Early Modern Blog
The Influence WW1
For Europe, World War I was a disastrous and horrifying conflict. It was the world's first modern conflict. The destruction and devastation were massive. The end of impressionism had arrived. When young men are dying in muddy foxholes, it's impossible to depict images of brightness, fun, and the middle class. The art world was rocked to its core by World War I. Artists were both startled and inspired by the disintegration of conventional ideas that had been held so dear after the war. They regarded it as an opportunity to start again in an industrialized future.
For this post, I decided to write about the influence of Dada after WW1. Dada began in Zürich, Switzerland, as an artistic and literary movement. It originated in response to World War I and the nationalism that many believed had precipitated the conflict. Its output was radically diverse, spanning from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage, and was influenced by other avant-garde groups such as Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism. Dada's aesthetic, which mocked materialistic and patriotic views, had a significant impact on artists in several locations, including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York, and Cologne, all of which spawned their own subcultures. With the establishment of Surrealism, the movement died out, but the concepts it spawned have become pillars of numerous categories of modern and contemporary art.
The first artwork I would like to share is an oil painting called ''The Pillars of Society'', created in 1926 in Berlin, Germany by George Grosz. I chose this work because it seemed very interesting to me and in my opinion, it is one of the most meaningful works of Dada that depicts the greed of politicians and the 'elite'. "The Pillars of Society" is a mocking depiction of the Fascist elite who governed postwar Germany in 1926. It passed a critical indictment of everything he perceived to be corrupt in Germany's wealthy community, similar to a lot of other works in his career from this era. Grosz uses his fleshed-out caricature talents to create vivid, horrific, and gruesome imagery that represents Germany's Nazi forces. Instead of being characterized in line with their worldly success and sophisticated lifestyle, noble people active in the church and commerce are depicted as heartless and vicious individuals.
To me, there is one element of this work that stands out and it is materiality. It shows that all the politicians and elite who are in control of the countries and wars between them are greedy and want are chasing power and materialistic things. The colors and light of this painting seem to be darker to make it more serious. The placement in this piece seems to be showing all of the politicians at one place having a beer and dealing with their own issues and trying to achieve their ambitions without knowing how many people they actually affect. This painting makes me feel cruelty and disgust that the elite does not know how many people they affect and how ignorant they are to the people who have died over them chasing their ambitions. At the same time, it makes me feel the helpless feeling of the regular citizen during the war as they had to fight a war that they did not want to fight.
As the second artwork of Dadaism, I chose a photography of "The Spirit of Our Time" by Raoul Hausmann created in 1920 and currently is located in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. I chose this work because it is a photograph of an artwork that has a deeper meaning. "The Spirit of Our Time" is a great work of Dadaism and the title for the assembly reveals Hausmann's intent right away. Hausmann argues that the human form of the head captures the soul of the people of his period. The head is that of a wooden dummy. It is devoid of expression and emotion. There are no distinguishing characteristics. The head is simple and symmetrical. There are no pupils in the eyes, ears, or hair. The individuality of the man has vanished. This wooden dummy represents the typical man of Hausmann's post-World War I era. He is a simple human with no sophistication.
The elements of this work are very relevant for the time and the piece is an assemblage of many common tools and devices on a wooden head. These tools are things that symbolize what men were thinking of during the time and that these things made all the men similar to each other shows that they don't have much originality and they are all the same. I think that the wooden head makes this work seem more simple, which is what the artist wanted to achieve. The placement of the tools does not matter much in my opinion. I think that the blank eyes show more than the placement. This artwork makes me understand that people were thinking about war so much that it had influenced them and made them all similar in a way. I have a feeling of dullness because of how the war had transferred people and made them unoriginal un senseless.
As my third and last work from Dadaism, I chose a work by Marcel Duchamp called "Fountain" created in 1917. It is interesting to me that Duchamp purchased this urinal in New York. I chose this artwork because it is very influential and also because for our assignment we had to utilize more than one work of photography of artwork. Marcel Duchamp was a prolific Dadaist artist who created several well-known paintings, collages, and sculptures. Cubism, Futurism, and early conceptual art are some of his other influences. He had a huge impact on modernist art in the twentieth century, particularly sculpture. After WWI, he began to use art as a means for cultural resistance, and his work matured.
I chose this work because it is one of the most famous works of art from the twentieth century, symbolizing a significant shift in the role of art in society. It is one of the first examples of 'readymade' sculptures made from discarded things. The sculpture was presented to the Paris Salon, but it was turned down since it was not deemed art. The piece has become symbolic of the Dada movement's contempt towards both traditional artistic standards and industrial procedures due to its ground-breaking audacity.
There are not many art elements that can be discussed in this because it is a urinal. The placement of it is important because it has been turned upside down making people look at things from another angle and think differently. Dadaist artists were more interested in how artwork could express an idea than in traditional values of beauty and skill. There are not many emotions that this work makes me feel. The most important thing I get from this is that things can be seen by others differently and looking at something from a different angle can create a way of appreciation or wisdom not only when looking at this work specifically but at things in general in life.
Sources:
“Dada Movement Overview and Key Ideas.” The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/movement/dada/.
Dadaism - Art and Anti Art, https://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm.
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