Splendor And Misery: New Objectivity in Germany
The physical and psychological injuries and abysmal experiences of World War I, which claimed the lives of more than nine million people and left over 20 million wounded, called for new depictions of reality in art. The resignation, accusations and indescribable hardships that characterized this time on the one hand, and the hope, emancipation and emerging zest for life of the 鈥淕olden Twenties鈥� on the other, needed to be expressed in a new type of art: one that was unsentimental, sober, concrete and purist; in short, one that was objective and realistic. Thus, the movement of New Objectivity 鈥� a term coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, who in 1925 organized the exhibition Neue Sachlichkeit 鈥� Deutsche Malerei seit dem Expressionismus [New Objectivity 鈥� German Painting since Expressionism] at the St盲dtische Kunsthalle Mannheim 鈥� provided a contrast, and not least a reaction, to the pathos-filled, illusionistic Expressionism that was no longer able to document the intellectual and political crisis situation and its reality. Hartlaub further established the theory of the two wings of New Objectivity: the politically-oriented, socio-critical wing of the Verists on the left, and the Classicist and neo-romantic, traditional wing on the right.
Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Christian Schad, Otto Dix, Lotte Laserstein, Gerta Overbeck, Rudolf Schlichter, Karl Hubbuch, Grethe J眉rgens, and many other artists, captured the zeitgeist on canvas and paper. They derived the themes for their works not only from the aftershocks of World War I but also from the thriving amusement industry, the new life plans pursued by independent and confident women, and from the encroachment of technological advancements upon everyday life and nature. People, as well as things, were depicted in a razor-sharp, sober and distanced manner, with artists capturing an emphatic image of the conditions and developments in the Weimar Republic (1918鈥�1933) for posterity.
These new artistic approaches came to an abrupt end in 1933, when Adolf Hitler rose to power and enforced the National Socialists鈥� art policy: Politically suspect artists had to endure raids of their apartments and studios, were excluded from institutions and associations, and faced exhibition and employment bans. Some artists were murdered, some were forced into exile, many preferred an inner emigration, while others chose to align themselves with the regime鈥檚 art policy.
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The physical and psychological injuries and abysmal experiences of World War I, which claimed the lives of more than nine million people and left over 20 million wounded, called for new depictions of reality in art. The resignation, accusations and indescribable hardships that characterized this time on the one hand, and the hope, emancipation and emerging zest for life of the 鈥淕olden Twenties鈥� on the other, needed to be expressed in a new type of art: one that was unsentimental, sober, concrete and purist; in short, one that was objective and realistic. Thus, the movement of New Objectivity 鈥� a term coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, who in 1925 organized the exhibition Neue Sachlichkeit 鈥� Deutsche Malerei seit dem Expressionismus [New Objectivity 鈥� German Painting since Expressionism] at the St盲dtische Kunsthalle Mannheim 鈥� provided a contrast, and not least a reaction, to the pathos-filled, illusionistic Expressionism that was no longer able to document the intellectual and political crisis situation and its reality. Hartlaub further established the theory of the two wings of New Objectivity: the politically-oriented, socio-critical wing of the Verists on the left, and the Classicist and neo-romantic, traditional wing on the right.
Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Christian Schad, Otto Dix, Lotte Laserstein, Gerta Overbeck, Rudolf Schlichter, Karl Hubbuch, Grethe J眉rgens, and many other artists, captured the zeitgeist on canvas and paper. They derived the themes for their works not only from the aftershocks of World War I but also from the thriving amusement industry, the new life plans pursued by independent and confident women, and from the encroachment of technological advancements upon everyday life and nature. People, as well as things, were depicted in a razor-sharp, sober and distanced manner, with artists capturing an emphatic image of the conditions and developments in the Weimar Republic (1918鈥�1933) for posterity.
These new artistic approaches came to an abrupt end in 1933, when Adolf Hitler rose to power and enforced the National Socialists鈥� art policy: Politically suspect artists had to endure raids of their apartments and studios, were excluded from institutions and associations, and faced exhibition and employment bans. Some artists were murdered, some were forced into exile, many preferred an inner emigration, while others chose to align themselves with the regime鈥檚 art policy.
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