h114 meeting 21: between the wars (the arts)

HISTORY OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION:1648 TO PRESENT

LECTURE 21:RESPONSES TO WWI (THE ARTS)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

John Constable (1776 - 1837). The White Horse, 1819. oil on canvas. 51 3/4 in. x 74 1/8 in. (131.45 cm x

188.28 cm). accession number 1943.1.147

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

Claude Monet. Women in the Garden. 1866. Musée d'Orsay,

Paris. oil on canvas; 10 1/16 x 8 1/16 in. (25.5 x 20.5 cm). RF 2773

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

George Grosz, Suicide. 1916. Oil on canvas. 100 x 77.6 cm. Tate

Gallery, London, UK.

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

Fernand Leger, La partie de cartes

(Soldiers Playing at Cards), 1917, oil on

canvas, Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo.

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

Paul Nash, The Menin Road, 1919, oil on

canvas, 182.9 ﾊ x 317 ﾊcm, Imperial War

Museum, London.

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

Otto Dix, Prager Street (1920)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

Otto Dix, The Skat Players (1920)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

a. Gender,Sexuality, andRace

Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel (1930)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

a. Gender,Sexuality, andRace

John Held Jr., “Insatiable Neckers” and “The Jazz Age” from Life

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

a. Gender,Sexuality, andRace Zig, J’ai deux amours (1930)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

a. Gender, Sexuality, andRace

b. Looking to the Future: Dystopia/Utopia

Modern Times (1936)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

a. Gender, Sexuality, andRace

b. Looking to the Future: Dystopia/Utopia

Metropolis (1926)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

a. Gender, Sexuality, andRace

b. Looking to the Future: Dystopia/Utopia

Gropius, The Bauhaus Art School

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

a. Gender, Sexuality, andRace

b. Looking to the Future: Dystopia/Utopia

Mies van der Rohe, The Hermann Lange House (1927)

"What would concrete be, what steel, without plate glass?

The ability of both to transform space would be limited, even lost altogether; it would remain only a vague promise.

Only a glass skin and glass walls can reveal the simple structural form of the skeletal fame and ensure its architectonic possibilities. And this is true not only of large utilitarian buildings. To be sure, it was with them that a line of development based on function and necessity began that needs no further justification; it will not end there, however, but will find its fulfillment in the realm of residential building.

Only here, in a field offering greater freedom, one not bound by narrower objectives, and the architectural elements forming the basis for a new art of building. They permit us a degree of freedom in the creation of space that we will no longer deny ourselves. Only now can we give shape to space, open it, and link it to the landscape. It now becomes clear once more just what walls and openings are, and floors and ceilings.

Simplicity of construction, clarity of tectonic means, and purity of materials have about them the glow of pristine beauty."

—Mies van der Rohe. Mies van der Rohe: The Villas and Country Houses. p66.

Le Corbusier in 1950

Unite d’Habitation in Marseilles (1946), a self-contained “vertical city” with its own streets and support services.

The house is a machine for living in.

Le Corbusier’s vision of the utopian “future city”

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

a. Gender, Sexuality, andRace

b. Looking to the Future: Dystopia/Utopia

Mies van der Rohe, The Hermann Lange House (1927)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, Museum of Modern Art, NY.

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

Eli Lissitsky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

c. Dada

Dada Exhibit in Germany

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

c. DadaMarcel Duchamp, Fountain (1917)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

c. DadaMarcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q

(1919)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

c. Dada

Hanna Hoch, Dada-Rundschau (Dada-Review), 1919, Photomontage,

gouache, watercolours on card, 43.7 x 34.5 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

c. Dada

Dora Maar, Pere Ubu, 1936 (French, born Great Britain, 1909-1997), Gelatin silver print; 15 9/16 x

11 in. (39.6 x 28 cm) Ford Motor Company Collection. Metropolitan Museum of Art

(1987.1100.101).

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

c. Dada

d. Surrealism

Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory (1931)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

c. Dada

d. Surrealism

Rene Magritte, Ceci n’est pas une pipe (1929)

I. The End of WWI

II. The Peace and the Economy

III. The Response to WWI

A. Russia

B. The Lost Generation Speaks

1. Reactions to Modern Warfare

2. Reactions to Modernity

3. ChallengingBourgeoisAesthetics

a. Cubism

b. Constructivism

c. Dada

d. Surrealism

Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, Un Chien Andalou, 1929