1914 saw the start of the First World War, which lasted until 1918. Art was one of the victims. The way people view art has altered forever thanks to works like sculptures, music, and dance, among other things. For example, some surrealists and expressionists created shaky, jumbled-up angles and ominous depictions of dismembered human bodies in disjointed societies bound toward moral decadence in visual art. This wasn't always the case, though. While this time was bloody and grim for the majority of artists, it wasn't always terrible for others. The three pieces of art that are the subject of this essay's discussion will be by Otto Dix, Kurt Schwitters, and André Masso. their style, technique, and imaging used. It will also compare the art with the time it was made.
Dr. Mayer-Hermann – Identity
During the war, individual and social identity faced a crisis. Italy, Germany Poland and Russia as main players in the war came up with laws that castigated individuals based on their political and religious identity.
Otto Dix was born in Untermdorf, Germany in 1891. He studied art at the Saxon School of Arts and Craft. He originally worked in Expressionalist style but changed to Realistic style as seen in this portrait of Dr. Wilheim Mayer-Hermann.
Figure 1: Otto Dix. German, 1891–1969.
Dr. Mayer-Hermann. 1926. Oil and tempera on wood, 58 /4 x 39" (149.2 x 99.1 cm). Gift of Philip Johnston. © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Through utilization of oil painting technique, the artist casts the Jewish doctor in a realistic and satirical manner. He is painted in his office with professional accessories like X-ray apparatus and the circular light on his head clearly visible. The only personal object on him is the blue ring on his little finger and everything about and around the doctor is round. This is a depiction of how Jews were identified immediately after the war at a time many were emaciated.
Merzz. 53. Red Bonbon – Art of Redemption
Focus on the destruction caused by the war was not the focus of all artists. The Dada movement held the view that WW1 was a result of reason and logic overcoming emotion and humanity and therefore, a rejection of reason.
Kurt Scwitters 1887-1948 was a German painter, sculptor, typographer, and painter. He studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Hanover.
His original work was influenced by expressionism and cubism but later came up with his own form of Dada called ‘Merz’. The work depicted is called ‘Merzz. 53. Red Bonbon’.
Figure 2: Kurt Schwitters, German, 1887-1948. Merzz. 53. Red Bonbon. 1920. Graphite, colored and printed paper, cardstock, and thread collage with cardstock border, 5 1/16" x 3 13/16" (12.8 x 9.7 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
The utilization of collage as a technique allowed the artist to compose this art out of pieces of junk collected from the streets in trash bins. By rendering rubbish in such a manner, the work is an indicator of the state of anarchy that was prevailing and the pure luck with which he had gotten the absurd materials he had used.
Scwitters, through working in a conceptual style highlights the transition to art that was focused on the meaning of artwork and not how the artwork appeared physically. This directly related to changes in visual arts at the time. WW1 had made people move away from the traditions of the past.
Battle of Fishes (1926) – Modern Landscapes
Figure 3 André Masson. French, 1896 –1987. Battle of Fishes. 1926. Sand, gesso, oil, pencil, and charcoal on canvas, 14 /4 x 28/4" (36.2 x 73 cm). Purchase. © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York /ADAGP, Paris
In this plate, the artist uses the theme of fighting to reflect on the lingering ravages of war in which he lived. He uses animate objects to document how war impacted the participants.
André Masson, a French Surrealist, presents us with a composition illustrating fighting fishes. The suggestion therein is a savage battle involving two sharp-teethed fish. Intricate brush strokes, well-thought textures, and many lines are used. The use of red streaks represents bleeding fish. The painting is rendered using sand, gesso, oil, and charcoal on canvas.
The representation of war in this image corroborates with the experience of the author as a soldier in WW1. Through his personal experience of pain and trauma, he recounts to us the landscape of how life was in that period.
All the three art works capture the story of World War 1. Through identity seeking, redemption and landscape, the transformation of art from a static representation of idyllic times shifted to the dynamic environments in which the artists found themselves in. The import of this is that art from that these works are a representation of the impact of war from different artistic perspectives but telling the story of war from different perspectives.
Works Cited
Dix, Otto. “Dr. Mayer-Herman.” German Expressionism, MoMA, 1926, The Museum of Modern Art, New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, www.moma.org/s/ge/collection_ge/objbydate/objbydate_beginyr-1925_sov_page-38.html. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.
Masson, Andre. “Battle of Fishes.” MoMA, MoMA, 1926, The Museum of Modern Art, New York /ADAGP, Paris, www.moma.org/collection/works/79309. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.
Schwitters, Kurt. “Merzz. 53. Red Bonbon.” Collection Online, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1920, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/3850. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.
