German Expressionist Woodcuts (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

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Painting was the dominant medium of the genre, and the resulting works represented epitomize the principles of the German Expressionist movement today. Sculpture, architecture, and film also played important roles. Beyond the visual arts, it transcended many industries and disciplines, including literature, music, theater, and even economics. Works from the movement have sustained popularity to this day, and though the genre’s active years were relatively brief, German Expressionism has remained an influential movement for artists and patrons alike. A Brief History of German Expressionism German Expressionist painters rejected the naturalistic depiction of objective reality, often portraying distorted figures, buildings, and landscapes in a disorienting manner that disregarded the conventions of perspective and proportion. This approach, combined with jagged, stylized shapes and harsh, unnatural colors, were used to convey subjective emotions. He volunteered to join the army during World War One but was later discharged due to a breakdown. In 1933, as the Nazis came into power, his artwork was branded as corrupt, and over 600 of his pieces were either destroyed or sold. Sadly, in 1938, Kirchner committed suicide at the age of 58. The horrors of war became a consistent theme for German Expressionist artists, and some of the movement’s most searing images are by the Berlin-based Käthe Kollwitz. While she originally studied painting, Kollwitz focused on printmaking as of 1890, a medium she believed could better convey social critique. Her early images highlight the plight of the poor and the oppressed as a means to condemn the German government’s conservative social policies. But her best-known and most expressive work was made in response to World War I and the death of her own son in battle. Unable to lessen the pain from his father's passing, Rouault started a series of Indian ink drawings, which would eventually serve as the base of the engravings of his monumental masterpiece, the Miserere book. Rouault would have to wait until 1948 to see this project reach fruition when the book was published with a total of 58 engravings. The initial drawings were all based on the 50th Psalm of Repentance in Catholic liturgy, Miserere mie Deus, but Rouault was also influenced by the horrors of World War I, and his own concern for the marginalized in society.

Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print, pp. 179–202; 273–81 & passim; Yale, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06883-2 Cafe in Davos (1928) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner; Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons German Modernism emerged from turn-of-the-century Aestheticism. Like European Modernism as a whole, German Modernism was in fact a cluster of different literary movements, including Expressionism, Neue Sachlichkeit (“New Objectivity”), and Dada. Of these, Expressionism is the best known and most important. Beginning about 1910… Read More Eventually, these German Expressionism characteristics would go on to set the scene for the development of mid-century Abstraction.In Austria, Klimt led the way for artists including Oskar Kokoschkaand Egon Schiele, while in France, Rouault, Soutine, Chagall emerged as leaders of the style. The movement also influenced other media, most notably sculpture and architecture. Much like the Germans, Expressionists in other countries were inevitably affected by the war, with many volunteering for active duty or forced into exile. The Legacy of Expressionism Many critics see a direct tie between cinema and architecture of the time, stating that the sets and scene artwork of Expressionist films often reveal buildings of sharp angles, great heights, and crowded environments, such as the frequently shown Tower of Babel in Fritz Lang's Metropolis. [14] Despite its downfall, the importance of German Expressionism art was that it encouraged various European cultures of the 1920s to embrace the concept of change and to boldly experiment with unfamiliar artistic styles and ideas. Mexico at this time was trying to discover its identity and develop itself as a unified nation. The form and style of woodcut aesthetic allowed a diverse range of topics and visual culture to look unified. Traditional, folk images and avant-garde, modern images, shared a similar aesthetic when it was engraved into wood. An image of the countryside and a traditional farmer appeared similar to the image of a city. [20] This symbolism was beneficial for politicians who wanted a unified nation. The physical actions of carving and printing woodcuts also supported the values many held about manual labour and supporting workers' rights. [20] Current woodcut practices in Mexico [ edit ]

At first, German Expression was only considered an art movement, but it encompassed poets, novelists and playwrights in addition to artists. In 1905, a small group of artists broke away and begun to produce vivid paintings that made use of gestural brushstrokes, bright and juxtaposing colors and extremely distorted figures. films, which were influenced by German Expressionist cinema, the effect of horror was usually created by means of a macabre atmosphere and theme; The Student of Prague (1913), an early German film dealing with a dual personality, and The Golem (1915), based on the medieval Jewish legend of a clay… Read MoreMarc’s ebullient Yellow Cow is one of the artist’s many canvases portraying animals, which he believed represented spiritual and emotional renewal. This piece holds particular significance as it was made in the same year that Marc and Kandinsky formed Der Blaue Reiter, or “The Blue Rider.” The term references Marc’s fascination with animals, as well as a central theme of Kandinsky’s work: the horse and rider. This theme symbolizes the connection between humans and nature and, according to MoMA, the journey beyond realistic representation. Nazis prohibited him from exhibiting and confiscated 729 works from public collections. Studio and its contents in Berlin destroyed during World War II. Methods of printing [ edit ] The Crab that played with the sea, Woodcut by Rudyard Kipling illustrating one of his Just So Stories (1902). In mixed white-line (below) and normal woodcut (above). Sjöberg, Leif, Torsten Billman and the Wood Engraver's Art, pp. 165–171. The American Scandinavian Review, Vol. LXI, No. 2, June 1973. New York 1973. so Landau and Parshall, 179–192; but Bartrum, 179 and Renaissance Impressions: Chiaroscuro Woodcuts from the Collections of Georg Baselitz and the Albertina, Vienna, Royal Academy, London, March–June 2014, exhibition guide, both credit Cranach with the innovation in 1507.

A frame from director Arthur Robison's 1923 silent film Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination ( a.k.a., Warning Shadows). Art within this time was thought of as something that held traditional aesthetic value and tended to shy away from including any radical political influences. Through the development of German Expressionism, traditional German art became something that held a deeper meaning and spoke directly to the political and social issues that were plaguing Germany. In the United States, after the turn of the 20th century, most of the prominent painters became fairly active printmakers: George Wesley Bellows, in lithography; John Sloan and Reginald Marsh, in etching; Milton Avery, in drypoint and a large number of monoprints; and Stuart Davis, in colour lithography. Among these painter-printmakers, two artists are particularly notable: Edward Hopper, whose few etchings are very personal and of unusually high quality; and Ben Shahn, an extremely prolific printmaker, who left an impressive graphic oeuvre in practically every medium. Of the subsequent generation of established painter-printmakers, only a few were creatively involved in the process, while the rest let the commercial printer take over. Untitled woodcut depicting a flying woman by Friedrich König, c. 1902; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons a b Hind, Arthur M. (1963). An Introduction to a History of Woodcut. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1935 (in USA), reprinted Dover Publications, 1963. pp.64–94. ISBN 978-0-486-20952-4.Rouault does not seek to represent an omniscient and omnipotent God in his Christ. Through this portrait, he conveys Christ as a (the) paragone of empathy and compassion. His naked flesh tones coupled with his sincere expression represent Christ as a man who experienced all the pain (and more) of the human condition. In this sense, Christ may be compared to all the outcasts depicted by Rouault throughout his career. Clowns, entertainers, Pierrot himself, and prostitutes become figures of Christ in effect. But, for the devout artist, Christ is the ultimate redeemer. His look here is penetrative but not punishing, and the calm expression of the face offers a path to love and forgiveness. Used printmaking as a means for radically simplifying and flattening compositions. Made more than one thousand prints over career, almost three-quarters between 1903 and 1923; most were self-printed in small editions, although after 1910 collaborated on occasion with Berlin-based publishers, including Paul Cassirer, Fritz Gurlitt, and J. B. Neumann. Reprinted some early woodcuts in 1950s. This film can be viewed as representing the absurdity displayed in the war, as Cesare is symbolic of the innocent soldiers who were forced to kill others under the control of the government, represented by Dr. Caligari. Thus, German Expressionism existed as the appropriate movement to help employ the sense of anxiety and uneasiness that was felt throughout Germany in the aftermath of World War One. This film existed as another prominent film within German Expressionist Cinema and was directed by Fritz Lang and released in 1927. This is considered one of the most well-known silent films to come out of this era and depicts a society utterly divided by class and wealth. Metropolis tells the story of a dystopian future, where the wealthy ruling class exists in the upper city, and the poor working-class exist below ground.

Some of the major filmmakers of this time were F. W. Murnau, Erich Pommer, and Fritz Lang. The movement ended after the currency stabilized, making it cheaper to buy movies abroad. The UFA financially collapsed and German studios began to deal with Italian studios which led to their influence in style of horror and films noirs. The American influence on the film industry would also lead some film makers to continue their career in the US. The UFA's last film was Der blaue Engel (1930), considered a masterpiece of German Expressionism.In 1912, Kandinsky and Marc went on to release a collection of essays on art, which became known as the Almanach Der Blaue Reiter. The aim of this was to introduce some spiritual value to art pieces, with color being used as their main technique. The translation of the name into English means “The Blue Rider”, which held significance for both Kandinsky and Marc.