...and by that I mean art from or inspired by The Great War, or WW1 (or, known to this day simply as The War in parts of France).
There is a lot of art by veterans of WW1, by artists who lived through the war and by artists throughout the past century and right up to today that explores that convulsion in human history between 1914 and 1918. There is no way that anyone could come close to providing a comprehensive survey of the subject in one diary, or even a week of diaries. Presented this week in installments instead is a smattering of different expressions throughout the past century.
But before the whirlwind wind tour, a brief bit of background on the War’s effect on art in general might help put some of this context as well as present the War’s role on the entire art world for the past century.
MODERNISM
Modernism was burbling away before WW1, but the War, which broke so many traditions and institutions across the spectrum of society and wiped away so much of the world that came before it also cleared the decks in a way in the art world. Previous styles of painting, poetry, drawing, music, and literature were no longer sufficient to express what the war had wrought. Modernism’s break with traditions fed into the art that reacted to the war and the war reinforced the rejection of those traditions.
DADA
Started at the Cabaret Voltaire. Generally pretty angry. Reaction against imperialism. Reaction against the war. Traded liberally in absurdity as a way to respond to the absurdity of the War. Opened the doors for so much of the art that followed. One painter made a habit of mailing ironed and starched white shirts, along with other useless items to the front line. If that seems like a futile action borne of a broken mind, it may be. But it is also the action of someone whose mind had been broken by the horror of the war and at least was going to reflect that back to others or even scream it rather than suffer quietly. Considering the psychic damage being endured by many folks in the absurd age of Drumpf, a deeper look at Dada might be worthwhile.
You can let your fingers do the google walking or…
check out this film that MIGHT shed some more light on the subject (just turn down the volume at the start...it’s pretty loud)
SURREALISM
No Dada, No Surrealism.
JAZZ
No, it wasn’t borne out of the War. And neither was the War a central theme for the best thing America has given human culture. But, Jazz found fertile ground in Paris (and elsewhere in Europe) during and shortly after the War. African American musicians remained in, or moved to, post war Paris, where Jazz had already put down some roots during the war to escape Apartheid in America. Jazz spread across Europe. American Vets, bored with small towns after returning from the War also returned to Paris to be part of the scene that was happening there. When many of them finally went back to the states, they took Jazz with them. Yes, Jazz had a pretty good scene in a few American cities, but the War, through expats coming home, helped scatter those seeds across the land.
PARIS in the 20’s
If there was no War, the cultural and artistic phenomenon of Paris in the 20’s would not have been the same. This was a time and place that put James Joyce, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, and many other significant artists in the same streets and and cafes. Paris provided cultural and artistic support, most famously in the form of Gertrude Stein, who brought artists together in her salon and connected them to each other and to patrons. The city also provided a means of support for many of these artists, through those patrons, as well as galleries, editors and collectors. The influence of this city in this decade echoed through the century.
So, if you enjoy any art made in the past century or so, you should thank, among other living things, the 8 million horses that gave that were blown apart, shot, exhausted to death, or starved during World War One. They helped carry the men and machines that made the madness that rendered a generation unable to speak in the language that they knew before the war.
Coming up for the rest of the week:
- Propaganda posters and other official art.
- Painters from the Great War
- Writers from the Great War
- Performing arts and the Great War
- 21st century art focused on the Great War
- and a bit more