Processing math: 100%
Skip to main content
Library homepage
 

Text Color

Text Size

 

Margin Size

 

Font Type

Enable Dyslexic Font
Humanities LibreTexts

17: Art Between the Wars (WWI and WWII)

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

Introduction

World War I devastated Europe, and artists responded to the war by creating art that summed up the utter nonsensical nature of this brutality with the art movement called Dada. Dada and other visual art at this time often uses collage to visually communicate ideas. Modern art used for propaganda can be seen in the Russian Constructivist movement and similar art from the Dutch with the De Stijl movement. Exploration of the human psyche in the writings of Andre Breton is part of Surrealism and several artists are invited into this group, including Salvador Dali and René Magritte. Picasso continues his influence on art by combining aspects of Cubism with recognizable imagery. North American art in the United States and in Mexico are also recognized for originality. Female artists and photographers find success in male dominated fields and are also noted for their significant artistic contributions. Photography is now being recognized as both an art form and for its ability to document the world through popular publications like Life Magazine. Style comes into the American Industrial Age with the architectural style of Art Deco which had originated in Pris in the 1910s. In Germany, the Bauhaus, or house for building, becomes the most influential modern art school in Europe furthering the concepts of modern art, design, and manufacturing.

DADA: Anti Art (New York and Europe)

clipboard_ec69d965abd243feebd23d0a30eea0c1b.png

The Entombment of the Birds and Butterflies, Jean Arp 1916-17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wm0589mLbM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkqJmMECZCs

clipboard_e92ba6a518ae5937054114e08d72f44af.png                          clipboard_e2a540ad1e031c353e2a69bf0750a3a60.png

Fountain, 1917 Marcel Duchamp                                   Mechanical Head, 1920 Raoul Hausmann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef5_PLKpEiE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABNwtDyx7T4

clipboard_eafb7fcc67405ff0a07cfcb3a3dd2b3a2.png              clipboard_e09477ac88725c9c4dbf4fca3cfde45d5.png

Dada Art                                                            Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany, 1919 Hannah Höch

clipboard_e1ce9375e30d90bc5daef8ebf26c08a75.png

Germany, A Winter's Tale, 1918 George Grosz

clipboard_ebd3bfddd95711947a6dbbbd9ba3e29a5.png                                                                                                             clipboard_e13f442ff4345f70eb3617b33ce91f2ae.png

I Copper Plate I Zinc Plate I Rubber Cloth 2 Calipers I Drainpipe Telescope I Piping Man, 1920 Max Ernst               Untitled, Man Ray 1922

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWAzhHQKX5c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26dRG-iAkWg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2umyxWJslJY

clipboard_ed62938205634cd74f4289672776d9d64.png                                                         clipboard_e121c91a03681f570ae3cc124aec3f895.png

Three Musicians, 1921 Pablo Picasso                                                                                                         Three Dancers, 1925 Pablo Picasso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_D4pwe7NSI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHcg9U25yV0

                        

clipboard_eb68d4ef0a6a3f6e912a45d95a92a26f5.png                                                             clipboard_ed98c7ff11aaf8923fb66b2540cf6c68d.png

Head of a Woman, 1929-30 Pablo Picasso                                                            Head, 1935 Julio González 

 

Surrealism:

Andre Breton Manifesto

Breton wrote the manifesto of 1924 that defines the purposes of the group. He included citations of the influences on Surrealism, examples of Surrealist works and discussion of Surrealist automatism.

Dictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.

Encyclopedia: Surrealism. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life.

  • The mind unbounded. Complete freedom of expression without societal, religious moral constraints.
  • Technique still important to communicate visual ideas.
  • Painting, film, photography and sculpture media are used. There is certainly exaggeration of forms in this art movement! The following slides show several examples.

clipboard_ea3e1c81d7c2dafaaeb63eac29efef56d.png                                                 clipboard_ee489c334f5b0dba374418bfde04496b7.png

Attirement of the Bride, Max Ernst (1940)                                                            The Elephants Celebes, 1921 Max Ernst

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BkXjea4NBc

clipboard_eb2bd2f50d0b69d1c5c7f8cdbdf94633d.png

Salvador Dali

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA0RAPh2ZgU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH7xxDLexvw

clipboard_eb49bf5d8d44788f91a1b29687fdd1673.png

The Persistence of Memory (Melting Clocks), 1931 Salvador Dali

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/dada-and-surrealism/xdc974a79:surrealism/v/salvador-dal-the-persistence-of-memory-1931

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHY9mBvlRec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mp-fBJNQmU

https://www.britannica.com/video/240496/Salvador-Dali-Persistence-of-Memory

clipboard_e766f772b63f4b3605f18c21b51f77430.png

Dali

clipboard_e8606202a4fd0e7dd02209ae8dd587f48.png

Dali

clipboard_e3873acbaca1826f13886adbcf3221315.png

The False Mirror, 1928 René Magritte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bX9cFGKm1o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZCE3ot6lf8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf3XhoVkRFI

clipboard_ef571da0fd1a4a970e09ecd90e2b6b87f.png

Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Cartier-Bresson (1932)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsNnJLv1pkk

clipboard_e5c2f39de135ec415e9028879bf95c094.png

The Gift, Man Ray (1921)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vlyStRcxoQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcPJWZcxqvM

clipboard_ea66f0d122b1cd4f33f6990c20f51b9fe.png

Object (Luncheon in Fur), Méret Oppenheim (1936)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwJZGPHwU78

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/v/meret-oppenheim-object-fur-covered-cup-saucer-and-spoon

Russian Constructivism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuefUigp0Ws

clipboard_ee26477b1529743d2fad8de854bb99652.png

Monument of the Third International (Tatlin's Tower), 1919-20 Vladimir Tatlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KyWM9LrEcQ

clipboard_ed0ba2dbbaea624722b1385a047d7483b.png

Advertisement: "Books!", 1925 Alexander Rodchenko

De Stijl Movement

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=5d0811d5ae0715ef&rls=en&q=de+stijl&tbm=vid&source=lnms&prmd=isvnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiho_rj3NiFAxXjSDABHQCtBvoQ0pQJegQIDRAB&biw=1173&bih=738&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c148e7ec,vid:ygiPcUKDdtM,st:0

clipboard_ea603c1af59d9dca0cac474fa3be89912.png

Composition No. II/Composition No. I//Composition en Rouge, Bleu et Jaune (Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow), 1930 Piet Mondrian

clipboard_e25adf61e8a87c2d60662048c41e84c69.png

Gerrit Rietveld, Interior of Schröder House, with "Red-Blue" chair, Utrecht, Holland 1924

Bauhaus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhXPQt8U3Zs

clipboard_e43203d92034b7f1ed0d811e725e31937.png

Walter Gropius, Werkbund housing development, Stuttgart, Germany (furniture by Marcel Breuer) 1927

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqK5K6qFJuI

clipboard_ecb8bac2a07ffd48f04516ff816544088.png

Walter Gropius, Shop Block of the Bauhaus , Dessau, Germany 1925-26

 

clipboard_e4c5d74431efd0f0b810e54c49a5f4c65.png

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German Pavilion 1929 (Guggenheim International Exposition, Barcelona)

 

clipboard_ea00ba8bbc8c73600dc451a0d1f436d08.png

Interior of the German Pavilion, 1929

Reinforced Concrete

clipboard_eb2d940cc66b3f6ea990d07267fa78db2.png

Auguste Perret, Notre Dame, Le Raincy, France 1923-24

clipboard_e9e994be8e075e46f544e50771111ef30.png

Françoise Hennebique, System for reinforced concrete, 1892 (After Curtis)

Art Deco

clipboard_eab27e3f8d10d234ff8012c56f71e7475.png

The Voice of the City (New York Interpreted), 1920-22 Joseph Stella (see below)

clipboard_e390018a45a5231d89bb561d89a834557.png                            clipboard_e2423807dc1fbdd2ebb4732c9a5e85bd0.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7MzNE66TlI

 

clipboard_e9400e732cdf116946180306b30ceb436.png

Wire Wheel, 1917 Paul Strand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm7CEt2okuc

clipboard_ed77dd23877cc2adb81b4329328527635.pngclipboard_e1488752756bc813e263d4c87763a7929.png

clipboard_ed2b483df1f52366563f838fff0a7d1ed.png

clipboard_e01455c92845c24dabf83da4d0ce65b5f.png

Photography by Margaret Bourke-White 1930s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVzRbbCFeCA

clipboard_e71cca51df202b810af12fcb5433e8689.png

My Egypt, 1927 Charles Demuth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDezhBHW4MM

clipboard_e9cde0ee72ff8106948ba02d6457c9037.png

William van Alen, Chrysler Building, New York, 1928-30

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/architecture-design/ny-skyscrapers-landmarks/a/van-alen-chrysler-building

Painting and Photography in America

clipboard_e7992c03787bb65ff538f136662657448.png

Black Iris III, 1926 Georgia O'Keefe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83ggxS21mFM

clipboard_eddfb010170d87d6518c274ff677c0022.png

Pepper, 1930 Edward Weston

Vintage film covering Weston available in the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjSWgoRTn2Q

clipboard_ee3b5d6e4c9238617e267c77232d82771.png

Photos by Edward Weston 1930s

https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/edward-weston-nature-is-the-great-stimulus/

 

clipboard_ef27a4fdc0c7dbdd0c972ea53c90d2a52.png

American Gothic, 1930 Grant Wood

https://www.britannica.com/video/239225/interpretations-Grant-Wood-American-Gothic

 

clipboard_e2adca1d736ae852caeb0d7fddfeb5dbf.png

In the North the Negro Had Better Educational Facilities, 1940-41 Jacob Lawrence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYRI-NiucuA

Edward Hopper

clipboard_e1fa58bd7b8d443a2e5ff3ea08cb2043c.png

Early Sunday Morning, 1930 Edward Hopper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKIbT-4UFaE

clipboard_ea035d995c3471e5c8979aedf6ffc1f38.png

Migrant Mother, California, 1936 Dorothea Lange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae1n1JQ0wKc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21nPEFybmtQ

 

Picasso

clipboard_eb7583debe91ed56f46d503aa54d892ab.png

Guernica, 1937 Pablo Picasso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJLH7JAsBHA


This page titled 17: Art Between the Wars (WWI and WWII) is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Michael Leonard.

Support Center

How can we help?