Art & The Great War

[Geek44]

Originally Posted by ripley44mag

This type of art was called "Dada" Dada=Death...It was popular mostly in Germany 1915-1936. It is Nihilism in the abstract. Regards Ripley

Not stricty true.
Dada was a short lived movement that was almost akin to the 'punk' movement of the seventies in that it strove to 'kill' rennaissance type 'high' art and deliver it back to ordinary people.
Two classic 'Dada' works include a painting of an ironing board with a copy of the Mona Lisa draped over it. The 'iron' is actually a metal block covered with spikes to destroy Da Vinci's painting. The other was the performance piece by the German 'artist' who sold tickets to his opening and shot himself in the head in front of the appalled audience.

[Geek44]

Other works by Käthe Köllwitz. Interesting to me because they depict the effects of war on women (war isn't just about men and machines). The wife of a Doctor and living in a poor area of Berlin, Köllwitz was staunchly 'anti-war' and was persecuted by the nazis as a 'degenerate' as were many of here peers. Unlike her peers though, Köllwitz did not flee Germany in the thirties and died there less than two weeks before the end of the Second World War.

Killed In Action 1921 Koll.jpg
'Killed In Action' 1921.

Kollwitz Hunger.jpg
'Hunger'

Widows and Orphans 1919 Koll.jpg
'Widows and Orphans' 1919.

[cyberia]

"For Merit" - Political Cartoon by Louis Raemakers (1869-1956)

In the above work Raemakers pins guilt for the war on the Crown Prince.
Raemakers' favorite subjects were the German emperor and his son.

[cyberia]

"Untitled" - Mary Riter Hamilton

[Geek44]

Doesn't need a title does it?

[cyberia]

No it does not. Many of her more poignant works are untitled. But as you noted, they pretty much speak for themselves.

[Geek44]

You know what kills me?
In six years from now, it will be a century since the beginning of 'The Great War'...otherwise known as 'The War To End All Wars'. There isn't a person on the planet in their right mind who wouldn't see the poignancy and significance of this art and recognize the waste and futility of it all.
Yet war remains not only an 'option'...but a preference for many.

[Holly6]

Originally Posted by Geek44

You know what kills me?
In six years from now, it will be a century since the beginning of 'The Great War'...otherwise known as 'The War To End All Wars'. There isn't a person on the panet in their right mind who wouldn't see the poignancy and significance of this art and recognize the waste and futility of it all.
Yet war remains not only an 'option'...but a preference for many.

Great minds witha a single thought. A Greek Dude came to the same conclusion quite a few years prior to WWI.

"Only the dead have seen the end of war", Plato

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by Geek44

You know what kills me?
In six years from now, it will be a century since the beginning of 'The Great War'...otherwise known as 'The War To End All Wars'. There isn't a person on the panet in their right mind who wouldn't see the poignancy and significance of this art and recognize the waste and futility of it all.
Yet war remains not only an 'option'...but a preference for many.

Why do you think many regimes have banned such art.

[Geek44]

Originally Posted by Holly6

Great minds witha a single thought. A Greek Dude came to the same conclusion quite a few years prior to WWI.

"Only the dead have seen the end of war", Plato

I play a PC game that you may know. It's called 'Rome Total War'. As the screens load at the start of the game, there are many quotes from famous people on war and its nature. The one above by Plato is one of them. It's part of the reason that the lip service paid to 'peace' by politicians often turns my stomach.

'And gathered at the cenotaph
all agreed with hands on hearts
to sheath the sacrificial knives

But now

In quiet desperation
knuckles white upon the slippery reins
she bravely waves the boys goodbye again'

Pink Floyd - Southampton Dock

Indeed Paul and I wish I knew more about this but you may remember a German term I used in conjunction with the Expressionism I posted above; 'Eintartete Kunst'...I think that's right, basically it means 'degenerate art'. Before WW2, the nazi party organized an exhibition of Expressionist work (keep in mind many of the artists were veterans of WW1) in order to show the public what 'degenerate' minds were capable of. The works were deliberately hung crooked and similar things done to ensure that the work looked as bad as was possible. After the 'show', the works were destroyed and those artists still in Germany were shipped off to the camps.
Without wanting to provoke any controversy here now, there have been a few raids and seizures of galleries and art locally...much of which contained comment on Iraq. There's an American (Jewish) cartoonist names Art Spiegelmann who wrote a two volume graphic novel entitled 'Maus' that chronicled his parents' survival of Auschwitz. Compulsory reading to my mind...the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Germans as cats and the liberating Americans...you guessed it, dogs. About seven years ago, he wrote another graphic novel entitled 'In The Shadow Of Two Towers' about his own take on the events of 9/11. He was in New York at the time. I've never seen this work on the shelves. Anywhere. I have seen the art, at the Jewish Cultural Centre in the city and it's breath taking. To be sure, it's critical of the US in its foreign policy but that isn't my point per se. My point is that it's critical and thus invisible. For those who know comics as a genre, this guy is a giant. For this work to be unavailable is akin to the new episodes of Star Wars (1-3) only being shown in one small art-house cinema in front of six people. This kind of thing frightens me on so many levels. People today have a way of being patronizing of the people of the past. Like they were so uneducated back then, they went on the Crusades or we know so much more now, there could never be another holocaust. They must have known...how could they let that happen? They did know and they let it happen because they wanted to carry on living themselves...as I probably would have...probably you too. One of the most frightening experiences I've ever had was to read Orwell's '1984' in 2002 (for about the tenth time).

'Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia'.

Some of it is happening all the time...I don't know if it's just neccessary for governing millions of people in a coherent way or if it's calculating politicians taking advantage of their positions or both...but it's the reason for my extreme cynicism, extreme left-wing politics and at times, my extreme fear of authorities of all nations.
I'm not pushing my lefty barrow here...this isn't the place for that and whatever your politics (or lack thereof) I wish you luck and peace in all sincerity. My point is best summed up by a quote by somebody I can't remember but it chills me.

'Wherever they burn books, pretty soon they'll burn bodies too.' The same applies with the banning of art and I've seen it happen.
Peace.