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An
Alle Kunstler! (To All Artists!)
The
German Expressionists - Essay by artist, Mark Vallen
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Click
the thumbnails for the full picture
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I've
always been fascinated by the artists of the German Expressionist
movement and how they used their art to change society
despite overwhelming odds. The
power of these artworks continues to resonate... especially
in light of today's catastrophic world events.
Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner painted the work at left titled, Self-Portrait
as a Soldier. The artist had himself been in the trenches
of WW1 and suffered a mental breakdown. Paintings like
this got the artist in trouble with the Nazis, who banned
his work for being "degenerate".
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The
German Expressionist Movement was born in
the trenches of World War 1 in 1914. Many of the German
soldiers who suffered through that war were artists, and
their experiences lead them to despise the powerful elites
who had sent them onto the battlefield. When the war was
lost in 1918 and Emperor Wilhelm abdicated, the people rose
to support the November Revolution - the socialist call
for the creation of a new Democratic Germany. Many artists
answered that call and worked to support and promote the
new provisional government.
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The
Expressionists formed activist groups like the Arbeitsrat
fur Kunst (Worker's Council for Art), and the
Novembergruppe (November Group, named after
the revolution itself), with the intent of welding art
to the worker's movement. In 1918 the November Group,
in their first manifesto, called upon all Cubists, Futurists,
and Expressionists to join in the regeneration of Germany.
They encouraged writers, composers, architects, and painters
to participate in the building of a new society.
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Right-wing political opposition to
the November revolution began almost immediately, and within
that opposition lay the core of what was to later became
the Nazi regime. The old militarists and their wealthy backers
were not about to relinquish their power, and so they organized
to defeat the November
revolution. In 1919 socialist leaders, Karl Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxembourg were arrested and murdered by rightists.
A year later the long planned coup of the radical right
took place, with the rightists seizing government buildings
in Berlin. The coup failed when 12 million German workers
declared a general strike and drove the right from power.
That same year the right-wing
National
Socialist German Workers Party came into existence,
and one of the Nazi party members, a fanatical anti-Semite
and racist anti-communist by the name of Adolf Hitler became
the party's best organizer and orator.
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the rise of fascism, German Expressionists battled the right
and tirelessly attacked the forces of conservatism, militarism,
and high finance. Expressionists derided the status quo and
made it a constant target for their artworks. However, not
all Expressionist artists were overtly political - some turned
towards religious themes in turning away from the brutal realities
of the time. Others took up portraiture or landscape painting
- but all came to despise the rightist thugs who strangled
art and democracy in Germany. It should come as no surprise
that with the eventual coming to power of the Nazis, many
artists lost their teaching positions and were forbidden to
create or exhibit. Others went into exile or were imprisoned...
some were simply killed. |
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1937 the Nazi regime mounted an exhibition meant to ridicule
modern art. Titled Entartete Kunst (Degenerate
Art), the exhibit featured the works of Expressionists and
other artists the regime deemed to be "anti-German."
The works put on display were denounced by the Nazis as the
dabblings of the insane, and the paintings were labeled the
works of "Jews" and "Communists." Mockingly
hung in poor light and at odd angles, the artworks were draped
with Nazi banners and labels that mocked the works as having
been created by the mentally and morally deficient. The Entartete
Kunst exhibition heralded the end of art in Germany... at
least until the Nazi Regime was finally done away with. |
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German artists who lived during the years covered in this
presentation labored under the most difficult of circumstances...
war, extreme poverty, repression, and finally... the terror
of the Nazi regime. Yet somehow they managed to leave behind
a visual testament to their humanity and ability to resist.
It is beyond the scope of this web site to present anywhere
near a complete overview of the Expressionists... rather,
I hope these pages will serve as an introduction to some of
Germany's greatest artists. |
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is owned and operated by Mark Vallen © All text by Mark
Vallen
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