EXHIBITION DIGITORIAL: ART FOR NO ONE. 1933-1945

Intro

ART FOR NO ONE
1933–1945 4 MARCH – 6 JUNE 2022

Jeanne Mammen, Dying Warrior (Young Soldier in the Front Fire), ca. 1943

Election year 1932. In April, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) obtains a majority in the state parliament in the Free State of Anhalt with more than forty percent of the ballots cast. The first extensive solo exhibition of the artist Hannah Höch in Germany is planned to open in May at the Bauhaus School of Architecture, Design and Art in Dessau, the state capital at the time. Just before the opening, the newly elected political leadership prohibits the exhibition project from taking place. The financial subsidies are withdrawn and the Bauhaus, whose artistic orientation does not fit within the National Socialist ideology, is dissolved a few months later.

With the ascendency of the National Socialists begins a time of violence and terror, despair and hopelessness—for those who do not join in the, at first, majority support for National Socialist regime. Public life, politics, media, and the fine arts are subjected to an ideology in line with the National Socialist regime. Many artists living in Germany flee into exile, concerned for their own lives, and in order to retain the freedom to choose how they express themselves artistically. Others do not leave Germany and also create very expressive works out of the public eye and under the radar of the National Socialists. The artists address the fears and the misery of the time, their isolation, and the impending threat of war, as well as its grim consequences. Besides reactions to day-to-day political events, their works show an intensive examination of experimental photography, photomontage, and current tendencies of abstract painting.

WHAT IS A DICTATORSHIP?

The term “dictatorship” denotes the unrestricted rule of a person, group, or party in a country. The National Socialist regime in Germany between 1933 and 1945 was a totalitarian dictatorship. In totalitarian dictatorships, all political, social, and government questions are subordinated unconditionally to a programmatic ideology. Diversity in public life, freedom of the press and mass media, and the free development of the arts and oppositional movements were eliminated in favor of the absoluteness of the dictator. The aim was to completely control the society and reshape it according to the official worldview. Intimidation, persecution, and the use of terrorist measures assisted in suppressing the individual and to already stopping any nascent expressions of resistance.

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PRIVACY POLICY | IMPRINT | SOURCES AND PICTURE CREDITS

SOURCES AND PICTURE CREDITS

TRANSCRIPTIONS OF AUDIO RECORDINGS

I was born in a great gray city,
Where eternal rain falls into a sea of rooftops;
And its borders are lost on the horizon:
The gray city is my home, my world.

A little grass, and moss, and young green linden trees,
Wet with rain, on a black river's tide,
In narrow squares and in gloomy gullets
Grayed courtyards, growing on abandoned rubble.

And a hundred thousand pale houses stand and brood,
With dead eyes they dream of the distant sea,
And rigid grief lies on their bare gables,
Above which a pale sky bends so heavy.

The many people who inhabit this great city,
Often shiver in fear and cold loneliness,
When in the evening, after the day's haste and torment, millions
From distant windows twinkle through the darkness.

Werner Heldt, „Heimat“, in: Verena Hein, Werner Heldt (1904−1954). Leben und Werk, Munich 2016, p. 1.

With the beginning of the Hitler era came a ban on, or “Gleichschaltung” of, all the magazines I was working for. The end of my “realistic” period and a transition to an aggressive painting style that involves the fragmentation of form (as a contrast to officially sanctioned art). Second World War: no oil paint, no canvas—all the paintings from this period are done in tempera poster paint on cardboard. Food ration coupons, registered unemployment, forced labor, bombings. Mandatory training as a “fireman”: firewatch duty after the all-clear until 3 a.m.. No windows, no heating, neither gas nor electric lighting, no food. Pictures, lithos, drawings, furniture for the most part burned, destroyed by water, or stolen.

Jeanne Mammen, A Brief Report on External Details (excerpt), in: Thomas Köhler and Annelie Lütgnes (Eds.), Jeanne Mammen. Die Beobachterin: Retrospektive 1910–1975, Munich 2017, p. 12.

Let us now forget the torment
Of the long winter and lament!
When the forests yet stand bare,
The brown violet days have come.

You still see nothing green around,
You do not yet hear the lark's young songs
And not the humming of the bees,
Only crows caw sadly now and then.

But already it blossoms yellow and blue
From withered beech leaves, foul and damp,
The air is soft and tepid,
And on the trunks hangs a faint glow.

Still the sore heart trembles,
We were too heavy, struck too deep.
Forget now, forget! It is March,
The pain fades, we will hope again!

Ricarda Huch, Early spring, in: Ricarda Huch, Herbstfeuer. Gedichte, Frankfurt am Main 1999, p. 75.

QUOTES

Willi Baumeister: “It’s very quiet in the studio. At the same time, it’s not easy […]”, quoted from: Willi Baumeister Diary, entry from March 10, 1941, https://willi-baumeister.org/node/207 (URL accessed on January 31, 2022).

Lea Grundig: “Being able to work, putting the dreadful, the oppressive into a form […]”, quoted from: https://kuenste-im-exil.de/KIE/Content/DE/Objekte/grunding-fluester.html?single=1 (URL accessed on February 11, 2022).

Karl Hofer: “Meanwhile, the indiscriminate folly in the field of art continues […]”, quoted from: Andreas Hüneke (Ed.), Karl Hofer. Malerei hat eine Zukunft: Briefe, Aufsätze, Reden, Leipzig and Weimar 1991, p. 201.

Lea Grundig: “It was necessary to depict the insanity, which propagated stupidity and delusion […]” , quoted from: Maria Heiner, Lea Grundig. Kunst für die Menschen, Berlin 2016, p. 34.

Fritz Winter: “Every artistic form must be preceded by a shock”, quoted from: Martina Ripphausen, Die Feldskizzen Fritz Winters 1939−1945, diss. Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 1994, p. 317.

ILLUSTRATIONS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022 for all shown works by Willi Baumeister, Otto Dix, Hans Grundig, Lea Grundig, Werner Heldt, Hannah Höch, Karl Hofer, Edmund Kesting, Jeanne Mammen, Franz Radziwill, Hans Uhlmann and Fritz Winter.

It was not always possible to determine the identities of the copyright holders for all illustrations. Justified claims will be honoured in customary manner.

Jeanne Mammen, Dying Warrior (Young Soldier in the Front Fire), ca. 1943, tempera on paperboard, 151 × 140 cm, Jeanne-Mammen-Stiftung im Stadtmuseum Berlin © Stadtmuseum Berlin / Photo: Oliver Ziebe, Berlin.

Hannah Höch, Accusation, ca. 1943, watercolor and opaque paint, 39,7 × 35,5 cm, private collection, Wuppertal © Private collection Wuppertal.

Hans Grundig, Clash of the Bears and Wolves, 1938, oil on plywood, 90,5 × 102,5 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie © bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB / Klaus Göken.

Willi Baumeister, Man with Goatee, ca. 1941, pencil, ink, artist’s postcard, 14,9 × 10,5 cm, Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg – Altonaer Museum, Inv.-Nr. 1965-682 © Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg / Altonaer Museum.

Willi Baumeister, Man with Goatee, 1941, ink, colored pencil and typewriting on postcard, 14,8 × 10,3 cm, private collection © Archiv Baumeister im Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.

Willi Baumeister, Man with Goatee II, 1941, pencil, gouache and watercolor on postcard, 14,9 × 10,4 cm, private collection © Archiv Baumeister im Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.

Lea Grundig, Under the Swastika, plate 7: Whispering, 1935, drypoint etching, 47 × 53 cm, Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt © Herbert Fischer, Frankfurt am Main.

Werner Heldt, Meeting (Parade of the Zeros), 1933–1935, charcoal on Guarro laid paper, 47 × 63,3 cm, Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur © Berlinische Galerie / Photo: Kai-Annett Becker.

Otto Dix, Gloomy Landscape, 1940, mixed media on wood, 65 × 85 cm, Kunstsammlung Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, property of Stiftung Gunzenhauser © Archiv Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz.

Karl Hofer, Black Moon Night, 1944, oil on canvas, 114 × 90 cm, Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur © Berlinische Galerie / Photo: Kai-Annett Becker.

Karl Hofer, Alarm / Tower Brass Player, 1935, oil on canvas, 124 × 98 cm, Museum Ettlingen © Museum Ettlingen, Dauerleihgabe der Stiftung Menschenbild, Winterthur.

Hans Uhlmann, Untitled (Plate from Tegel Heads), 1934/35, ink pen in black over pencil on paper, 11,6 × 9,2 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett © Dietmar Katz.

Hans Uhlmann, Untitled (Plate from Tegel Heads), 1934/35, ink pen in red over pencil on paper, 11,7 × 8,5 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett © Dietmar Katz.

Otto Dix, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 1937, mixed media on wood, 150 × 148,5 cm, Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, on loan from ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Friedrichshafen © Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen.

Franz Radziwill, Airplanes / Flying Ever Faster, 1938, oil on canvas, 77 × 97,5 cm, Stiftung Situation Kunst, Bochum, permanent loan from a private collection © Eric Jobs, Hattingen.

Franz Radziwill, The Steel Helmet in No-Man’s-Land, 1933, oil on canvas on wood, 64 × 52,5 cm, Stadtmuseum Oldenburg © Stadtmuseum Oldenburg / Andrey Gradetchliev.

Lea Grundig, War Threatens!, plate 2: Fear, 1936, drypoint etching, 45 × 33,5 cm, Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt © Herbert Fischer, Frankfurt am Main.

Lea Grundig, War Threatens!, plate 3: Gas Masks, 1936, etching, 42 × 52,5 cm, Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt © Herbert Fischer, Frankfurt am Main.

Lea Grundig, War Threatens!, plate 4: Hitler Means War, 1936, drypoint etching, 38,9 × 53 cm, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Kunstsammlung, Inv.-Nr.: Lea Grundig 616 © Akademie der Künste, Berlin.

Lea Grundig, War Threatens!, plate 5: Mothers, War Threatens, 1936, drypoint etching, 32,5 × 50 cm, Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt © Herbert Fischer, Frankfurt am Main.

Lea Grundig, War Threatens!, plate 6: The Children, 1935, drypoint etching, 24,8 × 26,2 cm, Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt © Herbert Fischer, Frankfurt am Main.

Hannah Höch, 1945 (The End), 1945, oil on canvas, 92,8 × 81,4 cm, Berliner Sparkasse © Berliner Sparkasse.

Edmund Kesting, Death over Dresden, from Dresden Dance of Death, 1945, photographic composition with positive montage on baryta paper, 29,6 × 23,3 cm, courtesy, Döbele Kunst Mannheim © Döbele Kunst Mannheim.

Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Lamenting Women III, 1944, oil on canvas, 81 × 100,5 cm, private collection © Private collection © 2022 Ernst Wilhelm Nay Stiftung, Köln.

Marta Hoepffner, Dream 4 (The Landing in Dreamland), 1935, photomontage, gelatin silver print, 12,1 × 17,8 cm, Stadtmuseum Hofheim am Taunus © Herbert Fischer, Frankfurt am Main © Estate Marta Hoepffner.

Fritz Winter, Frost Flowers, 1942, graphite and pencil on paper, 10,5 × 15 cm, Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See, Stiftung Etta und Otto Stangl © Johann Hinrichs.

Fritz Winter, Metamorphosis, 1944, oil on canvas, 130 × 110 cm, Fritz-Winter-Haus Ahlen, Helga Gausling © Fritz-Winter-Haus Ahlen, Karl-Heinz Smoll.

Willi Baumeister, Untitled, 1941, lacquer paint on steel sheeting, 30 × 20 cm, permanent loan of the Freunde des Kunstmuseums Stuttgart © Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.

Otto Dix, Sunrise in Randegg, 1935, oil on fiberboard, 71 x 80 cm, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen, Depositum der Sturzenegger-Stiftung © Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen.

Jeanne Mammen, Wolf, ca. 1939, pencil and colored pencil on newsprint, 52 × 38 cm, Jeanne-Mammen-Stiftung im Stadtmuseum Berlin © Stadtmuseum Berlin / Photo: Oliver Ziebe, Berlin.

FILMS

Ella Bergmann-Michel, Final Vote (Election Campaign 1932), 16mm film, Germany 1932/33, 13:00 min., DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main © DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main © Sünke Michel.

DOCUMENTATION MATERIAL

Organigram of the Reich Chamber of Culture (RKK), in: Hans Hinkel (Ed.), Handbuch der Reichskulturkammer, Berlin 1937, p. 15.

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