Modern art and World War I
The impact World War I had on the fine arts is undeniable, and it is was the subject of an exhibition at Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle that focused in depth on the fate of modern art in the context of the war.
A sense of foreboding
Artists dealt with possible implications of a war even before World War I broke out. When Emil Nolde painted ‘Soldiers’ in 1913, war was already in the air in Europe. The mood was divided: Apocalyptic sentiment and a fear of conflict had gripped some, but others were longing for the war to purge society of its ailments.
Anticipating the collapse
The painting 'Horrors of War’ by Ludwig Meidner can be seen as a prophetic image of the events that ensued. As early as 1911, his ‘Apocalyptic Landscapes’ showed a collapsing world that left people without protection.
New artistic expression
With the beginning of the war, the colors seemed to disappear from Max Beckmann’s works. His ‘Declaration of War’ from 1914 is more a sketch than a painting. Beckmann developed a new language of expression that was characterized by simplicity and minimalism.
Artists in uniform
Paul Klee also dropped the traditional style. His ‘View of the Severely Threatened City of Pinz’ is from 1915. A year later, Klee was exempted from serving on the front lines and started working in a plane construction hangar near Munich. He spent his free time sketching and painting with quills and water color pens on both paper and cardboard.
Patriotic surge
In 1915, Raoul Dufy painted 'The End of the Great War’ as most of his fellow countrymen envisaged it. It was a glorified depiction of France’s victory, showing the German eagle at the feet of the Gallic rooster.
Traumatizing experience
Belarusian-born artist Ossip Zadkine worked in a French army clinic on the Western Front, where he experienced the horror of battle first-hand. In 1916, he suffered from gas poison himself. He survived and translated his memories into images in a series of drawings.
Anti-war memorial
German sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck created this sculpture of a naked man in 1915. He called it ‘The Fallen Man’. Like almost no other work in the exhibition ‘The Avant-Gardes at War’, it represents man’s vulnerability against the destructive forces of war.
Heralding the post-war era
Back in 1914, Russian artist Kazimir Malevich still created patriotic and folkloristic imagery. But his style changed radically from 1915 onwards. Malevich would become known as the originator of Suprematism, an art movement based on pure abstraction. His programmatic oeuvre ‘The Black Square’ is shown in the top center of this picture. It is a precursor of the post-1918 period.