Modernity and Anti-Modernity in German Art and Culture: 1905-1945

Avantgarde movements arrived late in German art, but after 1905 the country saw an explosion of an avantgarde which was closely linked to international movements such as fauvism and cubism. Until 1933 the country lived a particularly radical art manifesting itself especially in the Brücke group in Dresden and Berlin, the Blaue Reiter group in Munich, the Bauhaus academy and the realistic tendencies of the 1920s. All of this was interrupted when the national socialists seized power in 1933. They prosecuted and forbid most forms of contemporary art. Nevertheless there are certain continuities before and after 1933. Looking at the works of art and certain key texts we are going to explore the explosion of the modernity and its destruction until 1945, a key period in German art, which still affects our aesthetic way of thinking in Germany until today. (1 unit)

Required texts: A coursepack will be made available.