The Art Snob Archive

Germans - Oct 6 2006

Lest We Forget
Remembering the Real German Legacy this Oktoberfest

I am worried, however, that this exuberant celebration of German heritage drowns certain important aspects of the country's history in beer, lederhosen and das boot. It saddens my heart to think that we can wave the German flag with such utter ignorance to the past, forgetting about events that happened less than a century ago, events that have changed the way we look at the world.

Therefore, I believe that it is very important this year that we all take a moment out of our festivities to pause and remember something that affected so many lives not so long ago. Indeed, readers, I hope this week you will be able to put down your beer stein and remember, just for a moment, how important German Expressionism was to the world of Art.

Yes, dear readers, it saddens my fragile heart to think that such an important movement can be discarded as quickly as spoiled bratwurst. I sometimes lie awake at night, thinking of the thousands that will flood clubs like the Schwaben and Concordia this week, wondering how they can forget these brave German heroes, these noble men and women who dug deep into their souls and psyches to withdraw the purest form of emotional expression, bestowed as a gift to us upon their canvases.

Few understand that Munich, besides being the home of Germany’s own Oktoberfest, was also the birthplace of Der Blaue Reiter, a group of artists fundamental to the development of Expressionist ideology. Along with Dresden’s Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter acted as an avenue for which the movement's philosophies were expounded. Under their influence, the technique of combining vivid colour, emotional tension and often violent imagery spread throughout Europe.

Expressionism was conceived to be the opposite of Impressionism, defined as a rejection of immediate perception. Art Historian Antonin Matijeek wrote in 1910 that Expressionist art was the result of “images that pass through a mental person’s soul as through a filter, which rids them of all substantial accretions to produce their clear essence". From this spawns a legacy of energetic emotional reactions left on German canvases. Distortion, deconstruction, modified reality; oh my dear readers, it is enough to make any art snob salivate.

Take, for instance, the strong, almost offensive colours of Emil Nolde’s Christ Among the Children, or the passionate force lines of Franz Marc’s Fate of the Animals. This is art born from the raw power of emotion and meant to invoke just as powerful a reaction.

I feel I would have a reason to smile at Thanksgiving if you did this for me, dear readers, if you paused from ogling Ms. Oktoberfest for just one moment to recall this aspect of German culture. Raise a toast to Nolde and Marc, to Gabrielle Munter and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Thank them for putting German art on the map, and for building a bridge to the Abstraction movement. Do this for me, and I will not be so offended that you know nothing about Bauhaus or Berlin Dada. At least you know something. Godspeed.

posted by HLL @ Tuesday, October 03, 2006