Art in Berlin

Despite its upheaval, Weimar Germany was at the forefront of new styles and movements in art and design.  Weimar artists often incorporated their own ideas which reflected the conditions and attitudes of the time. This artistic revolution did not please everyone. The traditionalists in Germany hated Weimar art; they thought it was decadent, frivolous and pointless.

Otto Dix

Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutality of war. Along with George Grosz, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.

Image Credit: Otto Dix | The Skat Players - Card Playing War Invalids (1920) | Artsy. [ONLINE] Available at: https://artsy.net/artwork/otto-dix-the-skat-players-card-playing-war-invalids. [Accessed 03 October 2014].

In this painting, three German officers are portrayed, all with limbs missing.  Two of them miss legs altogether and the one on the left uses his remaining leg to hold his cards, since he’s missing a hand.  Such figures would have been a common sight in Germany in the 1920s, as they were across Europe, which reflects the economic and political downfall in Berlin at the time.  The Wiemar Republic was a time of denial–people used the arts, such as Cabaret, to look away from realities of everyday life, that were painful for many to witness but Otto Dix refused to look away from all of this.  The colours of the painting are dull and cold, which may reflect Dix' coldness and hatred towards these men, who often pointed many men living in Berlin to their deaths.  To me Otto Dix' paintings, including colour and materials really represent the awful state Germany was in.  All three men in this photo are all horribly deformed and scarred, just like the Wiemar Republic and the citizens who lived in Berlin at the time. 

George Grosz

German painter George Grosz was born in Berlin in 1893. His father died when he was eight years of age and his mother moved to the Pomeranian town of Stolp.  It was here that George attended weekly drawing classes.  At the age of sixteen he went to the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and remained there for two years before moving to the Berlin College of Arts.

The Pillars of Society:

Image Credit: The Pillars of Society by George Grosz | my daily art display. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mydailyartdisplay.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/the-pillars-of-society-by-george-grosz-3/. [Accessed 03 October 2014].

This particular painting by George Grosz named 'The Pillars of Society',  is a deeply sarcastic portrait of the German elite classes who supported Fascism.  Like many of his and other artists of the time, his work connoted what he thought was the corrupt society of Germany.  In the painting we can see four main characters, all representing a grotesque and disrespected figure of the era,   through the windows we can see the city in flames, chaos is reigning.  Again this painting seems to be very dull in colour.  In 1921, Grosz offered this advice to artists; "Come out of your rooms, even if you find it an effort, pull down your individual barriers, let yourselves be caught up by the ideas of working people and help them in the struggle against a corrupt society.".  This is what is most inspiring about these artists in my opinion...they weren't afraid to step out into the real world, to offer words of advice, paint the world in a realistic way and even in such a corrupt society, took time to enjoy themselves in the form of art.