2011 Fascist Ecology: The Gr" een Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents Peter Staudenmaier Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. "Fascist Ecology: The Gr" een Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents," in Ecofascism Revisited: Lessons from the German Experience. Eds. Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier. Porsgrunn: New Compass Press, 2011: 13-42. Permalink. © 2011 New Compass Press. PETER STAUDENMAIER FASCIST ECOLOGY: THE uGREEN WING" OF THE NAZI PARTY AND ITS HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS "We recognize that separating humanity from nature, from the whole of life, leads to humankind's own destruction and to the death of nations. Only through a re-integration of humanity into the whole of nature can our people be made stronger. That is the fundamental point of the biological tasks of our age. Humankind alone is no longer the focus of thought, but rather life as a whole . This striving toward connectedness with the totality of life, with nature itself, a nature into which we are born, this is the deepest meaning and the true essence of National Socialist thought:' 1 In our zeal to condemn the status quo, radicals often carelessly toss about epithets like "fascist" and "ecofascist;' thus contributing to a sort of conceptual inflation that in no way furthers effective social critique. In such a situation, 13 ECOFASCISM REVISITED it is easy to overlook the fact that there are still virulent strains of fascism in our political culture which, however marginal, demand our attention. -
Colorful Language: Morris Louis, Formalist
© COPYRIGHT by Paul Vincent 2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED To UNC-G professor Dr. Richard Gantt and my mother, for their inspiration and encouragement. COLORFUL LANGUAGE: MORRIS LOUIS, FORMALIST CRITICISM, AND MASCULINITY IN POSTWAR AMERICA BY Paul Vincent ABSTRACT American art at mid-century went through a pivotal shift when the dominant gestural style of Abstract Expressionism was criticized for its expressive painterly qualities in the 1950s. By 1960, critics such as Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried were already championing Color Field painting for its controlled use of color and flattened abstract forms. Morris Louis, whose art typifies this latter style, and the criticism written about his work provides a crucial insight into the socio-cultural implications behind this stylistic shift. An analysis of the formalist writing Greenberg used to promote Louis’s work provides a better understanding of not only postwar American art but also the concepts of masculinity and gender hierarchy that factored into how it was discussed at the time. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to extend my thanks Dr. Helen Langa and Dr. Andrea Pearson for their wisdom, guidance, and patience through the writing of this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Juliet Bellow, Dr. Joanne Allen, and Mrs. Kathe Albrecht for their unwavering academic support. I am equally grateful to my peers, Neda Amouzadeh, Lily Sehn, Kathryn Fay, Caitlin Glosser, Can Gulan, Rachael Gustafson, Jill Oakley, Carol Brown, and Fanna Gebreyesus, for their indispensable assistance and kind words. My sincere appreciation goes to The Phillips Collection for allowing me the peace of mind that came with working within its walls and to Mr. -
13 an Entangled History of Zapf, H
152 Hubert Zapf Zapf, H. (2016a). Literature as Cultural Ecoiogy: Sustainflbie Texts. London. Bloomsbury. Zapfl H. (ed.) (2016b). Handbook of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecoiog-y. Berlm: DeGruyter 13 An entangled history of Zapf, H. (2017). "Ecological Thought in Europe and Germany". In L. westllng> and I' Parham (eds.). A Global History of Literature awl the Environment. New York: Cambridge environmental and cultural ••'; University Press, 269-285. sustainability Satirical reflections on the German forest and the German oak as resources of cultural energy 's Evi Zemanek Introduction In Sustainability Studies the modem concept of sustainability as the capacity of ecological, economic, sociocultural, or political systems to remain infinitely :1 productive is commonly traced back to its roots in forestry. The German term 'Nachhaltigkeit' was introduced by Hans Carl von Carlowitz in his groundbreak- ing treatise on forestry Sylvicultura oeconomica, oder hau^wirthliche Nachricht und Naturmafiige Anweisung wr wilden Baum'Zitcht (1713), a text written in reaction to the scarcity of timber after large-scale clear cuttings. Van Carlowitz promoted a careful, farsighted forest management, what he described as "the conservation and cultivation of wood in a way that guarantees a continuous, durable and sus- tainable utilization, because it [the wood] is an essential thing, indispensable for the essence/character of the country" (van Carlowitz 1713: 105-106).' Significantly, von Carlowitz does not primarily argue with the economic value of the wood, its indispensability for industry, house building and the military, but he asserts its ethic and aesthetic values for the people, and he does so even in this central passage of his treatise. -
The Canonisation of Surrealism in the United States
The canonisation of Surrealism in the United States Sandra Zalman In a pointed assessment of the first show of Surrealism in New York, in 1932, the New York Times art critic asked, ‘How much of the material now on view shall we esteem “art,” and how much should be enjoyed as laboratory roughage’?1 The question encompassed the problem Surrealism posed for art history because it essentially went unanswered. Even after the 1936 endorsement by the Museum of Modern Art in a show organized by its founding director Alfred Barr (1902-1981), Surrealism continued to have a vexed relationship with the canon of modern art. Above all, the enterprise of canonisation is ironic for Surrealism – the Surrealists were self-consciously aiming to overthrow the category of art, but simultaneously participating in a tradition of avant-gardism defined by such revolution.2 Framing his exhibition, Barr presented Surrealism as both the most recent avant-garde export, and also as a purposeful departure from the avant-garde’s experimentation in form. Instead, Barr stressed that Surrealism focused on an anti-rationalist approach to representation. Though Barr made a strong case to integrate Surrealism into the broader understanding of modernism in the 1930s, and Surrealism was generally accepted by American audiences as the next European avant-garde, by the 1950s formalist critics in the U.S. positioned Surrealism as a disorderly aberration in modernism’s quest for abstraction. Surrealism’s political goals and commercial manifestations (which Barr’s exhibition had implicitly sanctioned by including cartoons and advertisements) became more and more untenable for the movement’s acceptance into a modern art canon that was increasingly being formulated around an idea of the autonomous self-reflexive work of art. -
Motivation of the Sign 261 Discussion 287
Picasso and Braque A SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZED BY William Rubin \ MODERATED BY Kirk Varnedoe PROCEEDINGS EDITED BY Lynn Zelevansky THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK DISTRIBUTED BY HARRY N. ABRAMS, INC., NEW YORK Contents Richard E. Oldenburg Foreword 7 William Rubin and Preface and Acknowledgments 9 Lynn Zelevansky Theodore Reff The Reaction Against Fauvism: The Case of Braque 17 Discussion 44 David Cottington Cubism, Aestheticism, Modernism 58 Discussion 73 Edward F. Fry Convergence of Traditions: The Cubism of Picasso and Braque 92 Discussion i07 Christine Poggi Braque’s Early Papiers Colles: The Certainties o/Faux Bois 129 Discussion 150 Yve-Alain Bois The Semiology of Cubism 169 Discussion 209 Mark Roskill Braque’s Papiers Colles and the Feminine Side to Cubism 222 Discussion 240 Rosalind Krauss The Motivation of the Sign 261 Discussion 287 Pierre Daix Appe ndix 1 306 The Chronology of Proto-Cubism: New Data on the Opening of the Picasso/Braque Dialogue Pepe Karmel Appe ndix 2 322 Notes on the Dating of Works Participants in the Symposium 351 The Motivation of the Sign ROSALIND RRAUSS Perhaps we should start at the center of the argument, with a reading of a papier colle by Picasso. This object, from the group dated late November-December 1912, comes from that phase of Picasso’s exploration in which the collage vocabulary has been reduced to a minimalist austerity. For in this run Picasso restricts his palette of pasted mate rial almost exclusively to newsprint. Indeed, in the papier colle in question, Violin (fig. 1), two newsprint fragments, one of them bearing h dispatch from the Balkans datelined TCHATALDJA, are imported into the graphic atmosphere of charcoal and drawing paper as the sole elements added to its surface. -
Primitivism" In2 0 T H Century
TH THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART PRIMITIVISM" IN 20 CENTURY ART 11 WEST 53 STREET NEW YORK, NY 10019 Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern (212) 708-940U FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August, 1984 No. 17 NEW EXHIBITION OPENING SEPTEMBER 27 AT MUSEUM OF MODERN ART EXAMINES "PRIMITIVISM" IN 20TH CENTURY ART Few if any external influences on the work of modern painters and sculptors have been more critical than that of the tribal arts of Africa, Oceania and North America. Since the turn of the century when Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse, and others first acquainted themselves with masks and sculptures from these areas, modern artists have continued to display strong interest in the art and culture of tribal societies. The term "primitivism" is used to describe the Western response to tribal cultures as revealed in the work and thought of modern artists. Recognizing the importance of this issue in modern art history--and the relative lack of serious research devoted to it--The Museum of Modern Art in New York this fall presents a groundbreaking exhibition that underscores the parallelisms that exist between the two arts. Entitled "PRIMITIVISM" IN 20TH CENTURY ART: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, the exhibition, which opens on September 27 and runs through January 15, 1985, is the first ever to juxtapose modern and tribal objects in the light of informed art history. William Rubin, head of the Museum's Department of Painting and Sculpture and director of the landmark 1980 Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, has organized the show in collaboration with Professor Kirk Varnedoe of New York University's more/ The exhibition and its national tour are sponsored by Philip Morris Incorporated. -
From Iron Age Myth to Idealized National Landscape: Human-Nature Relationships and Environmental Racism in Fritz Lang’S Die Nibelungen
FROM IRON AGE MYTH TO IDEALIZED NATIONAL LANDSCAPE: HUMAN-NATURE RELATIONSHIPS AND ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM IN FRITZ LANG’S DIE NIBELUNGEN Susan Power Bratton Whitworth College Abstract From the Iron Age to the modern period, authors have repeatedly restructured the ecomythology of the Siegfried saga. Fritz Lang’s Weimar lm production (released in 1924-1925) of Die Nibelungen presents an ascendant humanist Siegfried, who dom- inates over nature in his dragon slaying. Lang removes the strong family relation- ships typical of earlier versions, and portrays Siegfried as a son of the German landscape rather than of an aristocratic, human lineage. Unlike The Saga of the Volsungs, which casts the dwarf Andvari as a shape-shifting sh, and thereby indis- tinguishable from productive, living nature, both Richard Wagner and Lang create dwarves who live in subterranean or inorganic habitats, and use environmental ideals to convey anti-Semitic images, including negative contrasts between Jewish stereo- types and healthy or organic nature. Lang’s Siegfried is a technocrat, who, rather than receiving a magic sword from mystic sources, begins the lm by fashioning his own. Admired by Adolf Hitler, Die Nibelungen idealizes the material and the organic in a way that allows the modern “hero” to romanticize himself and, with- out the aid of deities, to become superhuman. Introduction As one of the great gures of Weimar German cinema, Fritz Lang directed an astonishing variety of lms, ranging from the thriller, M, to the urban critique, Metropolis. 1 Of all Lang’s silent lms, his two part interpretation of Das Nibelungenlied: Siegfried’s Tod, lmed in 1922, and Kriemhilds Rache, lmed in 1923,2 had the greatest impression on National Socialist leaders, including Adolf Hitler. -
Papers of Surrealism, Issue 8, Spring 2010 1
© Lizzie Thynne, 2010 Indirect Action: Politics and the Subversion of Identity in Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore’s Resistance to the Occupation of Jersey Lizzie Thynne Abstract This article explores how Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore translated the strategies of their artistic practice and pre-war involvement with the Surrealists and revolutionary politics into an ingenious counter-propaganda campaign against the German Occupation. Unlike some of their contemporaries such as Tristan Tzara and Louis Aragon who embraced Communist orthodoxy, the women refused to relinquish the radical relativism of their approach to gender, meaning and identity in resisting totalitarianism. Their campaign built on Cahun’s theorization of the concept of ‘indirect action’ in her 1934 essay, Place your Bets (Les paris sont ouvert), which defended surrealism in opposition to both the instrumentalization of art and myths of transcendence. An examination of Cahun’s post-war letters and the extant leaflets the women distributed in Jersey reveal how they appropriated and inverted Nazi discourse to promote defeatism through carnivalesque montage, black humour and the ludic voice of their adopted persona, the ‘Soldier without a Name.’ It is far from my intention to reproach those who left France at the time of the Occupation. But one must point out that Surrealism was entirely absent from the preoccupations of those who remained because it was no help whatsoever on an emotional or practical level in their struggles against the Nazis.1 Former dadaist and surrealist and close collaborator of André Breton, Tristan Tzara thus dismisses the idea that surrealism had any value in opposing Nazi domination. -
'Biographical Notes'
Originalveröffentlichung in: Spies, Werner (Hrsg.): Max Ernst : life and work, Köln 2005, S. 17-31 ‘BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES’ How Max Ernst Plays with a Literary Genre Julia Drost Self-assessments and Influences ‘Max Ernst is a liar, gold-digger, schemer, swindler, slanderer andboxer. ’ The words of a character assessment which Max Ernst drafted for an exhibition poster in T92T. They can be seen as the accompanying text alongside a photograph of the artist below a few important works and collages dating from his Dadaist period. Provocative and mocking self-assessments such as these are typical of Max Ernst, the ‘agent provocateur ’ and ‘most highly intellectual artist of the Surrealist movement ’, who mostly spoke of himself in the third person, and yet wrote more about his own oeuvre than almost any other artist.1 This constant reflection on his own work is characteristic of Max Ernst’s entire artistic career: he had already begun to comment on his curriculum vitae and his artistic creative process at an early date. His self- assessments in writing were continually revised and added to, and were finally published for the first time for the Cologne/Zurich exhibition cata logue in 1962 as Biographical Notes. Tissue of Truth - Tissue of Lies.1 This first detailed description of his entire life was preceded by various other writ ings, of which I shall briefly mention some here. In November 1921 the 17 JULIA DROST journal Das Junge Rheinland published a short article written by the artist himself, entitled simply Max Ernst ? In a special edition of Cahiers d ’Art devoted to the artist in Z936, Max Ernst reflected on his own creative process in the essay Au deld de la peinture (Beyond Painting).4 In 1942 the American magazine View brought out a special edition on Max Ernst, in which a first self-description by the artist was printed under the title Some data on the youth ofM. -
EXPRESSIONISM- NEO-PLASTICISM (De Stijl)- SURREALISM
04.12.2012 ART IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: EXPRESSIONISM- NEO-PLASTICISM (De Stijl)- SURREALISM Week 9 Expressionism In Germany, a group known as Expressionists insisted art should express the artists feelings rather than images of the real world. The belief that the artist could directly convey some kind of inner feeling- - emotional or spiritual- - through art was a fashionable idea in German artistic and intellectual circles at the beginning of the twentieth century. Artists had been encouraged to ‘break free’ from civilized constraints and Academic conventions and somehow express themselves more freely; these ideas are fundamental to what we call German ‘Expressionist’ art. From 1905 to 1930, Expressionism the use of distorted, exaggerated forms and colors for emotional impact dominated German art. This subjective trend, which is the foundation of much twentieth century art, began with Van Gogh, Gauguin and Munch in the late nineteenth century, and continued with Belgian painter James Ensor (1860-1849), and Austrian painters Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), Egon Schiele (1890- 1918), and Oscar Kokoschka (1886-1980). But it was in Germany, with two separate groups Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, the Expressionism reached maturity. Die Brücke: Founded in 1905 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880- 1938) Der Blaue Reiter: Founded in Munich around 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). 1 04.12.2012 DIE BRÜCKE (BRIDGE): BRIDGING THE GAP • Die Brücke founded by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880- 1938) • Members include Ernst Ludwig in 1905. Kirchner (1880–1938), Erich • The aim was to sieze avantgarde spirit. Heckel (1883–1970), and Emil • Members believed their work would be a “bridge” to the Nolde (1867–1956).