Modern Art: The Influence of WW1

 "Modernism took shape decades before World War I, but its clamorous arrival was vastly accelerated by the greatest collective trauma in history to that point." (Johnson, 2012). In the Western and industrialized world, it is evident the effect of the first World War had farther reaching consequences in both time and space. Though modernism began more than half a century prior, its definable characteristics such as the absent single point perspective or bizarre compositions wouldn't take their place in the progression of visual arts until after the Great War. Surrealism wouldn't be fully realized until life had become so visually bizarre and emotionally confounding artists, who were often made to fight for country against their will, had to put pen to paper or paint visually fragmented pieces to reflect personal experience. These experiences are delivered in bourgeoning movements post WW1 in Dadaism, an international movement that repudiated everyday conventions and institutions, and often spawned anti-government/anti-war elements; surrealism, symbolic and often politically oriented; and De Stijl, the distillation of the visual world to mere elements of abstraction in hopes to attain the "spirituality of nature." Certainly it seems the most influential movement that provided the most material after WW1, and marked an international consensus on the frivolity of social constructs, and the rejection of war, on both sides, was Dadaism.

Experimenting with ideas of what art is while being incredibly cynical or critical, dadaists might perhaps be the first to despair in the face of humanity.  George Grosz was a primary player in German Dadaism and fought for the Central Powers that lost. Using often horrifying imagery and quality of lines, his drawings were often circulated and in publications, and illustrated his disdain for German society or the goverment , such as in the Faith Healers (1916-1917):

Also known as Fit for Active Service, this ink and brush work completed in Berlin is likely a personal experience of Grosz's. It shows a doctor signing off on a skeleton with the letters KV (fit for combat in German) who is ready to get back to the front, which historically had actually happened after German forces suffered great loss of life. Grosz himself had returned to the front in 1917 (Artstory, 2021). Though the drawing is devoid of detail (but for the skeleton), and color, the absurdity is palpable in the very acts of the doctor and surrounding soldiers signing off on a seemingly dead man. Ultimately, Grosz would fall further into a pit of despair for humankind, and this antimilitary graphic artwork was one among many of his that expressed that notion.

Another German born of the Dadaist group in Berlin, and critic of general society and the previous republic, and definitely in the minority, was Hannah Hoch. A pioneer in photomontages, cutting and placing carefully selected images next to each other acheiving 'recontextualization,' Hoch's collages were politically and socially charged, and often about gender identity and feminist symbolism. One photomontage of note in criticism of the interwar government was Heads of State, which depicts the upper bodies of then German Chancellor and his Minister of defense, Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Noske respectively. Placed against a backdrop of plant flowers and butterflies circling a woman, and in their swimming trunks, the composition is markedly satirical and symbolic. A result of the two individuals lethal actions against a rebel group of their own countrymen, and likely Ebert's efforts to mobilize and fund German forces prior to World War I, with the assistance of conservative and nationalistic political groups, the Weimar Republic was a main target of Hoch's unconventional mode of art. 

The rich embroidery pattern of the backdrop of this collage completed between 1918-1920 is suggestive of the role women often occupied as a career in German society, increasing the significance of the two individuals who are at leisure, seemingly unaware of their own citizens. "Hoch's bold collisions and combinations of fragments of widely circulated images connected her work to the world and captured the rebellious, critical spirit of the interwar period." 

Another Dada artist that took aim at the notion of war and social elites tendency for it was Austrian artist Raoul Hausmann. Perhaps his most iconic work, The Spirit of Our Time is a readymade piece that reflects Dada values unmistakably, and "represents the absurdity of 'the war to end all wars,'" (artstory, 2021). One value of Dadaism that shares and evokes this ridiculousness is that of the over-machination of man, that man had been engulfed by the machines of war and the industrialized age, and this sculpture sought to illustrate just that.

Completed in 1919 in Berlin, Hausmann gave new meaning and new function to the "exterior" of man's skull, as the everyday man had the capacities which chance placed within it. And so, building upon this idea, mechanized man by adding small ordinary, unusual items such as a wallet on the back of the head, and a cup for a crown.

The point of the piece, and Dadaism of this particular sort, was a restructuring of the way one thought of every things, and their functionality. It was a wild detour off course, and sometimes not for the sake of novelty or radicalism, but to call attention to the path or direction humankind had taken--one of bloodshed and anxiety-inducing uncertainty. It was to this end Dadaists and Dadaism worked.

“Art Forever Changed by World War I.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2012, www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-xpm-2012-jul-21-la-et-cm-world-war-art-20120722-story.html.

“Raoul Hausmann Artworks & Famous Paintings.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/hausmann-raoul/artworks/.

“Hannah Höch Photomontages, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/hoch-hannah/.