Learning Outcomes

• Identify the characteristics of German Expressionism and link to social conditions of that period (Weimar 1919-1933)

• Evaluate art of this period in relation to film and context

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

Social Conditions

• WWI also known as the Great War 1914 – 1918

• Germany: 1.7m killed and 4.2m wounded

• The war was fought in the trenches

• Men came back physically maimed and psychologically damaged

Post-war 1918-1939

• Germany had to pay reparations to the Allies

• Suffered hyper-inflation

• The hardships faced by the men in the trenches were continued home – poverty, starvation.

(1923) Woman feeds her stove with Papiermarks which burnt longer than the amount of wood people could buy with them

Cinema

• During this period cinema production, distribution and exhibition was at its height

• Inflation led to a boom in German film exports that began around 1919

• No film censorship directly after war and films depicting nudity, homosexuality and drug use were made

Weimar Republic (1919-1933)

• Removed censorship laws – yet introduced laws for film (no pornography or other indecent content)

• Time of decadence and permissiveness

• Characterised in the rise of the cabaret

Cabaret

• Berlin became the cosmopolitan capital of Europe

• Anita Berber – Expressionist exotic dancer and actress in German silent movies.

Otto Dix, The Dancer Anita Berber, 1910

Bob Fosse – Cabaret (1972)

• Film musical depicting the decadence of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party

Starring Liza Minnelli & Michael York

http://www.nodanw.com/shows_c/cabaret_essay.htm

German ExpressionismTowards a definition

Impressionism

Concerned with outer appearances – a visible reality.

German Expressionism

A reaction to the impressionist concern with the outer and with appearance. It portrays the inner and psychic values. The painted forms are externalised emotions. Colour no longer designates optical facts.

http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition

Die Brucke (The Bridge)Erich Heckel, Lyonel Feininger, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Erich Heckel (1883 – 1970)

Reading Aloud, 1914 (woodcut)

Erich Heckel

Roquairol, Portrait of E.L. Kirchner, 1917

Erich Heckel

Girl with a Doll (Franzi), 1910

Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)

Town Hall, Zottelstedt, 2, 1918

Lyonel Feininger

Villa on the Shore, 4, 1920

Ernst Kirchner (1880-1938)

Potsdamer Platz Berlin, 1914 The Street, 1913

Ernst Kirchner

Hamburg Dancers, 1910

Ernst Kirchner

Dodo with a Large Fan in the Studio, 1910

Couple in a Room, 1912

The Red Tower in Halle, 1915

Ernst Kirchner

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976)

Portrait of Emy, 1919

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

The Widow, 1922/1923

Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Robert Weine, 1919

Cabinet of Dr CaligariRobert Weine, 1919

Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)

Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)

Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)

Otto Dix (1891 – 1969)

The Skat Players, 1920Stormtroopers During Gas Attack, 1923/24

New Objectivity

(Neue Sachlichkeit )

George Grosz (1893 – 1959)

To Oscar Panizza, 1917-18 Metropolis, 1917

Art Deco

City Hall of Buffalo, New York Poster for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

Metropolis (Lang, 1927)

Metropolis (Lang, 1927)

Questions to Consider

• What is the relationship between technique and context in German Expressionism?

• Identify the general differences between German Expressionism and Soviet Montage?

Practical Application of Learning

• What are the artists trying to convey in their art?– Fear, instability, uncertainty, physical &

psychological disabilities, economic uncertainty/poverty, economic success (film, art and certain industries) class divisions (very poor/very rich), mistrust in institutions & technology.

– Inner reality (German Expressionism) – Outer reality (New Objectivity / Art Deco)