During and after World War I, German art was doomed to portray the sufferings brought about by the cruelest of all human experiences, by the unforeseen savageness of modern warfare. Images of burned-down cities, dismembered soldiers, war machinery, tormented survivors and utterly disheartening representations of the effects of combat filled the works of German painters. Just as times were changing, so did the style of German art. As if urged by the need to convey emotions until then unknown, as if lacking the proper resources, artists such as Max Beckman (1884–1950), Otto Dix (1891–1969), or George Grosz (1893–1959) initiated what was labelled New Objectivity, stepping away from the more subjective tint of Expressionism to capture without any filter the ruthless atrocity of their days. Before these artists unveiled the horrors of the war and post-war urban life, Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966) predicted the collapse of German cities in his series of depictions of apocalyptic urban landscapes (Apokalyptische Landschäften, 1912-1916). These works still share truly expressionist features such as the use of well-defined colors, hectic brushstrokes, deformed, angular shapes and a layout that is undoubtedly influenced by an unsolvable inner confusion.
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Big City Landscapes (Großstadtbilder), 1913-1915. The concept of city, as an entity, as a live, ever-changing creature, constantly undergoing transformations that are not always physically-evident or visible but can nevertheless be perceived by a human mind, a human heart, has always attracted me in a strangely irrepressible way. I find it hard to trace back the origin of this fascination, but its force reaches me through all its manifestations - a picture, a photograph, a character in a narrative (I believe cities are never mere settings), in a film, or the real thing. It might be the idea of so many things happening, of familiarity or sometimes and disorientation some other times (even both at the same time); of possibilities, of entrapment; of hectic ant-like activity or of sepulchral stillness. A city can be everything, can mean anything, and a person can be a million different selves with the turn of another corner. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) once said: "I feel as though the outcome is in the air and everything is topsy-turvy... All the same, I keep on trying to get some order in my thoughts and to create a picture of the age out of confusion, which is after all my function." Although he was referring to World War I, and therefore this quote belongs to a later period than these paintings, I believe that interesting connections can be made between the two through Kirchner's recurrent themes. Conflicts, confusion, distress can originate both externally and internally, and can be projected both outwards and inwards. At the same time, these emotions, these states can be found in so many places, in the physical, external world and within our mental, inner self. Expressionist art seeks to portray both external and internal emotions -sometimes even simultaneously- by merging through their impossible brushstrokes faces, bodies, and places in such a way that the physical world, society and the individual become one massive bundle of chaos. Emotions impregnate almost every piece of Expressionist art. Throughout a quite convulsive period of German History (the first decades of the 20th Century), expressionist works convey the anxieties, fears and darkest forebodings of people at the time. The experience of all the major representatives of German Expressionism was shaped by the dooming ambiance of the pre-World War I years and the feeling of hopelessness and irreparable loss of the post-war period. Many of them enlisted for combat, where they experienced that demolishing shock of the cruelest reality that only human inhumanity can infringe. For them, the war meant a turning point in their lives which was reflected in their work, turning darker, even more pessimistic and harsh. Kirchner was one of the founding members of an artistic association formed in Dresden in 1905 and called "The Bridge" (Die Brücke), whose main aim was to move away from the past, untie themselves from past constrictions and evolve, design and own a future that necessarily had to belong to them -the new generation. They wanted to bridge past and present as the first step towards building a future conception of art, by blending classical styles and motifs with avant-garde art. The movement was a truly open one, gathering artists interested in exploring different styles, and produced a range of sometimes difficult to classify pieces. Without a doubt, Kirchner was its most influential figure, and during the early years of Die Brücke one of his main artistic obsessions were nude dancers and young models: Art an experience, as is learning. And teaching. To me, a picture, a work of art, is in essence the experience it makes me live. I might not remember the exact colors, the features of its brushstrokes, its details in terms of depth or light or style, or the interpretations made by expert voices. But I'll remember what it made me feel, if it did make me feel something. And isn't that the ultimate goal of art, to make us feel, to leave some imprint on us, to give us a moment of emotion to remember? When that happens, that art piece finds its way into our beings, into the shaping of our life experience. And when something gets so deeply rooted in us, we'll always remember it, because the intensity of feeling truly connected to something is too special to forget. I believe that's the way learning should work, and therefore that's the goal teaching should pursue. Make the learning experience personal and shared at the same time, make it meaningful, make it creative, and the learning will happen -more importantly: it will endure. Give your students a chance to take creative action in their process of learning so that some of it (maybe most of it!) will stick in their minds. So why not bringing art and language teaching together? Students might have no interest in becoming knowledgeable about art, and that's fine, but that does not mean art has no place in the classroom. Art is everywhere, it can be found in the most unexpected places, so why not in a language class? Here's a suggestion you may want to use in your classes to give your students a chance to put their imagination at work, to disguise the art experience as language learning (or vice versa?), and who knows, you could even be awakening something in some of them...
After spending about three hours fishing through classic, arty movie posters, pop-art style adds, record covers and the like in a store in Soho, London, this was the one I brought home with me. It stands on my wall now, and I consider it to be the first work of art I ever bought. OK -technically, it's a movie poster, but there's a lot of art in it. In the purest sense, and in the broadest one, too. I picked it because I got all the references: to the film, and to the artistic movement which shaped it visually. I've always felt drawn by the unmistakable, uneasy, uncanny nature of German Expressionism and once and again I've surprised my eyes and my taste being called at by artistic productions of some sort of another casting an expressionist shadow. But I've never truly explored it or conscientiously learned about it. This may be the right time, and this project the right tool. I can't think of a better way to get it going than to do so with the picture that finally triggered my curiosity. Let the experiment begin! |
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