Inter-War Art Movements

Art Movements ofthe Post WWI Years

1919-1939

Raphaella W. DEF

HGHS Chappaqua, NY

Essential Question:

How were the emotions and actions of the aftermath of WWI expressed in the

following art movements?

modernism1916 - 1940

The expression of the Artist’s right to freedom of choice in subject and style.

Departure from literal representation – no longer needed with birth of photography.

“Art for Art’s sake”

Reject tradition and society.

Principles of Modernism

“Modernism” by the Critics“ For the younger artists of France have

completely thrown overboard the ideals of perfection and form, of grace and measure and tranquility, which we are accustomed to think as their most valuable possession.”

“…their (Dadaist’s) manifestos and tracts – with which it is proposed to ‘purge’ French art of its slavish subservience to rules.”

from “The Aesthetic Upheaval in France” by Edmund Wilson Jr., Vanity Fair February 1922

“Modernism” by the Artists“ Seven years ago, I tried to make a painting that would live by its own resources…At the present time I am doing research in art. My conclusions? I cannot explain my present researches until I myself have evolved out of them, that is to say, until I have gone further in my artistic evolution.”

Francis Picabia, quoted from “Francis Picabia and his Puzzling Art (an extremely modernized

academician)”, from Vanity Fair November 1915

Art movements as part of Modernism

Dadaism (1916 – 1924)

Bauhaus (1919 – 1933)

Art Deco (1920 – 1935)

Surrealism [early] (1920 - 1935)

dadaism1916 - 1924

Tristan Tzara – founder of Dadaism

“ Freedom : Dada Dada Dada, a roaring of tense colors, and interlacing of opposites and all contradictions, grotesques, inconsistencies: LIFE”

“Dada Manifesto” [1919]

Began in neutral Switzerland in WWI

Also big in Paris.

Reached its peak between 1916 – 1924

“Anti – Art”

A movement against rigidity of society and art, and the barbarity of war – the public didn’t deserve art after the war.

Dadaism

Tristan TzaraBorn in Romania in 1896.

Lived most of his life in Paris.

Wrote the first Dada text, La Premiere Aventure celeste de Monsieur Antipyrine in 1916.

Penned the movements manifestos, Sept manifestes Dada, in 1924.

Became an active member of the French Communist Party in later life.

Characteristics of Dada Art

Nonsensical drawings

Pastel and faded colors

Used collages and layers – to confuse the “unworthy beholder.”

“The beginnings of surrealism” – many Dada artists went on to become members of the Surrealist movement.

Subjects sometimes mundane, called art as irony. (e.g.– bicycle wheel, flyer.)

Important Artists of the Dada Movement

Tristan Tzara (1896 – 1953)Francis Picabia (1879 – 1953)Kurt Schwitters (1887 – 1948)Max Ernst (1891 – 1976)Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1958)

Francis Picabia

Machine Turn Quickly

1916-1918

Francis Picabia

Feathers

1921

Francis Picabia

Chapeau de Paille

1921

Kurt Schwitters

The Cherry Picture

1921

Kurt Schwitters

Merz 448 (Moscow)

1922

Kurt Schwitters

Kleine Dada Soiree

1922

Marcel Duchamp

Monte Carlo Bond

1924

Marcel Duchamp

You Me (Tu-M)

1918

Publications of the Dada movement

Many publications within Dada Movement

Was not only an art movement, but included poetry and theatre.

First publication - Cabaret Voltaire

Followed by Dada in July 1917 - an art and literature review organized by Tristan Tzara.

Other publications included Le courre a Barbe, Der Dada, De Stijl, Proverbe, & Freie Straße

Example covers of Dada Magazine(1917 & 1920)

Example articles from De Stijl and Dada

bauhaus1919 - 1933

Walter Gropius:Founder of Bauhaus

“The School will gradually turn into a workshop…

Art and Technology - a new unity.”

BauhausBegan in 1919 with Bauhaus School in Weimar, Germany.

Lead by Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, & Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe.

Wanted to create new art to reflect the new times they were living in after WWI.

Artist should be trained to work in the industry.

Walter GropiusBorn in Berlin in 1883

Served as Sgt. Major in WWI.

In 1919 was employed as the new master of the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar – became the Bauhaus School.

Fled Germany and the Nazi Party in 1934.

Died in Boston, MA in 1969.

Characteristics of BauhausA lack of recognizable objects – wanted

to find the true meaning of art through disassembling it.

Clean lines, geometric shapes layered.

In architecture: clean, functional.

Like Dadaism, was a step toward surrealism for artists such as Wassily Kandinsky.

Stylistic patterns altered as leaders of the school changed – earlier Bauhaus is different to later Bauhaus.

Important members of the Bauhaus

school Walter Gropius (1883-1969)

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Josef Albers (1888-1976)

Herbert Bayer (1900 - 1985)

Bauhaus School in Dessau, Germany

Wassily Kandinsky

Contrasting Sounds

1924

Wassily Kandinsky

On White II

1923

Wassily Kandinsky

Yellow Red Blue

1925

Josef Albers

Figure (Glass, Colour and Light)

1921

Herbert Bayer

Profil en Face

1929

Herbert Bayer

Birthday Greetings to Xonti

1930

Like Dada, Bauhaus also published periodicals and magazines.

Head of printing and design for Bauhaus Magazine was Herbert Bayer.

The Bauhaus school also published books called Bauhausbücher

art deco1920 - 1935

Art DecoCenter: Paris.

Gained the title “Art Deco” from Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925

A new kind of decorative and elegant art.

Reached its high point in the mid ’20s – mid 30’s.

Reaction to the forced austerity caused by WWI.

Characteristics of Art DecoGeometric shapes

Although not the flowing swirls of Art Nouveau, had bolder curves and less “fussy” designs.

Bold colors, and new ways of shading pictures.

Idealistic images of the “flaming youth” of the “roaring twenties”.

Carried a theme through pieces, especially in interiors and architecture.

Exposition Internationale des arts Decoratifs et Industriels

ModernesApril – November 1925Held in ParisTo show the world that France once again led the way in a new evolving international style – “Art Deco”.Changed the perception of Bauhaus, Colonial Art and, predominantly, the Art Deco style as legitimate movements.

Important Art Deco Artists

Tamara de Lempicka (1898 – 1980)

“Erte” - Romain De Tirtoff (1892 – 1990)

William Van Allen (1883 – 1954)

“Cassandre” - Adolphe Mouron (1901 – 1968)

Tamara de Lempicka

Sleeping Girl

1935

Tamara de Lempicka

Portrait of a Young Girl in a

Green Dress

1929

Tamara de Lempicka

Self Portrait in the Green Bugatti

1925

Erte

Costume Design for “Les Pierres

Precieuses”

1923

Erte

Design for Lanternbearer in

“Venise XVII”

1919

Erte

L’Arc En Ciel

(Cover for “Harpers Bazaar”)

1929

Cassandre

Cigarettes Celtique

1935

Cassandre

L’Atlantique

1932

Cassandre

L’Intransigeant

1925

early surrealism1920 - 1935

Surrealism Inspired by new psychology of two men:

Sigmund Freud & Carl Gustav Jung

Basic PrinciplesFreud

Human development is best understood as changing objects of sexual desireWishes are repressed and emerge from the subconscious in “accidental” bursts – Freudian slips.Neuroses are caused by repressed memories and unconscious conflicts.ID, Ego and Super Ego.

Jung

Neuroses are caused by conflicts between individuals subconscious and greater world.Sexual desire does not play as huge a role.Must make a healthy relationship between the conscious and unconscious – shouldn’t be cut off from it, but shouldn’t be swamped by it.

SurrealismDivided into two groups based on different interpretations of Freud and Jung – the Automatists and the Veristic Surrealists.

Automatists - suppress conscious in order to free the subconscious, inspired by more “Dadaist” ideals, shouldn’t be overly analyzed.

Veristic Surrealists - follow the images of the subconscious so they can be interpreted; art is a way to freeze ideas of the subconscious.

SurrealismLead by Andre Brenton, a French doctor who had served in the trenches during WWI.

Subject matter was varied: – some pieces show a

complete dislocation from any sort of literal “reality” (for example, Max Ernst’s works)

-- other pieces show “normal” situations with a spark of absurdity (for example, Rene Magritte's works.)

Bright colors among sometimes dull backgrounds.

Max Ernst

Hydrometric Demonstration Of How To Kill By Temperature

1920

Max Ernst

Kupferblech

1919

Max Ernst

The Elephant Celebs

1921

Max Ernst

The Couple in Lace

1925

Rene Magritte

The Menaced Assassin

1927

Rene Magritte

Voice of Space

1931

Rene Magritte

The False Mirror

1928

Rene Magritte

The Lovers

1928

To summarize Post WWI art, a quote from its true founder…

Tristan Tzara - leader of Dada movement

“The beautiful and the true in art do not exist; what interests me is the intensity of a personality transposed directly, clearly into the work…and in what manner he knows how to gather sensation, emotion, into a lacework of words and sentiments.”

“Lecture on Dada” [1922]