How New and How Objective?

Steve Plumb. Neue Sachlichkeit, 1918-33: Unity and Diversity of an Art Movement. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006. 165 pp. $44.00, cloth, ISBN 978-90-420-2019-1. Reviewed by Marion Deshmukh Published on H-German (October, 2006) A quotation prefaces Steve Plumb's mono‐ jectivity, an art movement traditionally character‐ graph, a lightly revised version of his doctoral dis‐ ized by a return to a sober, often cynical realism sertation (Sunderland, 2002). The quote comes after the supposedly irrational fights of spirituali‐ from the Weimar artist Otto Dix, whose sharply ty and abstraction under prewar expressionism. critical visions of post-World War I Germany sym‐ But his objective often becomes obscure, and his bolize for many the various contradictions of the arguments difficult to follow in the welter of quo‐ Weimar Republic. The Dix quotation reads: "Also tations by art historians, critics and philosophers-- kurz und gut: ich wollte die Dinge zeigen, wie sie all of whom attempted to define the very same wirklich sind" (n.p.). If only the author had fol‐ movement. His chapters describe the various ap‐ lowed Dix's aesthetic mission in his slim volume! proaches taken by these art historians and critics His monograph is short, consisting of 155 pages of of the 1920s and critics of our time in attempting text. Its overall thesis, summarized in the conclu‐ to suggest Neue Sachlichkeit's salient features. sion as "the object ... is the predominant unifying One chapter discusses theory and one chapter its factor in the visual art of Neue Sachlichkeit," is themes, but there is no clear conceptual frame‐ not necessarily a new interpretation (p. 154). Al‐ work to allow the reader to distinguish between most three decades ago, John Willett masterfully theory and theme. The author says as much when and economically described the movement's main he prefaces the thematic chapter by stating that features, as did Wieland Schmied, in an important its main aim "is to look for examples of the points monograph and exhibition catalogue.[1] Addition‐ noted in the previous chapter" (p. 79). ally, the path taken to arrive at this rather unsur‐ A major difficulty with the author's account is prising conclusion about the object's critical im‐ his over-reliance on quotations of others to string portance is meandering and leads to a number of together his own arguments, which, because he conceptual cul-de-sacs. The title initially sounded jumps from point to point, never allow the reader promising. Plumb set out to define the chronologi‐ to understand his overall message. He quotes ex‐ cal and thematic contours of Weimar's New Ob‐ H-Net Reviews tensively from Weimar critics, such as Gustav Frankly, because so many other writers have Hartlaub, director of the Städtische Kunsthalle in examined the major aspects of Neue Sachlichkeit Mannheim, who mounted an exhibition in 1925 from a literary, political or visual angle, Plumb's using the term Neue Sachlichkeit in the exhibi‐ desire to encapsulate the various interpretations tion's title to denote changes in contemporary art unfortunately results in a muddle that neither since expressionism. Hartlaub's exhibition has clarifies or extends the arguments of his predeces‐ traditionally served as the starting point for ex‐ sors. As in most art movements that are given an amining new trends in postwar German art and umbrella definition--whether Romanticism, Im‐ the return to a more object-oriented grounding af‐ pressionism or Expressionism--one is bound to ter almost two decades of expressionism and ab‐ find divergent strands and various ideas that dif‐ straction. In addition to numerous quotations fer from the definition embedded within the from Weimar critics, such as Hartlaub and Walter movement. Neue Sachlichkeit is no different. The Benjamin, Plumb intersperses quotes from recent chronological time period ascribed to it may be a art historians and critics who have written about bit longer than normally described, but in the period or curated later exhibits and have of‐ essence, its leading practitioners, such as Otto Dix fered their own definitions of the term, such as and George Grosz, or less well-known artists, Franz Roh and Wieland Schmied in the 1960s, briefly discussed, such as Albert Renger-Patzsch 1970s or 1980s. Additionally, Plumb cites Matthias or Karl Blassfeldt, would explore different themes Eberle, Jost Hermand and Frank Trommler, the and appropriate different stylistic strategies as latter misnamed as "Fritz" Trommler (p. 53). He artists were always wont to do. Some of them briefly summarizes their analyses of Roh's and were politically engaged leftists, like George Schmied's definitions of New Objectivity to Grosz, who used fguration to articulate the cor‐ demonstrate the movement's variety. But careful ruption of capitalist society. Other artists within editing would have tightened the often convolut‐ Neue Sachlichkeit, such as Max Beckmann or ed arguments and eliminated errors. Georg Schrimpf, saw a visual return to the recog‐ A curious omission resulting from these ex‐ nizable object as a way to bring together a society tended discussions of critics and artists is the torn by war, revolution and economic distress, paucity of illustrations. Eight are included: several though Beckmann's profound images perhaps paintings, one sketch, one political cartoon and defy definition. In the end, had Plumb devoted in‐ one photograph. In most chapters, Plumb de‐ creased attention to the more obscure painters he scribes one or more paintings, but unfortunately only sketchily mentions in his text, he would have the work itself is not included so that the reader added something substantial to readers' knowl‐ has to rely simply on the author's opinion of the edge of the period and provided new information illustration. It is true that lavishly illustrated about the new objectivity movement. By attempt‐ monographs are notoriously expensive to pro‐ ing to cover too much thematically, chronological‐ duce, given copyright and other permissions ly and critically, however, the author offers in‐ needed in addition to the actual duplication of im‐ stead a puzzling potpourri, not a satisfying or art‐ ages. But when a volume expends a sizable por‐ fully presented synthesis. tion of its narrative in using illustrations as exam‐ Note ples to define Neue Sachlichkeit, including them [1]. John Willett, The New Sobriety: Art and as an integral part of the scholarly scaffolding is Politics in the Weimar Period 1917-33 (New York: critical. Pantheon, 1978); Wieland Schmied, Neue Sach‐ lichkeit und Magischer Realismus in Deutschland 2 H-Net Reviews 1918-33 (Hanover: Fackeltraeger, 1969); Wieland Schmied, ed., Neue Sachlichkeit and German Real‐ ism of the Twenties (London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979). If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-german Citation: Marion Deshmukh. Review of Plumb, Steve. Neue Sachlichkeit, 1918-33: Unity and Diversity of an Art Movement. H-German, H-Net Reviews. October, 2006. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12407 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.

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