SPLENDOR AND MISERY
NEW OBJECTIVTY IN GERMANY

The physical and psychological injuries and abysmal experiences of World War I, which claimed the lives of more than nine million people and left over 20 million wounded, called for new depictions of reality in art. The resignation, accusations and indescribable hardships that characterized this time on the one hand, and the hope, emancipation and emerging zest for life of the “Golden Twenties” on the other, needed to be expressed in a new type of art: one that was unsentimental, sober, concrete and purist; in short, one that was objective and realistic. Thus, the movement of New Objectivity – a term coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, who in 1925 organized the exhibition Neue Sachlichkeit – Deutsche Malerei seit dem Expressionismus [New Objectivity – German Painting since Expressionism] at the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim – provided a contrast, and not least a reaction, to the pathos-filled, illusionistic Expressionism that was no longer able to document the intellectual and political crisis situation and its reality. Hartlaub further established the theory of the two wings of New Objectivity: the politically-oriented, socio-critical wing of the Verists on the left, and the Classicist and neo-romantic, traditional wing on the right.

Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Christian Schad, Otto Dix, Lotte Laserstein, Gerta Overbeck, Rudolf Schlichter, Karl Hubbuch, Grethe Jürgens, and many other artists, captured the zeitgeist on canvas and paper. They derived the themes for their works not only from the aftershocks of World War I but also from the thriving amusement industry, the new life plans pursued by independent and confident women, and from the encroachment of technological advancements upon everyday life and nature. People, as well as things, were depicted in a razor-sharp, sober and distanced manner, with artists capturing an emphatic image of the conditions and developments in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) for posterity.

These new artistic approaches came to an abrupt end in 1933, when Adolf Hitler rose to power and enforced the National Socialists’ art policy: Politically suspect artists had to endure raids of their apartments and studios, were excluded from institutions and associations, and faced exhibition and employment bans. Some artists were murdered, some were forced into exile, many preferred an inner emigration, while others chose to align themselves with the regime’s art policy.

Featuring around 150 works from international museums and private collections, the exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of German New Objectivity in Austria.

Curator: Hans-Peter Wipplinger
Curatorial Assistant and Projectcoordination: Aline Marion Steinwender

LIVING ON THE EDGE – BETWEEN ECSTASY AND SARCASM

In the context of the 1920s, we often hear of the sophisticated “Golden Twenties” – a cultural departure into a new era following the defeat of World War I. While this heyday did indeed occur between 1924 and 1928, once inflation had been overcome, it was famously brief. The metaphor of “dancing on a volcano”, i.e. of living on the edge, is a highly vivid description of the unsuspecting exuberance that was shown in the face of an imminent catastrophe.

Efforts to forget the traumas of war resulted in flamboyant nocturnal phantasms and a flourishing amusement industry. In the cabarets, theaters and cafés, the stricken characters found the distractions they were looking for to escape the harsh reality, while the artists of the time found a wide range of motifs. The socio-critical cabaret and nightlife scenes by artists ranging from Otto Dix to Rudolf Schlichter are populated by fun-loving, fashionable and sometimes emaciated ladies and gentlemen dancing together, as well as by scantily clad revue dancers and prostitutes of all ages, who had to make their living in the pulsating entertainment venues. The emotional spectrum of depicted relations ranges from drastic renderings of sexual murders with Schlichter and Dix, to sensitive, albeit sober, portrayals of ideal concepts of personal encounters.

THE DARK SIDES OF LIFE

With its sense of reality and claim to soberness and authenticity, the style of New Objectivity could not overlook the failed and stranded existences left behind after years of war and revolution, who experienced the dark sides of life. Owing to the difficult economic situation after the War, the young republic was plagued by social hardships and great poverty, with the proletariat, especially, becoming increasingly impoverished. The social ills were obvious, and fostered political instability and violence on the streets. Many of the difficult fates experienced by people on account of this situation were depicted by the Verists: Whether showing rag pickers, unemployed people or neglected children – the sense of desperation and hopelessness amidst their daily struggle for survival appears etched on the faces of those portrayed by artists ranging from Rudolf Schlichter to Lea Grundig-Langer and Käthe Kollwitz. Their socio-critical depictions are characterized by a sharpness of detail and unsparing look at reality.

THE EMANCIPATED WOMAN – NEW WAYS OF LIFE OF THE 1920s

Despite the Weimar Republic’s manifold economic crises, there was also a palpable sense of departure, which was reflected in the emancipation of women. Following the fight of the feminist movement for political rights, which led to votes for women in 1918, the campaign now sought further social participation. Women’s increasing forays into the professional world were owed not least to an economic necessity, as large numbers of men had not returned from the War – or had returned with severe physical or psychological disabilities – and the young republic was in urgent need of workers.

The idea of equality also manifested in women’s fashion, with ladies now wearing short bobbed hairstyles, short dresses or pantsuits, while some chose an androgynous or even masculine look. Prevailing gender roles were being dissolved, and a new esthetic had been born, one that was propagated in magazines and feuilletons. Women artists – among them Lotte Laserstein, Kate Diehn-Bitt, Jeanne Mammen and Gerta Overbeck – saw the depiction of the “New Woman” as a means to shape this new female type and to encourage a “rapprochement of the sexes”. Depictions of the masculinization of women, as well as the play with sexual identity or, in the case of Kate Diehn-Bitt’s self-portrait, with “intersexuality” represented a threat to the traditional patriarchal society.

PEOPLE – INDUSTRY – TECHNOLOGY

The 1920s were shaped by incredibly fast developments in the areas of industry and technology. New forms of communication, such as the telephone, and innovations in transport, such as airplanes, were manifestations of a time characterized by a general acceleration and mechanization, which stood in stark contrast to a traditional, paralyzed way of life.

The numerous industrial depictions – by artists from Rudolf Schlichter to Gustav Wunderwald – show an impersonal world populated by factories, electric power plants, brickyards and lime works. The relationship between people and machines was a precarious one, and the individual had to subject itself to the new reality. The roles assumed by people in a Taylorized world were manifold: Otto Griebel’s The Ship’s Stoker stands for a new self-assured and class-conscious personality, Erich Wegner’s Old Man with Child at the Harbor symbolizes skepticism towards progress, while Anton Räderscheidt’s Self-Portrait in Industrial Landscape turns people themselves into functional machines.

BETWEEN PARODY AND BUFFOONERY

Aside from conventional depictions, the artists of the time were especially drawn to places like the circus, the cabaret and funfairs, which represented a parallel universe. But it was not just the aspect of diversion and amusement that was of importance to them. Rather, these were places where the bourgeois order was coming apart. Jesters, jugglers and acrobats stood for social outsiders who overstepped the norms.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

The Great Depression, which started with the collapse of the stock market on Black Friday, 25th October 1929, spelled the end of the brief period of recovery of the mid-1920s. Unemployment skyrocketed, banks went into administration owing to the withdrawal of US capital, and from 1930 onwards, violent clashes between communists, socialists and National Socialists were the order of the day. In 1930/31, several rights, including the right to demonstrate, the right of assembly and freedom of press, were greatly restricted. In the Reichstag elections held in November 1932, the NSDAP won the most votes and demanded the position of Reich Chancellor, with Adolf Hitler being eventually appointed to this office in January 1933. The widespread terror against dissidents began, and the Weimar Republic ended.

The individual reactions of exponents of New Objectivity, first to the rise of the NSDAP and later to the Führer state, were as heterogeneous as the styles and motifs of their art. Jewish artists, for instance Felix Nussbaum, were categorically excluded from exhibitions, and subsequently deported and murdered. Those painters of New Objectivity who espoused socio-critical Verism were dismissed from their posts, and either left the country or retreated to the countryside. Several high-ranking National Socialists, as well as a conservative part of the public, appreciated an objective approach to reality and the artisanal perfection of painting techniques in the manner of the Old Masters. Thus, various conservative artists continued their timeless oeuvre undisturbed, and were even able to carve out impressive careers, so long as they adhered to the National Socialists’ art policy in terms of their stance and choice of motifs. Artistic opposition to the regime could only happen in secret.

In their works, the artists of New Objectivity reflected the spirit of the time, tried to capture the splendor and misery of this ambivalent era in sober and realistic depictions, and to process the atrocities and consequences of World War I in their paintings, prints and sculptures. As it turned out, the post-war era would lead directly into a pre-war era destined to lead to a new catastrophe.

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