Learning Outcomes • Identify the characteristics of German Expressionism and link to social conditions of that period (Weimar 1919-1933) • Evaluate art of this period in relation to film and context
Learning Outcomes
• Identify the characteristics of German Expressionism and link to social conditions of that period (Weimar 1919-1933)
• Evaluate art of this period in relation to film and context
GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
Social Conditions
• WWI also known as the Great War 1914 – 1918
• Germany: 1.7m killed and 4.2m wounded
• The war was fought in the trenches
• Men came back physically maimed and psychologically damaged
Post-war 1918-1939
• Germany had to pay reparations to the Allies
• Suffered hyper-inflation
• The hardships faced by the men in the trenches were continued home – poverty, starvation.
(1923) Woman feeds her stove with Papiermarks which burnt longer than the amount of wood people could buy with them
Cinema
• During this period cinema production, distribution and exhibition was at its height
• Inflation led to a boom in German film exports that began around 1919
• No film censorship directly after war and films depicting nudity, homosexuality and drug use were made
Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
• Removed censorship laws – yet introduced laws for film (no pornography or other indecent content)
• Time of decadence and permissiveness
• Characterised in the rise of the cabaret
Cabaret
• Berlin became the cosmopolitan capital of Europe
• Anita Berber – Expressionist exotic dancer and actress in German silent movies.
Otto Dix, The Dancer Anita Berber, 1910
Bob Fosse – Cabaret (1972)
• Film musical depicting the decadence of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party
Starring Liza Minnelli & Michael York
http://www.nodanw.com/shows_c/cabaret_essay.htm
German ExpressionismTowards a definition
Impressionism
Concerned with outer appearances – a visible reality.
German Expressionism
A reaction to the impressionist concern with the outer and with appearance. It portrays the inner and psychic values. The painted forms are externalised emotions. Colour no longer designates optical facts.
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition
Die Brucke (The Bridge)Erich Heckel, Lyonel Feininger, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Erich Heckel (1883 – 1970)
Reading Aloud, 1914 (woodcut)
Erich Heckel
Roquairol, Portrait of E.L. Kirchner, 1917
Erich Heckel
Girl with a Doll (Franzi), 1910
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
Town Hall, Zottelstedt, 2, 1918
Lyonel Feininger
Villa on the Shore, 4, 1920
Ernst Kirchner (1880-1938)
Potsdamer Platz Berlin, 1914 The Street, 1913
Ernst Kirchner
Hamburg Dancers, 1910
Ernst Kirchner
Dodo with a Large Fan in the Studio, 1910
Couple in a Room, 1912
The Red Tower in Halle, 1915
Ernst Kirchner
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976)
Portrait of Emy, 1919
Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)
The Widow, 1922/1923
Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Robert Weine, 1919
Cabinet of Dr CaligariRobert Weine, 1919
Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
Otto Dix (1891 – 1969)
The Skat Players, 1920Stormtroopers During Gas Attack, 1923/24
New Objectivity
(Neue Sachlichkeit )
George Grosz (1893 – 1959)
To Oscar Panizza, 1917-18 Metropolis, 1917
Art Deco
City Hall of Buffalo, New York Poster for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis
Metropolis (Lang, 1927)
Metropolis (Lang, 1927)
Questions to Consider
• What is the relationship between technique and context in German Expressionism?
• Identify the general differences between German Expressionism and Soviet Montage?