presentations: Yesterday's revolutionaries are today's classical artists!

A presentation given in History on 5 September 2023, 9-10 am,

at U3A Brisbane/Australia

Continuing from my last presentation, Storytellers of the Past, we saw many examples throughout history that demonstrate how art reflected political, religious and social context.

Gabriele Münter (1877-1962), Hauptstrasse (Mit Mann), 1934

Following on from early 19^th C Realism, we will now explore how various Western art movements and several breakaway groups, Secessions, played an integral and exciting part, reflecting historical context for the next 100 years, from the 1850s to the 1950s.

During that period, the spreading use of photography took over as a medium for portraying precision, conceivably giving rise to the artists' freedom of painterly expression.

To quote Virginia Woolf, since early 1900, 'all human relations have shifted, those between masters and servants, husbands and wives, parents and children.’ (xvi)

The introduction of cinema also altered the relations between the classes, acting as a leveller. Everyone went to the cinema, whereas the traditional music hall and opera entertainment drew very different audiences.

Woolf surmises: ‘And when human relations change, there is the same change in religion, conduct, politics, and literature.’ (xvi)

And, as we will see, in art.

Impressionism c 1865–1885

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872

1863 marked the birth of the avant-garde in Paris. From 1874 onwards the Salon’s increasingly conservative and academic juries usually rejected the works of Impressionist painters.

This resulted in separations and 3 major Secessions, that were to spread throughout Europe.

The forerunners of the Impressionist movement shared interests in painting ‘from life’, outside in the countryside, favouring landscapes and social situations over grand, overly dramatic scenes. However, unlike Realism, which placed importance on representational honesty and a photograph-like appearance, Impressionism was not just a movement. It introduced new visual and technical styles for paintings that emerged in 1870s France and became popular for the next 50 years.

It originated with a group of radical Parisian painters, who gained fame for their violation of the rigorous rules of academic painting that fostered carefully finished, realistically precise paintings. These radicals sought to capture the immediate impression of a particular moment. They used modern life as their subject matter, painting situations like dance halls and sailboat regattas rather than historical and mythological events. Key features are the fine, light, highly visible brushstrokes that wash across the paintings, characterised by short, quick brushstrokes and an unfinished, sketch-like feel. Attention to the accurate depiction of the light throughout the day or night was important.

Artists were initially heavily criticised and could not exhibit at the prestigious Paris Salon. Therefore, they founded the Cooperative and Anonymous Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers, where they could exhibit independently.

In derogative response to an exhibition of Impressionist works, the term ‘impressionist’ implied these works to be merely an impression, instead of being solid and meaningful.

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872

Claude Monet (1840-1926) spearheaded the idea of expressing one’s perceptions before nature, which is virtually synonymous with the Impressionist movement.

It was after his work Impression, Sunrise, (1872) that the entire movement was named. Monet is famous for his landscape scenes and his paintings of gardens, particularly waterlilies, in vibrant, pastel shades.

Claude Monet, The Bridge at Argenteuil, 1874

This painting shows the small, visible brushstrokes that make up Impressionist paintings. The yellows and blues in the water harmonise the contrasting colour theory published by Michel Eugene Chevreul.

The Impressionist movement coincided with significant advances made in paint technology. Premixed paints in new, vibrant colours became available in tubes, allowing artists to work more spontaneously and easily outside.

In some Impressionist paintings, there are even grains of sand or blades of grass that became stuck to the canvas whilst the artist was working outdoors.

Another important Impressionist artist, who bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism, is Édouard Manet (1832-1883).

Édouard Manet, Déjeuner sur l’herbe, 1863

Manet painted several highly controversial works that subtly use Impressionistic techniques and yet capture the essence of the movement. This painting was initially highly criticised, not only because the woman is nude, but in her nudity, she dares to focus her gaze on the viewer.

This was perceived to be distasteful.

There was also an Australian Impressionist, who made his mark: John Peter Russell (1858-1930) was born in Sydney and studied art in 1881 in London. During his studies in France he developed close friendships with the greats like Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet and Henri Matisse.

John Russell, In the Morning, Alpes Maritimes from Antibes, 1891

John Russell, Cruach en Mahr, Matin, Belle-Ile en Mer, 1905

Post-Impressionism c 1885-1910

Vincent Van Gogh, Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889

Post-Impressionism was the last significant European artistic movement of the 19^th Century, which again took place predominantly in France between 1886 and 1905.

The movement was born out of many artists’ dissatisfaction with the blurred, blended appearance of Impressionist subjects and compositions, which they thought lacked structure. The Post-Impressionists sought to restore order and structure to paintings, to make solid, durable art that celebrated a distinct, artistic style. The painters worked independently rather than as a group and instead of an overarching style, the artists developed a wide range of styles and techniques, but each influential Post-Impressionist painter had similar ideals.

Post-Impressionists concentrated on subjective visions and symbolic, personal meanings rather than observations of the outside world. This was often achieved through abstract forms. Their paintings were unified by their emotive qualities and rich symbolism. Thick, painterly brushstrokes characterised many Post-Impressionist paintings, and were arranged in orderly, directional patterns to make up a composition.

The colours used were bold and vivid, bordering on unnatural vibrancy. Subject matter ranged from landscape painting to still life, encompassing genre scenes and social compositions as well.

Post-Impressionist painters include Georges-Pierre Seurat (1859-1891), who was noted for his pointillism technique using small, distinct dots to form an image.

George Seurat, A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890) characterised the period with his impulsive, tangibly expressive brushstrokes, bold colours, and highly emotive works, ranging from his self-portraits to still life paintings to landscape scenes.

He is most ardently remembered as the romantic ideal of the tortured artist, battling with mental health problems which led to his eventual suicide. Despite his apparent genius, he lived in poverty, and only posthumously did he gain widespread acclaim.

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889

Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906) has also been credited with laying the foundations for the fresh, new, radically different art of the 20th Century. He is famous for his intense planes of colour and small brushstrokes, which create highly distinctive works in the artist's unique, personal style.

Paul Cézanne, The Card Players, 1892-95

Other important artists included Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903) known for his intuitive use of colour.

Paul Gauguin, Vahine no te tiare (Woman with a Flower), 1891

Henri Rousseau (French, 1844-1910) a self-taught genius with a strong sense of his own artistic style, was another notable artist.

Henri Rousseau, Le Moulin (The Mill), c 1896

Like the Impressionists, Post-Impressionist painting was not unified by one predominant style but was instead made up of a wide range of techniques and styles that were associated with the artists that developed them.

The legacy of 19th Century painting is immense. The huge changes toward artistic freedom that occurred in the final decades of the century paved, without doubt, the foundations for the contemporary art world—and indeed the art market—that we enjoy today.

In all their diverse styles, these paintings are some of the most collectible artworks ever made, with names like Van Gogh and Monet now reaching unthinkable sums in auctions.

Worpswede Artist Colony 1889–2023

A group of artists like Fritz Mackensen, Otto Modersohn, Heinrich Vogeler and poets like Rainer Maria Rilke wanted to escape from the modern world with its chaos of industrial cities to find solace in the country. They found the farming village of Worpswede (Northern Germany) to be a source of inspiration. They formed an artists’ colony in 1889.

Otto Modersohn, Worpswede, 1910

These artists sought refuge there in the bog landscape with its open plains, wide skies and sunny days. In this colony the group thrived by copying the plein air painting from France.

Paula Becker found the picturesque village inspiring. Compelled by the remote location and the harmony of the artists’ colony, she decided to move there and start taking lessons in drawing and painting. She eventually married Otto Modersohn.

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Self-Portrait Nude with Amber Necklace, 1906

Paula’s art was ahead of its time, being decidedly expressionistic. She is today considered a leading representative of modern art.

Heinrich Vogeler’s painting may look like an idyllic concert soiree, but it shows the decline of the artists’ colony with the characters displaying disinterest.

Heinrich Vogeler, Sommerabend (Das Konzert), 1905

The eventual discord of the group led to members leaving, the last of the original members stayed until 1905. Nonetheless, the colony became a retreat centre for creative minds that still exists today, with about 130 artists living and creating there.

Art Nouveau c 1890-1910

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Woman at the Tub from the portfolio Elles (1896)

The turn of the 20th Century was a time rife with change, chiefly in the way in which people began to perceive civilisation as a whole and its overall goal. Art Nouveau attempted to create an entirely authentic movement free from any imitation of styles that preceded it. Inspired by the natural forms of plants and flowers, this period is characterised by long, sinuous lines and curves, mustard, olive and deep red hues and asymmetrical line work—all in a spirited rebellion against the harsh industrialisation of the era.

Influential Art Nouveau artists worked in a variety of media, including architecture, graphic and interior design, jewellery-making, and painting. Famed French-artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was at its helm.

Czech graphic artist Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939) is best known for his theatrical posters of French actress Sarah Bernhardt.

Alphonse Mucha, Princess Hyazinthe, 1911

Still standing in tribute to the Art Nouvea era are Spanish architect and sculptor Antonio Gaudí’s (1852-1926) curving and brightly-coloured Basilica de la Sagrada Familia (1882-2026) in Barcelona.

Detail of the roof in the nave. Gaudi designed the columns to resemble trees and branches.

While the elaborate arcs encircling the Paris Metro entrances were designed by Hector Guimard.

In recent years, Art Nouveau style has made a comeback by way of the ornate, botanical illustrations trending in graphic design.

Fauvism c 1900-1935

Henri Matisse, Woman with a Hat, 1905

This avant-garde movement is credited with being one of the first of its kind to prosper at the start of the 20th Century. Pioneered by Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Fauvism owed a significant debt to Post-Impressionists like Vincent van Gogh and George Seurat, as it exhibited vibrant colours to capture landscapes and still-life.

Fauvism became its own movement as Fauvists, such as Matisse, instilled a heightened sense of emotionalism into their paintings, often utilising crude and blatant brushstrokes and vivid colours straight from their tubes that appalled at first. The overly expressiveness of these raw and basic techniques led art critic Louis Vauxcelles to christen such painters fauves ‘wild beasts’.

Other notable Fauvists include André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958).

Maurice Vlaminck, Sailing Boats at Chatou, 1906

Fauvism was an important precursor of Cubism and Expressionism.

Secession movements

Egon Schiele, Poster for 49^th Secession Exhibition, 1918

The term ‘Secession’ was coined to describe the spirit of various art movements towards the fin de siècle. Disillusioned with old-fashioned European viewpoints in art, artists separated from the official Artists’ Associations. They established Secessions in Munich, Vienna and Berlin after the Paris breakaway.

The Secessionist artist groups rejected the official arts governing bodies with their distaste for unconventional art like Impressionism, forms of Post-Impressionism and Naturalism, as well as restrictive exhibition policies, which favoured traditional painters and sculptors over younger and more modern colleagues.

Münchner Secession 1892-1938; 1946-present

The Munich Secession was an association of visual artists who broke away in 1892 from the mainstream, government-supported Munich Artists’ Association. Munich Secessionists promoted and defended their art in the face of what they considered official paternalism with their traditionalist policies and its opposition to contemporary trends in the art world.

Franz Stuck (1863-1928), Die Sünde (The Sin), 1893

The complete financial failure of an exhibition in 1888 added to the separation from the Association and the establishment of the Munich Secession.

The Secessionists declared their intentions to move away from outmoded principles and conception of what art is:

One should see in our exhibitions, every form of art, whether old or new, which will serve the glory of Munich, whose art will be allowed to develop to its full flowering.

These Secessionists transformed what constitutes art and promoted the ideas of artistic freedom to present works directly to the public.

Vienna Secession 1897-1938; 1945-present

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Friedericke Maria Beer, 1916

This movement is closely related to Art Nouveau, formed by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), Alphonse Mucha and others. They took their name from the Munich Secession. They disputed artistic nationalism and resigned in protest. They opposed the domination of the official Vienna Academy of the Arts, the Vienna Künstlerhaus, and official art salons, with their time-honoured artistic styles and orientation toward Historicism. The Vienna Secessionists goal states that:

Our art is not a combat of modern artists against those of the past, but the promotion of the arts against the peddlers who pose as artists and who have a commercial interest in not letting art bloom. The choice between commerce and art is the issue at stake in our Secession. It is not a debate over aesthetics, but a confrontation between two different spiritual states.

The movement also established contact, and exchange of ideas with artists outside Austria. They sought to renew the decorative arts, to create a ‘total art’ that unified painting, architecture and the decorative arts.

Their most influential architectural work was the Secession Building, a venue for expositions of the group.

Secession Building, Vienna, (constructed 1897-1898)

The members split over differing opinions and the movement dissolved as being part of degenerative art by the Nazis in 1938. They re-emerged in 1948 till today.

Berlin Secession 1898-1933

Edvard Munch, The Dance of Life, 1899

During the run-up to Secession, Edvard Munch (1863-1944) exhibited paintings at the opening of the Berliner Architekturhaus that shocked visiting members of the Artists’ Association, so they closed the exhibition. The struggle between Berlin conformists and progressives lasted for most of the 90s. A major scandal erupted when Wilhelm II refused to approve prizes won by Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) because she was a woman, and Walter Leistikow because he painted trees blue.

Käthe Kollwitz, Misery, 1897

Following their colleagues' footsteps in Paris, Munich and Vienna, the Berlin avant-garde formed the Berliner Secession.

A breakaway group of artists in 1898, led by Max Liebermann (1847-1935), who:

seceded from the city’s arts establishment and founded an independent exhibition society, to champion new forms of modern art – rather than churn out old-fashioned academic art preferred by the Berlin Academy.

Max Liebermann, The Garden of the Orphanage in Amsterdam, 1894

The Berlin Secession offered a modernist alternative to the conservative art of the Berlin Academy and its imperial patron Wilhelm II. It consisted of high-brow history painting and traditional landscape painting, as well as monumental sculptors glorifying Germany and the Hohenzollern dynasty.

Max Pechstein, Under the Trees (Akte im Freien), 1911

In 1910, after more radical members emerged and after Liebermann rejected 27 expressionist paintings by artists like Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Secessionist radicals (centred around former members of The Bridge, formed the New Secession, calling themselves ‘Rejected Artists of the Secession Berlin 1910’.

More splinter groups formed in 1913 and 1914, including the ‘Free Secession’.

The official ‘Secession’ had its final exhibition in 1913 but limped on until its dissolution in the 1930s by the Nazis’ degenerate art doctrine.

Die Brücke 1905-1913

Erich Heckel (1883-1970), Weisses Haus in Dangast, 1908

The Bridge movement played a pivotal role in developing German Expressionism, pushing German modern art onto the international avant-garde scene. The name ‘bridge’ indicated the group’s desire to bridge the past and present.

It was founded by 4 architectural students in Dresden who had not received any formal education in visual arts. They stressed the value of youth and intuition in escaping the intellectual cul-de-sac of academic thought focused on copying earlier models. These young artists formed an idealistic, communal atmosphere, in which they shared techniques and exhibited together.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1939), Marzella, 1909-10

The members chose to reassert Germany's rich artistic history, taking inspiration from the print and painting techniques of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and the innuendo of Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Albrecht Dürer, Head of an Old Man, 1521

Lucas Cranach (the Elder) 1472-1553), An ill-matched pair, c 1530

In Cranach's painting, the old man has become the victim of a young woman. She looks at the viewer slyly, making him her accomplice yet warning him to restrain his urges.

Bridge members developed the modern example of expressive colourists like Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and Henri Matisse.

They used violently clashing colours to jolt the viewer into the experience of a particular emotion.

Like the Secessionists, this group sought to create an authentic art that defied the conventions of traditional painting as well as the then dominant schools of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Their painting encompassed all varieties of subject matter—the human figure, landscape, portraiture, still life—executed in a simplified style that stressed bold outlines and strong colour planes.

Otto Mueller, Adam und Eva, 1918

Karl Scmidt-Rottluff, Landschaft im Herbst, 1910

And just as many experimental artists at the time, they admired the supposedly ‘primitive’ quality of African and Pacific Island countries. Angst and anxiety manifest in Bridge artists’ work whereas the Fauvists treat form and colour more lyrically. Brücke artists were also influenced by late German woodcuts, prompting a revival of woodcut art, making it a powerful means of 20^th C Expressionism.

Fritz Bleyl, poster for the first Brücke show in 1906

Otto Mueller (1874–1930), Jahresmappe, 1912, linocut

For the artists, part of a larger mission was escaping from the strictures of modern middle-class life and the academy. Nudity and explorations of free sexuality in their work (in domestic interiors and in nature) are often contrasted with images of the city, where human interaction is uncomfortably negotiated through prescribed social attitudes.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street (Berlin), 1913

The Group held their first exhibition in 1906 in Dresden, by 1911 they shifted to Berlin. However, their volatile relationships increased rifts and they disbanded in 1913.

Today their original prints are highly valued collector’s items.

Emil Nolde (1867-1956), Wildly Dancing Children, 1909

Looking at Bridge member Emil Nolde's (1867-1956) painting, I recall seeing pictures by David Boyd, of the renowned Australian artistic Boyd family. Once seen, it is difficult to forget the life-affirming abundance of joy in these paintings.

David Boyd (1924-2011), Dancing Nymphs, 1968

I am fortunate that the joyous ceramic my daughter made for me some time ago evokes that essence every time I gaze at it.

Recapping my previous ‘Storytellers’ presentation, parallels of styles are evident throughout art history, ranging from mid-14^th C BCE to recent times:

Amarna Art c 14^th C BCE

exaggerated and fluid forms, sense of movement and activity, raised heads, elongation and narrowing of the neck and head, sloping of the forehead and nose, prominent chin, large ears and lips, spindle-like arms and calves, large thighs, stomachs & hips.

King Akhenaton, Queen Nefertiti, 3 of their daughters under the rays of the sun god Aton, altar relief, mid-14th Century BCE

Mannerism 1527-1580

graceful, elongated limbs, small heads, stylised features and exaggerated details.

Parmigianino, Madonna with the Long Neck, 1534

1943 Australian Archibald

Portraiture or caricature

Wiliam Dobell, Joshua Smith, 1943

Two decades after the court case against the artist about this controversial painting, Dobell said: ‘I was really an extreme modernist, a madman!’

85 years old Joshua Smith said, ‘Dobell won the prize, and I became the sacrifice.’

If only the prosecutors had looked at Mannerism and Amarna Art, those involved could have been spared many headaches.

Expressionism c 1905–1920

Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Portrait of Eduard Kosmack, 1910

The roots of Expressionism can yet again be traced to Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch in response to emerging and increasingly conflicted world views and the loss of spirituality.

Expressionist art sought to draw from within the artist, using a distortion of form and strong colours to display anxieties and raw emotions. In a quest for authenticity, these painters looked for inspiration beyond that of Western art. They frequented ethnographic museums to revisit native folk traditions and tribal art.

The Blue Rider 1911-1914

Wassily Kandinsky, cover of Der Blaue Reiter almanac, c 1912

In 1911, Franz Marc (1880-1916), along with August Macke (1887-1914) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), founded the The Blue Rider. Gabriele Münter (1877-1962) and others, who decided to split from the Neue Künstlervereinigung movement in Munich, followed.

Gabriele Münter, Wassily Kandinsky, 1906

It became the centre of an artist circle that formed a loose network of relationships rather than a group. They organised two exhibitions in Munich in 1911 and 1912 to demonstrate their art-theory ideas based on the works of art exhibited.

Franz Marc, Blue Horse I, 1911

Artists associated with Der Blaue Reiter were important pioneers of modern art of the 20^th C. They disbanded at the start of WWI in 1914.

August Macke, Lady in a Green Jacket, 1913

The outbreak of World War I and the unprecedented devastation that ensued challenged the foundations of many cultures’ belief systems.

This led to a great deal of experimentation and exploration of morality by artists to define what exactly art should be and do for culture. What followed from this was a litany of artistic movements that strove to find their place in an ever-changing world.

Futurism c 1905-1914

Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913

Perhaps one of the most controversial movements of the Modernist era was Futurism, which, at a cursory glance, likened humans to machines and vice versa to embrace change, speed, and innovation in society while discarding artistic and cultural forms and traditions of the past. However, at the centre of the Futurist platform was an endorsement of war and misogyny.

Coined in a 1909 manifesto by Filippo Marinetti, Futurism was not limited to just one art form, but was in fact embraced by sculptors, architects, painters, and writers. Paintings were typically of automobiles, trains, animals, dancers, and large crowds. Painters borrowed the fragmented and intersecting planes from Cubism in combination with the vibrant and expressive colours of Fauvism to glorify the virtues of speed and dynamic movement.

Although originally ardent in their affirmation of the virtues of war, the Futurists lost steam as the devastation of WWI became realised.

Cubism c 1907-1914

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907)

It is often noted that Cubism was introduced in a defining movement with the revelation of Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). It shows nude women in a fractured perspective, and which demonstrates a significant African influence.

However, the movement did not receive its name until 1908, when, Louis Vauxcelles, who coined Fauvism, depicted some of Georges Braque’s works as being fashioned from cubes.

Georges Braque, Violin and Palette, 1909

Georges Braque’s (1882-1963) style evolved from the unclad emotionalism of Fauvism to create the more structured and logical foci of Cubism. He was also a leader of the movement and rejected the concept that art should copy nature.

Braque and Picasso moved away from traditional techniques and perspectives. Instead they created radically fragmented objects through abstraction. They worked so well that at the height of Cubism’s reign, their paintings are practically indistinguishable from one another.

Pablo Picasso, Girl with a Mandolin, Fanny Tellier, 1910

Georges Braque, Violin and Candlestick, 1910

The central aims of Cubists were to discard the conventions of the past to merely mimic nature.

They attempted to render an object simultaneously from several points of view, and at several moments in time, combining these multiple perspectives in a kind of collage. This was achieved using geometric forms or ‘cubes’ of objects and using various conflicting vantage points to paint pictures of common objects such as musical instruments, pitchers, bottles, and the human figure. Often, their subjects weren’t even discernible on the two-dimensional canvas plane

As they progressed in their work, Braque and Picasso adopted the use of a monochromatic scale to emphasise their focus on the inherent structure of their works. Though commonly associated with painting, Cubism had lasting effects on many sculptors and architects of the time.

Suprematism c 1913-1923

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism, 1916-1917

Was a uniquely Russian Modernist movement that started conjointly with Constructivism, though with a stronger emphasis and embracement of the abstraction capable by painting on canvas.

It is denoted as the first movement to utilise pure geometrical abstraction in painting. Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) is viewed as its founder, as he, along with the input of many of his contemporaries, authored the Suprematist manifesto.

The movement’s name began with a quote of Malevich’s, in which he stated that the movement would inspire the: supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts. His central goal was to break art down to its bare bones, often employing basic shapes, such as squares, triangles, circles, and primary and neutral colours.

Malevich eventually included more colours and shapes, but he epitomised the movement in his ‘White on White’ paintings in which a faintly outlined square is just barely visible.

Suprematism was often imbued with spiritual and mystic undertones that added to its abstraction, and as was the case with Constructivism, the movement essentially came to a complete end as Soviet oppression increased.

Vorticism c 1914-1920

Blast

A specifically English artistic movement, since its mouthpiece was the famed London-based magazine Blast. Vorticism followed in the same vein as Futurism in that it relished in the innovative advances of the machine age and embraced the possible virtues of dynamic change that were to follow.

Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, 1919

It was founded right before the start of WWI by the celebrated painter Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) and the ubiquitous poet of the Modernist period Ezra Pound, who coined the term Vorticism. In his Blast essay, he notes that the vortex is the point of maximum energy. It represents, in mechanics, the greatest efficiency.

However, whereas the Futurists originated in France and Italy and then sprawled out over the continent to Russia, Vorticism remained local in London. Vorticists prided themselves on being independent of similar movements.

In their writings as well as their paintings, Vorticists espoused abstraction as the only way to sever ties with the dominant and suffocating Victorian past so that they could advance to a new era. Yet, like Futurism, Vorticism struggled to cope with the incomprehensible destruction during WWI resulting from the new machines they so highly praised.

When WWI ended and valued Vorticists, namely TE Hulme and Gaudler-Brzeska, died in action, Vorticism shriveled to a small few by the beginning of the 1920s.

Constructivism c 1915-1920

Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International model, 1919-1920

As Cubism and Futurism spread to Russia at the end of the 1910s and were absorbed into the utopian spirit of the October Revolution, a new art movement known as Constructivism was created. It embraced a theory that art should be ‘constructed’ from modern industrial materials such as plastic, steel, and glass in order to serve a societal purpose instead of merely making an abstract statement.

Often credited with serving as the impetus for the movement is Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), who in 1913, while studying in Paris, was highly influenced by the geometric constructions of Picasso. After migrating back to Russia, he, along with Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo, published the Realist Manifesto in 1920, which, like the Futurists and Vorticists, declared an admiration of machines and technology as well as their functionalism.

One of the most iconic artworks of this movement is Tatlin’s Monument for the Third International, a strangely spiral-shaped structure that was intended to serve as a government building.

Most Constructivists, like Tatlin, thought painting to be a ‘dead’ art form, unless it was to serve as a blueprint for something to be physically built. Therefore, they worked mainly with ceramics, fashion design, graphics, and in architecture.

With the increased Soviet opposition to their movement, many Constructivists fled from Russia and inspired the movement in Western countries such as Germany, France, and England.

Dada c 1915-1924

Cover of the first edition of the publication Dada, 1917

Dada was an informal international movement, with participants in Europe and North America. The beginnings of Dada correspond with the outbreak of World War I.

Dada is based on the recognition and acceptance of the meaninglessness of life, and the last thing Dadaists want to do is to create another illusion to comfort people with a sense of purpose when there is none. For many participants, the movement was a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests, which many Dadaists believed to be the root cause of the war.

Dadaists challenged and mocked the definition of art and its elitist establishment with such works as Marcel Duchamps’ (1887-1968) Fountain, which was a porcelain urinal.

Marcel Duchamps, Fountain, 1917

They were against the conformity—in art and, more broadly in society—that corresponded to the war.

Dadaists fought strongly across the globe against such repressive social institutions, though they were written-off by some as merely absurdist and inconsequential based on their plentiful antics and scattered network.

They utilised photomontages and many other artistic mediums in their public meetings to protest against the nascent Nazi party in Germany.

Hannah Höch, The Beautiful Girl, 1919-20

Perhaps best summed up by the famous Dadaist poet Hugo Ball (1886-1927), the Dadaist goal of art was not to have art as:

an end in itself, but an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in.

Berlin artist John Heartfield was a political agitator who anglicised his name. In his and other Dadaists hands, mainstream advertising, high society publicity, and fascist propaganda was turned on its head, providing readers with humorous, yet sobering exposés.

John Heartfield, The Meaning of the Hitler Salute: Little Man Asks for Big Gifts, 1932

The times of Dadaism were filled with grief, destruction, and chaos, as they witnessed the rampant mass devastation of WWI.

Dadaists were not connected by their styles, mediums, or techniques. Instead, they were connected by their uniform practices and beliefs. They saw themselves as crusaders against rational thought, which they believed to be responsible for the declination of social structures, the growth of corrupt and nationalist politics, and the spread of violence and war.

De Stijl c 1917-1931

Piet Mondrian, Composition A, 1920

The name De Stijl (Dutch for ‘The Style’) adequately sums up this movement’s aim while also characterising their intentions on how to achieve it with a simple, direct approach.

Founded by a cohort of Dutch artists in Amsterdam that included Theo van Doesburg (who founded the group’s periodical De Stijl), Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), and Dutch architect Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud (1890-1963), De Stijl was infused with a great deal of mysticism resulting primarily from Mondrian’s devotion to Theosophy.

Weissenhofsiedlung, Stuttgart, houses designed by JJP Oud

The movement also had a great deal of influence from Parisian Cubism, though members of De Stijl felt that Picasso and Braque failed to go far enough into the realm of pure abstraction. They, like Suprematists, worked mainly in an abstract style and with unadorned shapes—such as straight lines, intersecting plane surfaces, and basic geometrical figures—and primary colours and neutrals. With these techniques, they sought to investigate the laws of equilibrium apparent in both life and art.

Although the movement comprised painters, sculptors, typographers, poets, and those in the decorative arts, it was the architects, most prominently Oud with his Worker’s Housing Estate in Hoek van Holland (1924–27), who were best able to capture the austere and harmonic essences of the movement.

Surrealism 1916–1950s

Salvador Dali, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), 1936

Surrealism emerged from Dadaism in 1916. It is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I.

The term ‘Surrealism’ originated with Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917 and was established in 1924, when the Surrealist Manifesto published by French poet, critic and leader, André Breton (1896-1966), succeeded in claiming the term for his group. The most important centre of the movement was Paris. Politically, Surrealism was Trotskyist, communist and anarchist.

Surrealists were influenced by Karl Marx and theories developed by Sigmund Freud, who explored psychoanalysis and the power of imagination.

Its artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.

Its aim was, according to Breton, to:

resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality, or surreality.

Influential Surrealist artists like Salvador Dali (1904-1989) tapped into the unconscious mind to depict revelations found on the street and in everyday life. Dalí’s paintings in particular pair vivid and bizarre dreams with historical accuracy. Dalí supported capitalism and the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco but cannot be said to represent a trend in Surrealism in this respect; in fact, he was considered, by Breton and his associates, to have betrayed and left Surrealism.

Max Ernst, Ubu Imperator, 1923

Max Ernst (1891-1976) was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism.

Many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost (eg Breton speaks of the ‘pure psychic automatism’ in the Manifesto). The works themselves are secondary, i.e., artifacts of surrealist experimentation. Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement.

From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, impacting visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.

20^th Century Political Art

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

While 20^th Century Fascism and Nazism followed a destructive artistic agenda, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) large oil Guernica, one of his best-known works, is regarded by many art critics as the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history. Picasso painted Guernica at his home in Paris in response to the 26 April 1937 bombing of Guernica, a Basque country town, in northern Spain that was bombed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy at the request of the Spanish Nationalists.

Upon completion, Guernica was exhibited at the Spanish display at the 1937 Paris International Exposition, and then at other venues around the world. The touring exhibition was used to raise funds for the Spanish war relief. The painting soon became famous and widely acclaimed, and it helped bring worldwide attention to the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War.

It has become a universal and compelling symbol warning humanity against the suffering and devastation of war. There are no obvious references to the specific attack, making its message worldwide and timeless. Indeed, respecting Prof Allan Fels' seeming sentiments it is timelessly galvanising.

Guernica behind the Prof

Prominent in the composition are a gored horse, a bull, screaming women, a dead baby, a dismembered soldier, and flames.

Art historian and curator WJHB Sandberg argued in 1960 that Picasso pioneered a ‘new language’ combining expressionistic and cubist techniques in Guernica. He wrote that it conveyed an ‘expressionistic message’ in its focus on the inhumanity of the air raid, while using ‘the language of cubism’.

Abstract Expressionism 1940s-1950s

Pollock, Jackson, Blue Poles, 1952

Shaped by the legacy of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York after WWII. It is often referred to as the New York School or action painting. These painters and abstract sculptors broke away from what was considered conventional. Instead they used spontaneity, maybe even anger, and improvisation to create abstract works of art. This included colossally scaled works whose size could no longer be accommodated by an easel. Instead, canvases would be placed directly upon the floor.

Mark Rothko, Untitled (Black on Grey), 1970

Celebrated Abstract Expressionist painters include Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), known for his unique style of drip painting, and Mark Rothko (1903-1970), whose paintings employed large blocks of colour to convey a sense of spirituality.

Op Art 1950s-1960s

Bridget Riley (1931-), Movement in Squares, 1961

Heightened by advances in science and technology as well as an interest in optical effects and illusions, the Op art (short for 'optical' art) movement launched with Le Mouvement, a group exhibition at Galerie Denise Rene in 1955.

Artists active in this style used shapes, colours, and patterns to create images that appeared to be moving or blurring, often produced in black and white for maximum contrast. These abstract patterns were meant to both confuse and excite the eye.

Coming to the end of this presentation, similar art movements followed and various schools and smaller movements emerged:

Pop Art (1950s–1960s);

Arte Povera (1960s);

Minimalism (1960s–1970s);

Conceptual Art (1960s–1970s) and

Contemporary Art (1970–present).

Today and in the previous presentation, we saw that politically themed paintings have been used to depict wars, political conflicts, revolutions, philosophies, social changes, human rights, feminism and activism.

Gabriele Münter, Landschaft am Meer, 1919

While art should not be the political tool of ruling regimes as a form of social action, it is a mighty tool of the political imagination by (re)presenting the world.

List of Works Consulted

Frodl, Gerbert, Belvedere Vienna, Alpina, Innsbruck: 2002

Düchting, Hajo, Der Blaue Reiter, Taschen, Kőln: 2014

Engels, Sybille, Trischberger Cornelia, Der Blaue Reiter, Prestel, München, 2014

Grimme, Karin H, Impressionism, Taschen, Kőln: 2007

Lorenz, Ulrike, Brücke, Taschen, Kőln: 2008

Moeller, Magdalene M, The Brücke Museum Berlin, Prestel, Munich, 2014

Néret, Gilles, Klimt, Taschen, Kőln, 2005

Steiner, Reinhard, Schiele, Taschen, Kőln, 2004

Ulmer, Renate, Mucha, Taschen, Kőln, 2007

Wolf, Norbert, Expressionismus, Taschen, Kőln: 2014

Woolf, Virginia, Mrs Dalloway, Penguin, London: 1992