Lecture 28 Part II

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Lecture 28 Part II
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From the moment they came to power, the Nazis
launched a vicious campaign against art they
designated "degenerate," a category that included
all modernist art, especially abstract, Cubist,
Expressionist, and Surrealist art. Thus Picasso,
Matisse, Klee, Kandinsky, Kirchner, and even
nineteenth-century Impressionist and
Post-Impressionist artists including Renoir,
Degas, Cézanne and Van Gogh, were reviled as
exponents of avant-garde art movements that were
considered intellectual, elitist, foreign, and
socialist-influenced. Jewish artists such as Marc
Chagall were, of course, singled out for special
condemnation. The Nazi government promoted a
"true" German art, continuing in the tradition of
German nineteenth-century realistic genre
painting, that upheld "respectable" moral values
and was easy to understand. Hitler's inner circle
also treasured certain Old Masters whom they
regarded as expressing the true Aryan spirit, in
particular Rembrandt, Cranach, and Vermeer.
Museum directors and curators who refused to
cooperate with the new anti-modernist collecting
policies were dismissed. In 1937, in order to
purge German museums of their holdings of
"degenerate" art, Joseph Goebbels, Minister for
Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, charged a
commission headed by Adolf Ziegler, one of
Hitler's favorite artists (see next slide), with
the seizure of works of German "degenerate" art
created since 1910 owned by German state,
provincial and municipal museums. Although the
primary focus was on German art, the Ziegler
commission's reach soon expanded to encompass
non-German artists such as the Dutch abstract
painter Piet Mondrian. The confiscated art was
gathered in a huge exhibition in Munich to
educate the German people about the "evils" of
modern art, and especially its alleged
Jewish/Bolshevist influences. Marc Chagall's
Purim, confiscated from the Museum Folkwang in
Essen, was one of the paintings selected for this
infamous exhibition, entitled "Degenerate Art"
(Entartete Kunst), which opened in Munich on July
19, 1937. Exhibition organizers surrounded the
paintings and sculpture with mocking graffiti
(previous slide) and quotations from Hitler's
speeches, designed to inflame public
Photo taken of the Degenerate Art Show
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Adolf Ziegler Girl with two fruit baskets 1930
(one of Hitlers favorite artists)
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Arno Breker, Readiness, (detail) 1939
Arno Breker, Readiness, 1939
Note Another favorite of the Nazi Party, Arno
Brekers (above) large sculptures embodied the
aggressiveness of the Nazi military. As well as,
its idealistic understanding of the pure male
German form. You could certainly see the
aesthetics of the Nazis was a far cry from the
general interests of the European avant-garde of
the time.
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opinion against this "decadent avant-garde art.
Ironically, the exhibition attracted five times
as many visitors (36,000 on one Sunday alone) as
the equally large "Great German Art Exhibition"
of Nazi-approved art that opened in Munich at the
same time. (http//www.philamuseum.org/collection
s/98-296-110.html) The, Degenerate Art
exhibition included 650 works of art confiscated
from 32 German museums. For the National
Socialists, the term degenerate applied to any
type of art that was incompatible with their
ideology or propaganda. Whole movements were
labeled as such, including Expressionism,
Impressionism, Dada, New Objectivity,
Surrealism, Cubism, and Fauvism, among others.
Many of Germanys most talented and innovative
artists suffered official defamation for
example, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,
Max Ernst, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein,
Paul Klee, and Ernst Barlach. Avant-garde artists
and museum directors who purchased or exhibited
modern art had already been barred from
professional activity as early as 1933. With this
exhibition, the visual arts were forced into
complete submission to censorship and National
Socialist coordination Gleichschaltung.
Initiated by Minster of Propaganda Joseph
Goebbels and President of the Reich Chamber of
the Visual Arts Adolf Ziegler (1892-1959), the
exhibition travelled to twelve other cities from
1937 to 1941. In all, the show drew more than 3
million visitors. The exhibition sought to
demonstrate the degeneration of artworks by
placing them alongside drawings done by the
mentally retarded and photographs of the
physically handicapped. These comparisons aimed
to highlight the diseased, Jewish-Bolshevist,
and inferior character of these artworks and to
warn of an impending cultural decline. As an
exercise in contrast, the opposite good,
healthy, German art could be seen in the
Great German Art Exhibition, on view only a few
meters away. (http//germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org
/sub_image.cfm?image_id2073)
Photo taken of the Degenerate Art Show
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Line at one of the Degenerate Art Shows
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Eventually the Nazi authorities confiscated more
than 17,000 works of art from German museums, all
of which were meticulously inventoried and
assigned a registry number. Although "degenerate"
works such as Chagall's were to be banished from
Germany, the Nazi government realized their
usefulness as a convenient means of raising
much-needed foreign cash to finance the war
machine, or simply to acquire the type of art
desired by Hitler. Some of the most valuable
confiscated art, such as Van Gogh's Self-Portrait
from Munich, was auctioned at the Galerie Fischer
in Lucerne, Switzerland, in June, 1939. Many of
the rest of the museum-confiscated works were
distributed to four German dealers, who arranged
for their sale on the international art market,
often for absurdly low prices. In this way, many
important works of art removed from German museum
collections found their way to American museums.
Tragically, those artworks deemed unsalable (the
"dregs," as Goebbels called them), almost five
thousand paintings and works of art on paper,
were probably destroyed in a bonfire in the
courtyard of the Berlin central fire station in
1939 as a fire department training exercise.
German public museums have not requested the
return of artworks that were confiscated and sold
off under the Nazi regime, because such seizures
of art from state-owned museums by an elected
government were legal. In effect, the German
government was free to dispose of its own
property. A law enacted (after the fact) on May
31, 1938 decreed that the Reich could appropriate
artworks from public museums in Germany without
compensation. Further, in September 1948, museums
in West Germany issued a decision to relinquish
all claims to art that had been confiscated by
the Nazi government. (http//www.philamuseum.org/
collections/98-296-110.html)
Photo taken of one the Degenerate Art Shows
Photo of Hitler viewing artwork
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All the work in this photo is being held in a
Nazi storage room (on the left) Picassos
portrait of the Soler family (1903), confiscated
from the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (on
the easel, top), Picassos Two Harlequins (1905),
confiscated from the Städtische Galerie,
Wuppertal and (in the right foreground) two
sculptures by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, taken from
collections in Wiesbaden and Lübeck.
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Photo of Hitler viewing stolen degenerate
artwork notice the man next to Hitler who appears
to be laughing at the work.
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Another Nazi storage room, you can see Van Goghs
Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin (above)
(1888) which had been confiscated from the Neue
Staatsgalerie in Munich it fetched 175,000 Swiss
francs at auction, 30,000 more than the asking
price. To the left of the self-portrait is a
painting from Gauguins Tahitian period under it
is Picassos Head of a Woman (1922).
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Why was Hitler so interested in art? Was it just
for financial gain? If we look to Hitlers youth
we find the answer, he wanted to be an artist.
Hitler was eighteen years old when, in 1908, he
moved from Linz and took up residence in Vienna.
He walked the same streets as Freud, Gustav, and
Egon Schiele, but he did so as one of the city's
faceless, teeming poor. He often slept in a
squalid homeless shelter, if not under a bridge.
Intent on becoming an artist, he twice failed the
art academy's admission test his drawing skills
were declared "unsatisfactory." A thin, sallow
youth, he wasn't cut out for physical labor. With
help from a friend, he earned a meager living
drawing postcard views of Vienna and selling them
to tourists. Jews were among his companions and
patrons. Although he was fanatically
pan-Germancaught up in visions of an expanded
Germany, which would incorporate Austriahe had
laudatory things to say about Jews at the time.
He proved, however, an apt pupil of the city's
rampant strains of anti-Semitism, which exploited
popular resentment of the wealthy Jewish
bourgeoisie that had arisen under Franz Josef I,
the conservative but clementand, effectively,
the lastHapsburg emperor. Hitler studied the
spellbinding oratorical style of the city's
widely beloved populist, anti-Semitic mayor, Karl
Lueger. (http//www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/0
8/19/020819craw_artworldixzz11bQ8cnqD)
you may notice that many of his paintings are
of human environments but lack people. A
somewhat interesting aspect when considering the
complete absence of any humanity in Hitler.
young Adolf Hitler
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Painting by Adolf Hitler
Painting by Adolf Hitler
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Painting by Adolf Hitler
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I want to take a moment to talk about the most
famous anit-war protest painting of the
Modernists. Pablo Picassos, Guernica 1937
(above). Leading up to World War II, Fascism was
spreading to many European countries not just
Germany. Picassos beloved Spain was one of
these. For three months, Picasso has been
searching for inspiration for the mural, but the
artist is in a sullen mood, frustrated by a
decade of turmoil in his personal life and
dissatisfaction with his work. The politics of
his native homeland are also troubling him, as a
brutal civil war ravages Spain. Republican
forces, loyal to the newly elected government,
are under attack from a fascist coup led by
Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Franco promises
prosperity and stability to the people of Spain.
Yet he delivers only death and destruction.
Hoping for a bold visual protest to Franco's
treachery from Spain's most eminent artist,
colleagues and representatives of the democratic
government have come to Picasso's home in Paris
to ask him to paint the mural. Though his
sympathies clearly lie with the new Republic,
Picasso generally avoids politics - and disdains
overtly political art.
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On April 27th, 1937, unprecedented atrocities
are perpetrated on behalf of Franco against the
civilian population of a little Basque village in
northern Spain. Chosen for bombing practice by
Hitler's burgeoning war machine, the hamlet is
pounded with high-explosive and incendiary bombs
for over three hours. Townspeople are cut down as
they run from the crumbling buildings. Guernica
burns for three days. Sixteen hundred civilians
are killed or wounded. More about the bombing
of Guernica By May 1st, news of the massacre at
Guernica reaches Paris, where more than a million
protesters flood the streets to voice their
outrage in the largest May Day demonstration the
city has ever seen. Eyewitness reports fill the
front pages of Paris papers. Picasso is stunned
by the stark black and white photographs.
Appalled and enraged, Picasso rushes through the
crowded streets to his studio, where he quickly
sketches the first images for the mural he will
call Guernica. His search for inspiration is
over. Picasso sketch - horse and woman with dead
child (next slide) From the beginning, Picasso
chooses not to represent the horror of Guernica
in realist or romantic terms. Key figures - a
woman with outstretched arms, a bull, an agonized
horse - are refined in sketch after sketch, then
transferred to the capacious canvas, which he
also reworks several times. "A painting is not
thought out and settled in advance," said
Picasso. "While it is being done, it changes as
one's thoughts change. And when it's finished, it
goes on changing, according to the state of mind
of whoever is looking at it."
Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco with Hitler
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Three months later, Guernica is delivered to the
Spanish Pavilion, where the Paris Exposition is
already in progress. Located out of the way, and
grouped with the pavilions of smaller countries
some distance from the Eiffel Tower, the Spanish
Pavilion stood in the shadow of Albert Speer's
monolith to Nazi Germany. The Spanish Pavilion's
main attraction, Picasso's Guernica, is a sober
reminder of the tragic events in Spain. More
about the Spanish Civil War Initial reaction to
the painting is overwhelmingly critical. The
German fair guide calls Guernica "a hodgepodge of
body parts that any four-year-old could have
painted." It dismisses the mural as the dream of
a madman. Even the Soviets, who had sided with
the Spanish government against Franco, react
coolly. They favor more overt imagery, believing
that only more realistic art can have political
or social consequence. Yet Picasso's tour de
force would become one of this century's most
unsettling indictments of war. More about the
tension between art and politics After the Fair,
Guernica tours Europe and Northern America to
raise consciousness about the threat of fascism.
From the beginning of World War II until 1981,
Guernica is housed in its temporary home at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York, though it makes
frequent trips abroad to such places as Munich,
Cologne, Stockholm, and even Sao Palo in Brazil.
The one place it does not go is Spain. Although
Picasso had always intended for the mural to be
owned by the Spanish people, he refuses to allow
it to travel to Spain until the country enjoys
"public liberties and democratic
institutions." More about Guernica in
exile Speculations as to the exact meaning of
the jumble of tortured images are as numerous and
varied as the people who have viewed the
painting. There is no doubt that Guernica
challenges our notions of warfare as heroic and
exposes it as a brutal act of self-destruction.
But it is a hallmark of Picasso's art that any
symbol can hold many, often contradictory
meanings, and the precise significance of the
imagery in Guernica remains ambiguous. When asked
to explain his symbolism, Picasso remarked, "It
isn't up to the painter to define

Detail of horse and woman with dead child
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the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he
wrote them out in so many words! The public who
look at the picture must interpret the symbols as
they understand them." More about questions of
meaning In 1973, Pablo Picasso, the most
influential artist of the twentieth century, dies
at the age of ninety-two. And when Franco dies in
1975, Spain moves closer to its dream of
democracy. On the centenary of Picasso's birth,
October 25th, 1981, Spain's new Republic carries
out the best commemoration possible the return
of Guernica to Picasso's native soil in a
testimony of national reconciliation. In its
final journey, Picasso's apocalyptic vision has
served as a banner for a nation on its path
toward freedom and democracy. Now showcased at
the Reina Sofía, Spain's national museum of
modern art, Guernica is acclaimed as an artistic
masterpiece, taking its rightful place among the
great Spanish treasures of El Greco, Goya and
Velazquez. "A lot of people recognize the
painting," says art historian Patricia Failing.
"They may not even know that it's a Picasso, but
they recognize the image. It's a kind of icon.
(http//www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guer
nica)
Picasso working on Guernica

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The Charnel House 1944-45 (above) by Picasso
seems to reflect a similar understanding to war
time violence, tragedy, and pictorial space as in
his earlier protest painting Guernica. Many feel
that this painting was inspired by some of the
absolutely horrific early black and white photos
being released of the German Concentration Camps
(next slide). In this photo we see a pile of dead
people (one with bound feet) perhaps a family
hiding underneath their kitchen table. The
contour line study of the table top also reflects
barbed wire. The monochromatic palette certainly
reflects the idea of press photos.
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These pictures are certainly horrendous to view
now. But try to consider how horrific they were
to people who had never even considered such a
horrifying thing possible. People who were not
barraged by numerous violent images a day in many
different medias (as we are). It had to have an
incredible emotional effect. We have the gift of
hindsight, these individuals were living during
the time of these atrocities. It is easy to see
why artists would respond.
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Another fallout of the continuing escalation of
political hostility in Europe during this time
was the migration of many of Europe's best and
brightest. All fleeing a seemingly unstoppable
force. Professors, writers, poets, musicians,
composers, scientists, and artists all fled
Europe many of whom landed in the United States.
This exodus of great artists to America led to
the capital of the Modern art world shifting
from Paris to New York City. As I had stated
earlier the Bauhaus had been closed by the
Nazis. The Russian born Wassily Kandinsky fled
to France, the Swiss-born Paul Klee returned to
Switzerland many others, such as the
American-born Lyonel Feininger, came to the
States. The American reception of Bauhaus
architects, such as Walter Gropius and Mies can
der Rohe, was already prepared by the landmark
show on the International Style at the Museum
of Modern Art in 1932. Six years later MoMA
produced the exhibition Bauhaus 1919 1928,
which also advanced the reputation of these
individuals. By this time Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and
Marcel Breuer had joined Gropius and Mies, as
well as Josef and Anni Albers, in the US. The
exodus of French artists came mostly after France
fell to the Nazis in 1939. By 1941 Andre Breton
and Fernand Leger had arrived in New York, along
with other celebrated modernists such as Dutch
Piet Mondrain, the German Max Ernst, and the
Russian Marc Chagall Marcel Duchamp followed the
next year. Even as some French artists disdained
American culture, they also helped translate
European modernism for young American artists
not only the immediate group of Abstract
Expressionists but also the subsequent circle of
John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg,
Jasper Johns, and others. (1900) This flood
of artistic individuals made a absolutely
enormous impact on the American art world. Some
artists however, decided not to leave.

Hitler in occupied France
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Did all artists flee Europe around the onset, or
during WWII? No, many elected to stay as long as
possible, or stay for the War's entirety and
continue to work. We find that many of the Old
Masters of Modern Art chose to stay. The
decision in itself was an incredible act of
bravery and resistance. A choice that risked
their very lives. "Paris had for a long time been
considered the center of artistic expression as
well as a literary and intellectual capital in
Europe, even the western world. The art that was
being produced in modern France bore witness to
the countrys indefatigable ability to welcome
change and inventiveness in its art. Paris was
the hub of this creativity and became the true
leader of the arts avant-garde. Artists from all
over the world, but particularly Europe, flocked
to Paris to be a part of this new wave of
artistic freedom and expression. They became
known as the École de Paris -- the School of
Paris -- an artistic colony of approximately
100 who frequented the Parisian cafés, lofts and
galleries in the Montparnasse and Montmartre
arrondissements. Not that the Parisian welcome,
its reputation for being a terre daccueuil was
anything new. France has always been a haven for
new and exciting talent Van Gogh, Soutine and
Picasso all were ex-patriats, who lived and
worked in France though from a foreign land. So,
reeling from the sadness and wreckage of their
own native lands after World War I, this colony
found joy and liberation in the international
city of Paris. The themes of their work reflected
the melancholy they felt towards their homeland,
reflecting the religious and familial traditions
they left behind. They had escaped dictatorship
and had embraced freedom in a modern world, the
welcoming Paris. They were a mixture of
nationalities, schools, talents and influence.
The make up of the group was, therefore, also
very diverse, and not represented by any one
genre. This included Fauvism (whose god was Henri
Matisse), Cubism (Pablo Picasso Georges
Braque), Post-Impressionism, Surrealism and
Futurism - having begun in Italy, and in England
known as Vorticism. Most, however, embraced a
style bursting with color - bold, passionate and
emotive. They all had some connection with
Expressionism (German and French) and most were
of Jewish descent from Central and Eastern
Europe, their leaders being Marc Chagall, Amedeo
Modigliani, Chaim Soutine.
Among the thousands of artists who refused to
flee was Picasso
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The atmosphere began to change profoundly in the
late 1930s, when a feeling of chauvinism and real
xenophobia was felt throughout Europe,
particularly in France. Many stellar talents
were put on hold or openly criticized for
intruding upon the traditions of French art.
Often they were accused of degenerate art, a
term which became allied with the animosity of
Hitler, whose Entartete Kunstii (meaning
degenerate) exhibition in Munich in 1937 was
the jumping off point for his growing intolerance
of non-Aryans. Even among Frenchmen could be
found an undercurrent of negativism towards the
new modernity in art, and about Frances role as
its international leader. What was to occur in
1940 seemed a culmination of mistrust -- a final
blow to the lively, exciting, heady atmosphere
that was the Paris art scene. The period of
occupation by the Germans began at the signing of
an armistice on June 25, 1940. Marshal Philippe
Pétain and Germanys Adolph Hitler divided the
country of France into, essentially, two parts
the north, including the capital and the entire
Atlantic coast, would be occupied, leaving some
of the center, south and east in a free zone. It
was not free from control, however, as Pétain
became a puppet player in the grand scheme of
Hitler to unite all of Europe under his control.
Many artists living in France at the time were
caught in what turned out to be the occupied
zone, including Marcel Duchamp, Picasso and
Matisse. Those who were fortunate enough to be in
the fragile free zone included Picassos
partner in cubism, Georges Braque, the Fauvist
André Derain, André Masson, André Breton, Wassily
Kandinsky, Hans Arp and Marc Chagall. What they
feared was the sublimation or destruction of what
Hitler considered their degenerate art, as well
as their lives. The Occupation in Paris created
a stalling of exhibits and openings for nearly
three months. The art world was forced to
reorganize itself at that point, to figure out
what needed to be done and what could be done to
keep the arts alive under the Nazi thumb. They
learned quickly. And, in spite of constant
reviews (a virtual witch-hunt) by the German
press of what was deemed degenerate art, of
censored exhibits, and of the Aryanization of
galleries (Jews were forced to sell their
galleries to
Among the thousands of artists who refused to
flee was Matisse
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non-Jews, sometimes at ridiculously low prices),
the visual arts received a jump-start soon after
the summer and even became very lively. The Nazi
and Vichy tandem-team welcomed shows, which
presented the rather loosely translated style of
painting in the French tradition. Artists who
saw their only hope for creativity being stifled
had the moral choice of either acquiescing,
(submitting) and feeling guilty of betrayal, or
risking livelihood, which could be ruinous, and
even life by sticking to their guns. Leaving
France became one real option, but one that could
be difficult, if not impossible, to arrange.
(Shanahan) Indeed, the artists who refused
to leave did so at their own risk. I want to
reiterate that this was a conscious choice for
many artists. And done so as a deliberate act of
resistance against the tyranny of conquering
nations and corrupt governments. Many of the
artworks completed by artists who refused to
leave during WWII are coveted as symbols of
freedom, survival, protest, bravery, and
resistance.
Among the thousands of artists who refused to
flee was Braque
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The Mistress of Modernism Now I would like to
transition into discussing Peggy Guggenheim.
Peggy Guggenheim was born on August 26, 1898, to
Benjamin Guggenheim, Anaconda Copper magnate, and
Florette Seligman Guggenheim in New York City.
The wealthy, socially prominent Guggenheim family
included Solomon R. Guggenheim, founder of the
Guggenheim Museum in New York. Benjamin
Guggenheim drowned on board the Titanicm 1912,
leaving Peggyone of his three childrenan
inheritance of 450,000. Peggy Guggenheim was
tutored privately, except for a brief stint at
the prestigious Jacoby School in New York. Before
she came into her inheritance, she worked for the
War Department during World War I (1914-18) and
at an avant-garde bookstore called the Sunwise
Turn. Guggenheim moved to Paris in 1919, to
experience the Bohemian expatriate community
there. She began her career as a patron in Paris,
first of literary geniuses, such as Djuna Barnes
(1892-1982), to whom she faithfully sent monthly
checks well into the 1970s. She met and married
the American writer and sculptor Laurence Vail in
1922 the union produced two children, Pegeen and
Sinbad. After five stormy years together, the
couple divorced, at which time Guggenheim took up
with an English writer, John Holms. He died
during minor surgery in 1934. Four years later,
Guggenheim abandoned literary circles in favor of
the visual arts. She began her patronage by
opening the Guggenheim Jeune, her London gallery
of modern art. She enlisted the expertise of
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968 he painted the
much-celebrated Nude Descending a Staircase,
which was many Americans first glimpse of modern
art, at the 1913 New York Armory Show) to curate
her first show, which featured the work of Jean
Cocteau (1889-1963). Other artists whose
paintings she exhibited at her museum included
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Max Ernst
(1891-1976), Pablo Picasso (1882-1973), Alexander
Calder (1898-1976), and Henry Moore (1898-1986).
Guggenheim also began her own private collection
of art at this time. Discouraged by the lack of
support engendered by Guggenheim Jeune, she
closed the museum within the year. In 1939, she
traveled to Paris to
Peggy Guggenheim
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buy paintings for a new museum and her own
collection. In 1941, just days before the German
army invaded France, Guggenheim escaped with
hundreds of works of art, with the help of her
ex-husband Laurence Vail, his new wife, writer
Kay Boyle (1902-92), and the children from both
marriages in tow. Max Ernst was there, too he
and Guggenheim were married in 1941. World War
II (1939-45) effectively shifted the center of
modern art from Paris to New York City, where
Guggenheim spent the next several years.
Guggenheim decided to open a new art
gallery/museum in New York this time, she
received assistance from Andre Breton
(1896-1966), the guru of surrealist art.
Guggenheim knew that Americans, not used to so
much attention paid to contemporary U.S. artists,
needed coaxing and coaching, so she exhibited the
works of well-known European artists, such as
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) alongside unknown
American artists. The strategy worked, and new
doors opened up for American modern artists.
Divorced from Ernst, Guggenheim decided to return
to Europe in 1947. She chose Venice, Italy, as
her new home and purchased an opulent villa
called Palazzo Venier dei Leoni along the Grand
Canal, where her private art collection could be
displayed most effectively (Guggenheim operated
her home as a museum beginning in 1951). During
the Greek Civil War (1944-49) the Greek pavilion
at the Venice Bien-nale, an international art
exhibition, had been empty, so officials of the
Biennale invited Guggenheim in 1948 to show her
collection. Art critics from all over the world
praised Guggenheims collection. During the
1950s, Guggenheim began reducing her collection,
giving away some of her paintings to small
museums that would otherwise be unable to afford
them. She continued to operate her house as a
salon by giving studio space to struggling
artists. Guggenheims collection traveled to the
Tate Museum and the Guggenheim Museum the latter
acquired the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in 1974.
Guggenheim donated her entire collection to the
Guggenheim Museum, which still operates the Peggy
Guggenheim Collection in Venice, when she died in
Padua, Italy, on December 23, 1979.
(http//pagerankstudio.com/)
Peggy Guggenheim
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Let us discuss another victim of the Nazi Party,
"The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 in the city of
Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius
(18831969). Its core objective was a radical
concept to reimagine the material world to
reflect the unity of all the arts. Gropius
explained this vision for a union of art and
design in the Proclamation of the Bauhaus (1919),
which described a utopian craft guild combining
architecture, sculpture, and painting into a
single creative expression. Gropius developed a
craft-based curriculum that would turn out
artisans and designers capable of creating useful
and beautiful objects appropriate to this new
system of living.
The Bauhaus
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The Bauhaus combined elements of both fine arts
and design education. The curriculum commenced
with a preliminary course that immersed the
students, who came from a diverse range of social
and educational backgrounds, in the study of
materials, color theory, and formal relationships
in preparation for more specialized studies. This
preliminary course was often taught by visual
artists, including Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky
(18661944), and Josef Albers, among others.
28
Following their immersion in Bauhaus theory,
students entered specialized workshops, which
included metalworking, cabinetmaking, weaving,
pottery, typography, and wall painting. Although
Gropius' initial aim was a unification of the
arts through craft, aspects of this approach
proved financially impractical. While maintaining
the emphasis on craft, he repositioned the goals
of the Bauhaus in 1923, stressing the importance
of designing for mass production. It was at this
time that the school adopted the slogan "Art into
Industry.In 1925, the Bauhaus moved from
Weimar to Dessau, where Gropius designed a new
building to house the school. (above) This
building contained many features that later
became hallmarks of modernist architecture,
including steel-frame construction, a glass
curtain wall, and an asymmetrical, pinwheel plan,
throughout which Gropius distributed studio,
classroom, and administrative space for maximum
efficiency and spatial logic.
29
Under pressure from an increasingly right-wing
municipal government, Meyer resigned as director
of the Bauhaus in 1930. He was replaced by
architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1980.351).
Mies once again reconfigured the curriculum, with
an increased emphasis on architecture. Lily Reich
(18851947), who collaborated with Mies on a
number of his private commissions, assumed
control of the new interior design department.
Other departments included weaving, photography,
the fine arts, and building. The increasingly
unstable political situation in Germany, combined
with the perilous financial condition of the
Bauhaus, caused Mies to relocate the school to
Berlin in 1930, where it operated on a reduced
scale. He ultimately shuttered (closed) the
Bauhaus in 1933.During the turbulent and often
dangerous years of World War II, many of the key
figures of the Bauhaus emigrated to the United
States, where their work and their teaching
philosophies influenced generations of young
architects and designers. Marcel Breuer and Josef
Albers (above) taught at Yale, Walter Gropius
went to Harvard, and Moholy-Nagy established the
New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937.Source The
Bauhaus, 19191933 Thematic Essay Heilbrunn
Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum
of Art
30
In order to cover the Surrealists we must first
discuss Andre Breton, the founder of the
Movement.
André Breton
31
Andre Breton first joined the Dada Movement in
1916 but then turned to Surrealism and the
founding of a literary journal in which he would
declare his Surrealist Movement, André Breton
marked his definitive break with Dada (and the
creation of the Surrealist Movement) with the
release of his Manifeste du surrealisme Poisson
soluble in 1924. This treatise established
Breton's position as the leader of Surrealism and
earned him the support of many who had previously
participated in the Paris Dada group. Aragon,
Éluard, and the writers René Crevel and Philippe
Soupault were among those who aligned themselves
with Breton's new movement. In his Manifeste du
surrealisme, Breton officially renounced Dada and
gave a formal definition for SurrealismSURREALI
SM, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by
which one proposes to expressverbally, by means
of the written word, or in any other mannerthe
actual functioning of thought. Dictated by
thought, in the absence of any control exercised
by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral
concern. With the release of Breton's Manifeste
du surrealisme, Surrealism had a name, a leader,
and a direction.Like Dada, the Surrealist
program was marked by pessimism, defiance, and a
desire for revolution. Under Breton's leadership,
however, Surrealism sought productive, rather
than anarchic, responses to the group's
convictions. Exploring the subconscious, dream
interpretation, and automatic writing were just
some of the Surrealists' interests. Not only did
such experiments appeal to their revolutionary
spirit, but they proved to be remarkable sources
of artistic inspiration. (http//www.artic.edu/re
ynolds/essays/hofmann3.php)
Manifeste du surrealisme.
André Breton
32
There are many Surrealist artists but for the
purpose of this lecture I am only going to cover
Rene Magritte, and Salvador Dali.
Rene Magritte
Salvador Dali.
33
Although he is often grouped with Surrealists
such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, and Yves
Tanguy, Magritte took a somewhat different
approach to painting. Rather than creating
fantasy imagery, he evoked the strangeness and
ambiguity latent in reality. "I don't paint
visions," he once said. "To the best of my
capability, by painterly means, I describe
objects and the mutual relationship of objects
in such a way that none of our habitual
concepts or feelings is necessarily linked with
them."Here, (next slide) the artist presents a
room filled with familiar things, but he gives
human proportions to these formerly unassuming
props of everyday life, creating a sense of
disorientation and incongruity. Inside and out
are inverted by his rendering of a skyscape on
the interior walls of the room. The familiar
becomes unfamiliar, the normal, strange Magritte
creates a paradoxical world that is, in his own
words, "a defiance of common sense."When he
first saw this painting, Magritte's dealer,
Alexander Iolas, was violently upset by it.
Tellingly, the artist replied, "In my picture,
the comb (and the other objects as well) has
specifically lost its 'social character,' it has
become an object of useless luxury, which may, as
you say, leave the spectator feeling helpless or
even make him ill. Well, this is proof of the
effectiveness of the picture. (http//www.sfmoma.
org/artwork/27665)
René Magritte, 1898-1967
34
René Magritte, Les valeurs personnelles (Personal
Values) 1952 painting oil on canvas
35
The Surrealist movement, was based on images
from the world of dreams and the subconscious.
The typical Surrealist device of juxtaposing
common objects in unexpected contexts also
appealed to the Belgian painter René Magritte.
During a three-year stay in Paris, Magritte,
whose native city was Brussels, associated with
the French Surrealists. Though influenced by the
Paris group, he did not share their flamboyant,
publicity-seeking tactics. A quiet and thoughtful
man who preferred anonymity, he spent most of his
career in Brussels, developing a meticulous,
realistic painting style that reflected his early
training in commercial art, painting false marble
and wood paneling for residences.In explaining
Time Transfixed (above), Magritte said "I
decided to paint the image of a locomotive
(above) . . . In order for its mystery to be
evoked, another immediately familiar image
without mystery the image of a dining room
fireplace was joined." It is in the surprising
juxtaposition and scale shift of these common and
unrelated images that their mystery and magic
arises. The artist transformed the pipe of a
coal-burning stove into a charging locomotive,
situating the train in a fireplace vent so that
it appears to be emerging from a railway tunnel.
The tiny engine races out into the stillness of a
sparsely furnished dining room, its smoke neatly
floating up the chimney, suggesting in turn the
smoke of coal in the stove. (http//www.artic.edu
/artaccess/AA_Modern/pages/MOD_6.shtml)
36
Magritte, Not to Be Reproduced, 1937
37
Magritte, Golconda 1953
Magritte, The Son of Man
38
Magrittes painting The Treachery of Images
(This Is Not a Pipe) (1929) is one of Magrittes
best known works, and is an icon of modernist
art. In it, he painted a realistic rendition of
an ordinary object--a pipe--filling up most of
the canvas, below which he painted in script
Ceci nest pas une pipe (this is not a pipe).
The work calls into question what was for
centuries taken for granted in Western art the
image is not a pipe, but a depiction or a
representation of a pipe. Magritte often painted
ordinary objects so as to give them new life
through painting. In this way his influence was
similar to Marcel Duchamps, whose idea of the
readymade changed the path of contemporary
art. (http//www.artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Arc
hive/Articles2006/Articles1206/RMagritteA.html)
Magritte, The Treachery of Images (This is not a
pipe), 1929
39
Salvador Dali, 1904 - 1989
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali I Domenech was born
at 845 on the morning of May 11, 1904 in the
small agricultural town of Figueres, Spain.
Figueres is located in the foothills of the
Pyrenees, only sixteen miles from the French
border in the principality of Catalonia. The son
of a prosperous notary, Dali spent his boyhood in
Figueres and at the family's summer home in the
coastal fishing village of Cadaques where his
parents built his first studio. As an adult, he
made his home with his wife Gala in nearby Port
Lligat. Many of his paintings reflect his love of
this area of Spain. The young Dali attended the
San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid.
Early recognition of Dali's talent came with his
first one-man show in Barcelona in 1925. He
became internationally known when three of his
paintings, including The Basket of Bread (next
slide), were shown in the third annual Carnegie
International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1928.
The following year, Dali held his first one-man
show in Paris. He also joined the surrealists,
led by former Dadaist Andre Breton. That year,
Dali met Gala Eluard (left) when she visited him
in Cadaques with her husband, poet Paul Eluard.
She became Dali's lover, muse, business manager,
and chief inspiration. Dali soon became a leader
of the Surrealist Movement. His painting, The
Persistence of Memory, with the soft or melting
watches is still one of the best-known surrealist
works. But as the war approached, the apolitical
Dali clashed
with the Surrealists and was "expelled" from the
surrealist group during a "trial" in 1934. He did
however, exhibit works in international
surrealist exhibitions throughout the decade but
by 1940, Dali was moving into a new type of
painting with a preoccupation with science and
religion. (http//www.salvadordalimuseum.org/hist
ory/biography.html)
40
You can see the obvious experiment in Cubism in
this self portrait completed in 1923 by Dali.

41
Dali was many things a genius, an egomaniac, an
artist, a madman but above all he was an
absolutely brilliant technical painter. This was
due in part to a classical training at the San
Fernado Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, Spain.
One of the main elements of Dalis incredibly
polished paintings is his ability to render
completely fantastic hallucinatory imagery
realistically, or what one would think these
things would look like. Dalis paintings over
and over again touch on issues of sexual urges,
dreams, and symbolism. Perhaps one of Dalis most
famous paintings is The Persistence of Memory
(next slide).
42
Dalí rendered his fantastic visions with
meticulous verisimilitude, giving the
representations of dreams a tangible and credible
appearance. In what he called "hand painted dream
photographs," hard objects become inexplicably
limp, time bends, and metal attracts ants like
rotting flesh. The monstrous creature draped
across the painting's center resembles the
artist's own face in profile its long eyelashes
seem insectlike or even sexual, as does what may
or may not be a tongue oozing from its nose like
a fat snail. (http//www.moma.org/collection/obje
ct.php?object_id79018)
43
Dali, The Great Masturbator 1929
Dali was a very shy child but quickly realized he
loved the attention of others and found that his
abilities as an artist was perhaps the best way
to continue garnering this coveted attention. The
dream like qualities of Dalis work is obvious
but the use of imagery as a symbolic language is
not so easily understood. From a young age Dali
was aware of his sexuality, it would be a theme
revisited over and over in his paintings. The
Great Masturbator (above) is full of eroticism
and the use of symbolism. We must remember that
the Surrealists were obsessed with the
unconscious mind and dream world. So, of course
Freud's psychoanalysis was invaluable. Dali had
a huge respect for Freud and even met with him.
Freud believed that dreams were a series of
images that had underlying meanings, a perfect
tool for the Surreal artist to explore and Dali
did just that!
44
Dali was obsessed with a number of things
painting, food, fame, but perhaps more than
anything else was his wife Gala. One of the most
touching stories about Dali is his absolutely
undying love and devotion for Gala. I like to
believe that Dali was painting the yet unknown
love of his life in the painting (above left)
titled Young Girl Standing at a Window, finished
in 1925. She faces away not letting us see her,
looking out into a great vastness. He met Gala in
1929 and soon after the two were inseparable.
Gala would become his manager and facilitate a
life for Dali that would require him to not worry
about anything in life except for the creation of
art. She is repeatedly put on a pedestal in his
paintings, sometimes literally, and sometime
figuratively. There are many things written about
Gala some refer to her as a monstrous woman
concerned with nothing but herself, and some
refer to her as a crafty publicist. It is
difficult to fully know either way.
45
Dali, Leda Automica 1949
Dali would use Gala who was ten years his senior
and married when they met as a model in a number
of paintings. He loved her dearly even going so
far as to buy her a Castle now referred to as
Gala-Dalí Castle House Museum in Púbol, Spain. It
is there that she is buried.
46
Dali, Gala avec Cotelettes
Here Dali paints both Gala and Pork-Chops (on her
shoulder) in a demonstration of how much he loves
both!
47
Dali, Corpus Hypercubus 1954
48
Salvador Dali - 1940 - Marche aux esclaves avec
disparition d'un buste de Voltaire
49
Dali, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans
Premonition of Civil War 1936
Dali would use his paintings as a political
platform as well. In the painting above he
discusses the fatal seriousness of the Spanish
Civil War.
50
Dali, Autumn Cannibalism 1936
In the Painting Autumn Cannibalism (above) we see
another comment on the Spanish Civil War. These
pictures are true allegories of the civil war in
the sense that it involves the self-mutilation of
one nation, that is to say of people who
originally liked each other. According to Freud,
even cannibals do not eat the enemies they could
in some way like. But modern warfare has become
so abstract and indirect that, in its level of
cruelty, it surpasses the atrocity of
cannibalism (Scheibler)
51
Salvador Dali The Three Sphinxes of Bikini 1947
We see three shapes very reminiscent of mushroom
clouds in this painting no doubt a comment on
American testing of nuclear weapons around
Bikini, one of the atolls among the Marshall
Islands.
52
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53
Dalis is famous for his use of visual trickery
but later in his life he became interested in
computers and the possible effect they may have
on art and life. Here we see a pixel-like study
of Abraham Lincoln, this painting was done in a
hotel room!
54
Dalis fantastic dreamlike paintings are
engrained in contemporary culture. You could view
them as ridiculous, nightmarish, and even
perverse. Whether working from pure inspiration
or on a commissioned illustration, Dali's
matchless insight and symbolic complexity are
apparent. Above all, Dali was a superb draftsman.
His excellence as a creative artist will always
set a standard for the art of the twentieth
century (http//www.salvadordalimuseum.org/histor
y/biography.html) Dali would work until his death
in 1989 but his paintings would become much
sparser and abstract.
55
I am unable to feel any burning desire if my
spirit is not stretched taught like a canvas,
glowing with the radiance of one image upon
another. -Salvador Dali
56
Frida Kahlo 1907 - 1954 Life Frida Kahlo was
born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, a southern
suburb of Mexico City, the third daughter of a
German father and a mother of Spanish and Native
American descent. Her life was punctuated by
adversity, beginning with polio at age six that
left her with a permanent limp. In 1922 she
entered the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria with
plans to study medicine. She was one of only
thirty-five girls out of about two thousand
students at the prestigious school. It was here
that she met Diego Rivera for the first time. In
1925, a streetcar collided with a bus on which
Kahlo was traveling, an accident that left her
with numerous broken bones and serious internal
injuries. She began to paint during her
recuperation. Soon thereafter, she met Rivera
again, and in 1929 they were married. Kahlo and
Rivera associated with an eccentric group of
other intellectuals, political revolutionaries,
and artists at home and abroad. Their
relationship was tumultuousneither was faithful
to the other, and Riveras affair with Kahlos
younger sister Cristina proved particularly
traumatic. Kahlo was openly bi-sexual and took as
one of her lovers Communist leader Leon Trotsky
during his exile in Mexico. Kahlo and Rivera
divorced in 1940, only to remarry shortly
thereafter. Kahlo had never fully recovered from
her injuries from the bus accident, and in the
early 1940s her health began to deteriorate, as
her reputation as an artist continued to grow.
She died in her sleep in 1954 at the age of 47.
Paintings Frida Kahlo is one of the most
celebrated and revered artists in the world.
Between 1926 and 1954, she painted over sixty
self-portraits and about eighty additional
paintings, mostly still lifes and portraits of
friends. Her work allowed her to both express and
to construct her identity. "I paint my own
reality," she said. "I paint because I need
to." Kahlo began painting in 1926 while
recuperating from a near-fatal bus accident. She
married Diego Rivera in 1929, recording the ups
and downs of their tumultuous relationship in
paint. She also illustrated her struggles with
her deteriorating health the orthopedic corsets
she was forced to wear, the numerous spinal
surgeries, as well as miscarriages and
therapeutic abortions.
Frida Kahlo
57
Such painful subject matter is mitigated by
Kahlo's folk art style and the small scale of her
works, as well as her sardonic humor and
extraordinary imagination. Inspired in part by
pre-Columbian culture and by Mexican mass
culture, Kahlo's paintings were celebrated by
Surrealist André Breton (remember him?) when he
came to Mexico in 1938 and declared her to be a
self-made Surrealist. Although she resisted this
designation, pointing out that rather than
painting dreams she painted her own reality, she
recognized the advantages of being associated
with the movement, and Breton helped secure
exhibitions in New York in 1938 and in Paris in
1939. Politically active, Kahlo espoused
Communism and identified herself with indigenous
Mexican culture, and she was a central player in
both artistic and political upheavals throughout
the world in the 1930s and 1940s. On the occasion
of her first exhibition in Mexico in 1953, Kahlo
defied doctors' orders and attended the opening,
receiving guests while reclining on a four-poster
bed. Although sickness prevented her from
creating the jewel-like paintings she had created
in earlier years, her late still lifes and
self-portraits from the 1950smany of them
proclaiming her allegiance to Communismexhibit
her continued creativity throughout her
life. (http//www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/278
.html?page2) There is a huge amount of
symbolism present in Fridas work, which is one
of the reasons the Surrealists loved her. In
fact, you may notice that many of her paintings
reflect characteristics of Surrealism i.e.
dreamlike qualities, skewed realities, etc. She
was highly political, intelligent, and
articulate. She also smoked and drank, often
using the latter to deal with the chronic pain
caused by the crash. As well as, the thirty some
surgeries she had through out her life. Frida is
also a feminist symbol, and an ionic image of
female empowerment. Let us explore some of her
work.
Frida Kahlo
58
Frida Kahlo in studio
59
Frida Kahlo The Little Deer 1944
Above we see, Kahlo's head is conjoined with the
body of a stag, which is pierced with arrows. No
doubt the work relates to Kahlo's suffering due
to her failing health and turbulent relationship
with Rivera, but it is also a summation of a
world view in which different cultures and belief
systems combine. At the bottom of the canvas in
The Little Deer, Kahlo inscribed the word
'carma', a reference to the Eastern concept of
reincarnation while the arrows allude to
Christian images of St Sebastian. In Aztec
culture, the deer symbolized the right foot -
Kahlo's injured limb - and relates to the animal
alter-ego, a subject that fascinated Kahlo
(http//www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/kahlo/r
oomguide.shtm)
60
Frida Kahlo The Two Fridas 1939
After returning home from an exhibit of her work
in Paris, she divorced Rivera. This painting
illustrating a literal split between her two
selves is from this period of turmoil and
self-doubt. The composition is striking. On the
right is the Mexican Frida in traditional tehuana
dress. On the left is European Frida in a
colonial white dress, possibly intended to be
wedding garb (it is similar in many ways to her
mother's wedding dress in "Family Tree"). The two
women are seated on a green bench, holding hands.
The anatomy of their hearts is
61
superimposed on them both the one belonging to
the European self is seen through a hole in her
dress at the breast. A blood line originates at a
cameo of Diego as a child held by the Frida on
the right. It twines between them both and is
ultimately terminated by a medical implement held
by the Frida on the left. Blood stains
intermingle with the red flowers at the hem of
the dress. This is the painting for which she is
best known. Certainly, it is one of the largest
(27" x 27") which makes it all the more notable.
Also, it is one of the few self-portraits she has
done in which she is seen in full. The serene
clouds and placid look on the two faces is
juxtaposed with the graphic medical imagery to
illustrate her internal conflict. The composition
is so balanced that the hem of the tehuana skirt
is our only cue that she is feeling
vulnerabilities which she has come to symbolize
with her European incarnation. The efforts of the
Mexican self to nurture the second Frida have
been thwarted by the weaker half. It is
interesting to note that Diego loved and
encouraged Frida to dress in the native style
that was in en vogue at this time. In fact, Kahlo
kept up the style long after it had gone out of
fashion to make it uniquely her own. Yet Frida
associated her indigenous self with Rivera.
Hence, after their initial split, she abandoned
her traditional garb and cut her hair as an act
of rebellion. (http//www.ebsqart.com/ArtMagazine
/za_149.htm)
62
Frida Kahlo Self Portrait with Curly Hair 1935
We see the aftermath of Fridas rebellion against
Diego in the painting above. Frida loved her
sister dearly and when it became evident that
Diego had an affair with her she was devastated.
Diego was very well known as a womanizer. Some
feel that he often used Fridas inability to
perform sexually (because of the severe internal
injuries from the bus crash, and her subsequent
surgeries) as a reason to cheat. Her iconic look,
or style is one of the things most easily
recognized about her. So, destroying that look
was a very conscious move on her part. She did
however, begin wearing the tradition garb again
after her and Diego remarried. We see a rare
photo of her with her hair down in the next
slide.
63
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64
Frida Kahlo in bed after a surgery
Above we see Frida painting on her body cast
after one of her numerous surgeries. It is said
that she had a great sense of humor. Once she
even attended the opening of one of her
exhibitions while laying in bed (unable to get
out because of a recent surgery). Thats right
they literally wheeled her bed into the gallery
so she could attend!
65

• Exam III
• Vocab
• The Degenerate Art Show
• Surrealism
• The Bauhaus
• Automatism
• The Harlem Renaissance
• Artists
• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Salvador Dali
• Rene Magritte
• Frida Kahlo
• Andre Breton
• Artwork