Art 1001 - Ch. 21

"Die Neue Sachlichkeit"

"The New Objectivity")

major event that brought modernism to the attention of a broader American public Result: American art became less provincial and more in tune with international trends

Armory Show in New York (1913)

Le Corbusier, Unité d'Habitation, Marseille (France), 1946-1952

Attempt at urban rationalization international style

Bauhaus defined specifically modern aesthetic of black-and-white photography during the mid-century Emphasis on abstract pattern, dramatic angles, shadows, symbols for industrialization in daily life

Bauhaus

The Bauhaus in Germany

Collaboration between art and industry

Same formula, repeated in variations: Neo-Plasticism For Mondrian, these compositions were expressions of spiritual fulfillment

Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow

Paul Klee, Twittering Machine, 1922, watercolor with pen and ink

Compositions often cheerful and child-like at first glance, but reveal a darker reality underneath

Gerrit Rietveld, Schröder House, Utrecht, NL, 1924

De Stijl Architecture

Precisionism painter

Demuth,

Another WWI veteran trying to come to terms with war experience Senseless bloodshed, destruction of WWI depicted in a triptych format WWI the first fully mechanized war in human history; nobody could imagine how such a war would look like in 1914

Der Krieg (The War)

Master of introspection, Dealing with themes of isolation and alienation in mass society

Edward Hopper

Gerrit Rietveld, Red/Blue Chair, 1918, wood

Example of Rietveld furniture design

Wedding of International Style elements with Wright's own "Prairie Style" houses

Fallingwater

___ consists of monolithic white slabs stacked up above a natural waterfall

Falllingwater

She became fascinated with the modernity of the metropolis: skyscrapers, lights at night O'Keeffe becomes follower of ____ ___: modern structures, machine aesthetic rendered with painstaking attention to detail

Georgia O'Keeffe, perfectionist style

The Bauhaus painters

Gropius, klee, albers, breuer, Moholy-Nagy, van der Rohe

The International Style in architecture

Gropius, van der Rohe, Le Corbusier

Hartley was an artist who loved to work with symbolism and bright colors His Portrait of a German Officer was a souvenir from a travel to Germany just prior to WWI

Hartley

Abstract painting represented in Bauhaus through Kandinsky and Josef Albers Albers immigrated to America after 1933 Squares are basic building blocks for most of his compositions; started Homage to the Square Series in the U.S. in 1950s Blend of Bauhaus aesthetics with American mid-century modernism

Homage to the Square: Ascending

László Moholy-Nagy, Light Space Modulator, mobile construction of steel, plastic, and wood, 1921-1930

Interest in new "industrial" materials like plastics, stamped sheet metal kinetic (moving) sculpture

Swiss architect, not part of the Bauhaus, but part of International Style architecture Idea of a house reduced to its very minimum: reinforced concrete slabs with steel columns

Le corbusier

Post-Modern criticism of the International Style: De-humanizing Breeds crime Not community oriented "One-size-fits-it-all" mentality disregards, destroys particularities of local culture Does not announce Utopia but a nightmare

Modern Architectureand Its Difficult Legacy

Expressed for Mondrian in the form of a universal grid pattern that dominate his paintings Mondrian coined the term Neo-Plasticism for his art which was meant to impose a rational structure on life through the grid

Mondrian

Soon thereafter, Mondrian moved to Paris, discovered the Cubism of Braque and Picasso The experience of Cubism prepared the ground for Mondrian's move to "abstraction"

Mondrian

The idea of breaking up nature into facets was copied from Cubism (ultimately from Cézanne)

Mondrian towards abstraction

The De Stijl movement in the Netherlands

Mondrian, Rietveld

Trivial subject with an ennobling title, elevating the landscape of the Mid-West to the level of one of the greatest achievements in human civilization, like for instance the pyramids in Egypt

My Egypt

Aesthetic principle consistent with Mondrian's paintings or Rietveld's architecture

Red/blue chair

After the "Black Friday" of 1929 and the Great Depression following it, American art embraced Regionalism Turn away from European models (nevertheless, Wood copied Flemish painting) Coincides with period of isolationism in politics

Regionalism

Rietveld a close collaborator of Mondrian, one of the founders of the De Stijl movement Architect and furniture designer

Rietveld

Rivera was a self-avowed Marxist Mexican history depicted in Marxist terms, leading to Revolution Style related to Social Realism favored by Stalin's regime in Soviet Union, but also WPA (Work Project Administration) artists in U.S. Wave of WPA-sponsored murals in public buildings partly inspired by artists like Rivera

Rivera

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German Pavilion, International Exhibition, Barcelona, 1929

Similar to sculpture raised on a marble base No load-bearing walls; internal walls are hardly more than screensTransition between exterior and interior played down

Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy-sur-Seine (France), 1929

Steeped in Cubist-inspired machine aesthetic Pristine white box raised on 26 delicate columns above a curving ground-floor wall international style

Otto Dix, Prager Strasse (Prague Street), oil and collage o/canvas, 1920

Street from the aftermath of WWI

Thomas Hart Benton, The Arts of the South, tempera with oil glaze, 1932

Style typical for Regionalist painters of the 1930s: large, blocky figures, naïve touch

De Stijl movement originated in The Netherlands De Stijl (Dutch)=The Style Comprehensive art movement, covering any form of creativity: easel painting, furniture, graphic design, architecture

The De Stijl Movement

Period of tremendous pressure and strain on German society: politically (extremist splinter parties to the left and the right end of political spectrum try to overthrow democratically elected government), economically (hyper-inflation, ended 1923 but destroyed most savings), socially (small group of industrialists face a large group of impoverished blue collar workers)

The New Objectivity in Germany

Le Corbusier thought of architecture as a tool to reshape and improve upon society (Utopia mission of architecture)

Unité d'Habitation

Art produced during the so-called ___ Republic, which existed in Germany between the end of WWI (1918) and Hitler's coming to power in 1933

Weimer

Regionalism painter

Wood

After 1920, the new revolutionary government of Mexico commissioned many fresco painting celebrating revolutionary achievements and rallying the population to the cause of national unity

ancient mexico

Idea of functionalism in design, architecture > factory-like appearance Solve practical questions to help along reconstruction after WWI To change physical appearance of the world at-large: mass housing, industrial design (furniture), typography, layout and photography all part of school's curriculum

bauhaus

Name of a very influential school of art and design founded in Germany after WWI In 1925, the school moved to a new campus built in the town of "Dessau" Innovative mission of school: Art and technology should enter a symbiosis in the curriculum of the school

bauhaus

One of the earliest examples of rationalism in architecture: façade built entirely out of "modern" materials like steel, concrete, and glass

bauhaus

bring about the end of capitalist individualism and replace it by a spiritualized new world order

counter model of de stijl

to radically re-design the entirety of the human environment and thereby initiate an age of universal harmony

goal of de stijl

Piet Mondrian, Composition No. 10: Pier and Ocean, 1915, oil o/canvas

looks like a maze, realization of abstraction

Different aspect of Regionalist art:

mural painting

Imagery influenced by Mexican revolution (1910-1920) Socialist/working class sympathies expressed through art Mexican muralists in demand in the U.S. as well, influenced American Art between the two world wars (f. ex. Pollock)

mural paintings

Tradition of mural painting in the U.S. was reinforced by Mexican painters in the 1930s

mural paintings

Collection of stereotypes that make up the pillars of Weimar society: the Capitalist, the officer, the judge, and the military

pillars of society

Precisionism is a style that weds an impeccable type of realism with fondness for symbols and Cubist methods of decomposing perceived reality

precisionism

Piet Mondrian, Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930, oil o/canvas

realization of abstraction

Work completes the transition towards abstract art Mondrian: attempt to create "an equilibrium of opposites"

realization of abstraction mondrian

Example of prototype for functional furniture Rationalism in design Insistence on using industrial materials, here: tubular steel Example of symbiosis art and industry

tubular chairs

Architect associated with Bauhaus, invented together with Gropius the "International Style" in architecture, most important works realized in U.S. => International Style came to define the skylines of large American cities after 1945

van der Rohe

Van der Rohe's architecture abandoned load-bearing walls; The materials are concrete, iron, glass...

van der Rohe on architecture principles

Georgia O'Keeffe, Light Coming on the Plains, No. II, 1917, watercolor

wide, open plains of the Mid- West