2 papers Art history visual analysis (5-7 pages)

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ART HISTORY 132

German Expressionism

German Expressionism:
Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”)

aim: unrestricted freedom of expression

name:
derived from K’s drawing on cover of Almanac featuring blue horseman
blue also Marc's favorite color
motif of horse favorite subject for K & M

exhibition history:
December 1911: launched in Munich
featured 43 artists (including Rousseau and Delaunay)
1912: second exhibition (Munich)
grander scale
315 works by 31 artists (including Picasso, Braque, Klee and Goncharova)
1913: Kandinsky, Marc, and Klee exhibited together at influential “First German Salon d’Automne” in Berlin

Wassily Kandinsky
(1866-1944)

biography: influence of music

K learned piano & cello at early age
fascinated by music’s emotional power
allows freedom of interpretation
not based on literal qualities; instead, abstract
saw color, as he heard music
used color in highly theoretical way
tone  timbre
hue  pitch
saturation  volume
relate to Schönberg’s First String Quartet (1905)
abandons tonal & harmonic conventions
radically opens musical compositional structures
chromatic structure defined as a “developing variation”
career:
studied law & economics at Univ. of Moscow (1886)
lectured at Moscow Faculty of Law
attended Impressionist exhibition (1895)
left Moscow for Munich to study life-drawing, sketching & anatomy (1897)

German Expressionism:
Der Blaue Reiter

Kandinsky’s On the Spiritual in Art (December 1911)
treatise about non-objectivity; saw it as future for innovative visual art
based on artist’s emotions, rather than objective reality or materialism
“interior necessity”
intuition vs. rationality
form: outward visual expression of artist’s inward needs
color: liberated from form (see Fauvism)
composition: described in overtly musical terms

“melodic”

subordinated to a clearly apparent form (e.g., geometrical forms or simple lines that create general movement  Cezanne’s Large Bathers)

2) “symphonic”

complex; consisting of several forms
principal form may externally be very hard to find
conclusion: musical metaphor to describe deliberately cloaked pictorial construction of form and color

Kandinsky’s Composition IV
(1911)

Kandinsky’s Composition VII
(1913)

Kandinsky

Composition VIII (1923)
theme: moves from apocalyptic emotion to geometrical rhythm
aesthetic: see influence of Russian Constructivism
absorbed by K while in Russia prior to return to Germany to teach at Bauhaus
form: greater compositional role than color
composition. dynamic (symphonic)
color: colors w/in forms energize their geometry
spatial order: undefined space
background enhances dynamism
layered colors define depth
forms recede & advance creating quasi- “push-pull” effect

Franz Marc
(1880-1916)

biography:
father  professional landscape painter
originally a theology student
trained at Munich Academy of Art
travels to Paris (1903) where he spends several months, also visiting Brittany
excited by Impressionists
runs away to Paris, abandoning fiancé day before marriage ceremony (1907)
return to Paris:
again entranced by Impressionists
discovers work of Gauguin and Van Gogh
began intensive study of animals which lead to his mature style
meets August Macke
Introduces him to Fauves
views Matisse exhibit
introduces M to future patron
WWI: volunteers; dies near Verdun

Marc

Blue Horse (1911)
aesthetic::mature style
mixture of Romanticism, Expressionism and Symbolism
motif: animal
purity and communion w/ nature that humans had lost
“the irreligious humanity which lived all around me did not excite my true feelings, whereas the virgin feeling for life of the animal world set alight everything good in me”
spatial order: 3-d
perspective: linear & aerial
light/shadow: establishes volume vs. fracturing form & space
color: emotional values
blue  male principle
astringent and spiritual
yellow  female principle
gentle and spiritual
red  matter
brutal and heavy
always opposed/overcome

Marc’s Fate of the Animals
(1913)

Marc’s Fighting Forms
(1914)

Käthe Kollwitz
(1867–1945)

biography:
father  radical Social democrat
mother  daughter of Lutheran pastor expelled from official state church in Prussia
Oct 1914: lost youngest son on battlefield during World War I
training: influenced by grandfather's lessons in religion and socialism
1888: Women's Art School (Munich)
twice visited Paris; enrolled at Académie Julian to learn sculpture
themes: tragedy of war during first half of 20C
subject matter: human condition for less fortunate that embraced victims of poverty, hunger, and war
narrative tone: empathetic
political ideology: committed socialist & pacifist
medium: graphic arts

Kollwitz

Woman with Dead Child (1903)
motif: pieta
biography: subsequently lost youngest son on battlefield during World War I (Oct 1914)
color scheme: prints on themes of social comment were carried out predominantly in black and white
human form: sculptural massiveness
1904: K attends Académie Julian where she learnt the basic principles of sculpture
composition: crouching, naked female figure w/ child on her lap
spatial order: ambiguous
light/shadow: chiaroscuro effects

Kollwitz

Help Russia(1921)
“People from bourgeois sphere were altogether w/out appeal or interest. All middle-class life seemed pedantic to me. On the other hand, I felt proletariat had guts. It was not until much later... that I was powerfully moved by the fate of the proletariat and everything connected w/ its way of life....
“… compassion and commiseration were at first of very little importance in attracting me to the representation of proletarian life; what mattered was simply that I found it beautiful."

Die Brücke
(1905-13)

art movement: “The Bridge”
association of artists linking past to future
worked together in rented storefront studios
program: “protest” art
drawn together by what they were against, rather than in favor of
call on all youth to fight for greater artistic freedom against older, well-established powers
style: expressive possibilities of color, form & compositional distortions
inspired by van Gogh’s clear expression of “inner-necessity” vs. Impressionism interest in material world & finesse
rapid development of personal styles
Fauvist strong colors (influenced by Matisse exhibit in Berlin in 1908)
media/techniques:
life drawing in studios
“plein air” (e.g., Moritzburg lakes near Dresden, at the island of Fehmarn)
woodcuts, lithographs, and drawings

Ludwig Kirchner
(1880-1938)

Self-Portrait (1905)
founder of Die Brücke
training:
studies architecture in Dresden (1901)
studies painting in Munich (1903-04)
short stay in Nuremberg,
views Dürer’s original woodblocks (c. 1500)
figures: non-academic
“fifteen-minute nudes”
attempt to directly access motif
natural poses
angular physical features
no regard for anatomical correctness or spatial relations

Kirchner

Two Women in the Street (1913)
aesthetic: permutation of Fauvism
subject: mocks bourgeoisie
spatial order: compressed
perspective: tilted
figures: grotesque; distorted
brutal simplifications
jagged & geometric
angular & elongated features
composition: dynamic
color: vibrant/complimentary, yet garish

Kirchner

Self-Portrait as Soldier (1915)
biography: WWI
mobilized to field artillery
suffers nervous breakdown
brushwork: painterly
perspective: shallow; compressed
figures: angular
setting: artist’s studio
nude model
paintings placed against walls
symbolic mutilation
bloody stump cut off at wrist, instead of paintbrush

Emile Nolde
(1867-1956)

biography:
1884 and 1888: trained as craftsman in furniture
1889: School of Applied Arts in Karlsruhe
1892-1898: drawing instructor in SW
1898: rejected by Munich Academy
1899-1902: spent next three years taking private painting classes, visiting Paris, and becoming familiar w/ Impressionism
career:
already 31 by time he pursued career as an artist
not original member of Die Brücke; joins in 1906
resigns from group in 1907
group pressure to develop style more closely aligned to other members
as a result, works in isolation
themes:
religious
nudes
landscapes

Nolde

Crucifixion (c. 1915)
aesthetic: abstract
subject: religious (see Gauguin)
tone: visceral & forceful
spatial order: ambiguous setting
figures: grotesque
bloody wounds
rugged facial features
flattened volumes
color: vibrant; large & unmodulated
brushwork: crude “impasto”

Neue Sachlichkeit (“New Objectivity”)

1923: Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, director of Kunsthalle in Mannheim, coined the term
“What we are displaying here is distinguished by — in itself purely external — characteristics of objectivity w/ which artists express themselves”
aim to "tear the objective form of the world of contemporary facts and represent current experience in its tempo and fevered temperature”
themes: to present a direct/honest image of society & war
subject matter: Romantic
attacked society they felt perpetuated inequalities
reaction to firsthand WWI experience
urban activity
collective beliefs, rather than personal
tone: harsh, bitter
principal artists:
Grosz (1893-1958)
Beckman (1884-1950)
Dix (1891-1959)

George Grosz
(1893-1959)

Hunger (c. 1915)
aesthetic: Expressionistic
linear “angst”
compressed spatial order
theme: indictment of economic effect on proletariat
figures: realistic
facial features
clothing
perspective: linear

Grosz

Eclipse of the Sun (1925)
aesthetic: Romantic
theme: post-WWI society
figures: caricatured
tone: satirical
composition: dynamic
color: vibrant & complimentary
perspective: tilted
iconography:
militaristic
religious
economic

Otto Dix
(1891-1969)

training: entered Academy of Applied Arts (1910)

biography: WWI commander of machine gun unit

later describe recurring nightmare in which he crawled through destroyed houses
career:
founder of Dresden Secession group (1919)
joins Berlin Secession (1924)
themes: Romantic
modern war’s violence verging on savagery
aftermath of war
scornful portrayal Germany's Weimar Republic

Dix

Dix
Skull (1924)
theme: horror of war
medium: graphic arts
aesthetic: grotesque
composition: dynamic
color: monochromatic
shadow: chiaroscuro

Dix’s The War
(1929-32)

Max Beckmann
(1884-1950)

biography: traumatic experiences of WWI
career: dramatic transformation from academic style to distortions of figure and space
fortunes changed w/ rise of Hitler
1933: dismissed from teaching
1937: > 500 of B’s works confiscated from German museums; several put on display in “Degenerate Art” exhibition in Munich
essay: “The Artist in the State” (1927)
artist as conscious shaper of transcendent idea
“Art is the mirror of the God that humanity is”
“Art becomes a symbol and source of power for the partly still dormant power in responsible human beings”

Beckmann

Deposition (1917)
aesthetic: expressionistic
influence: German Gothic
perspective: tilted
figures: angular & elongated
composition: dynamic
color: muted flesh tones
iconography: accurate
perspective: deliberately mishandled

Beckmann’s Night
(1918-19)

Beckmann’s Departure
(1933)

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 2: Photograph of Wassily KANDINSKY.
Slide 4: KANDINSKY. Sketch for the Blaue Reiter Almanac (1911), Watercolor, 11 3/8 x 8 ¼ in.
Slide 5: KANDINSKY. Murnau with Church (1910), Oil on cardboard, 25 1/2” x 19 3/4”, Lenbachhaus, Munich.
Slide 6: KANDINSKY. Composition IV (1911), Oil on canvas, 62 7/8 x 98 5/8 in., Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen, Dusseldorf, Germany.
Slide 7: KANDINSKY. Composition VII (1913), Oil on canvas, 6’ 6 ¾ in. x 9’ 11 1/8 in., Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Slide 8: KANDINSKY. Composition VIII (1923), Oil on canvas, 55 1/8 x 79 1/8 in., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Slide 9: MACKE, August. Portrait of Franz Marc (1910), Oil on canvas, Nationalgalarie, Berlin.
Slide 10: MARC, Franz. Blue Horse (1911), Oil on canvas, Oil on canvas, 112.5 x 84.5 cm., Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 11: MARC, Franz. The Fate of the Animals (1913), Oil on canvas, 196 x 266 cm., Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland.
Slide 12: MARC, Franz. Fighting Forms (1914), Oil on canvas, 91 x 131 cm., Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst, Munich.
Slide 13: Photograph of Käthe KOLLWITZ.
Slide 14: KOLLWITZ, Käthe. Woman with Dead Child (1903), etching, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Slide 15: KOLLWITZ, Käthe. Help Russia (1921), Lithograph, 15 ¾ x 18 ¾ in., Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
Slide 16: PECHSTEIN, Max. Poster for Die Brücke Exhibition (c. 1910).
Slide 17: KIRCHNER, Ludwig. Self-Portrait (c. 1910), woodcut.

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 18: KIRCHNER. Two Women in the Street (c. 1915), Oil on canvas, 120.5 x 91 cm., Dusseldorf, Germany.
Slide 19: KIRCHNER. Self-portrait as Soldier (1915), Oil on canvas, 27 1/4 x 24 in., Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio.
Slide 20: NOLDE. The Prophet (1912), Private Collection.
Slide 21: NOLDE, Emil. Dance Around the Golden Calf (1910), Oil on canvas, 88 x 105.5 cm., Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst, Munich.
Slide 22: NOLDE. Crucifixion (1912), Oil on canvas, 200.5 x 193.5 cm, Nolde-Stiftung Seebull.
Slide 23: GROSZ. Hunger (1915), Pen and ink.
Slide 24: GROSZ. Eclipse of Sun (1926), Oil on canvas, 210 x 184 cm., Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY.

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 26: DIX. Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1914), ink and watercolor on paper, 68 x 53.5 cm, Municipal Gallery, Stuttgart.
Slide 27: DIX. Skull (1924), Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne.
Slide 28: DIX. The War (1929-323), Oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden
Slide 29: BECKMANN. Self-Portrait (c. 1925).
Slide 30: BECKMANN. Deposition (1917), Oil on canvas, 59 1/2 x 50 3/4 in., The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
Slide 31: BECKMANN. Night (1918-19), Oil on canvas, 4’4 3/8” x 5’ ¼”, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düseldorf.