Modernist Aesthetics in Transition

How did German aesthetic values change during the Weimar Republic and after its immediate collapse at the beginning of the National Socialist period ? Contrary to conventional narratives that depict modernist aesthetics as static, shaping principles of modern art and design, this volume argues for their complexity and ever-shifting nature. Illuminating the vital exchanges that occurred across multiple art forms during a period of unmatched cultural activity, this multi-disciplinary volume explores the cultural transition between Weimar- and National Socialist-era Germany and offers a fresh perspective on the fate of modernism during a time of censorship and social stigma. Featuring essays on architecture, painting, photography, film, sculpture, cabaret, typography, and commercial design, the volume explores competing and comparable themes across German art from 1919-1945 and addresses how modern approaches like New Vision coexisted with more traditional and established artistic modes.Such visual complexity is evident from the volume''s eclectic coverage: these include ''sexology'' and eroticism, visual grammar in typography and architecture, the reception of Weimar art in the National Socialist period, and the formation and transformation of queer and Jewish identities. The volume encompasses subjects as different as shadow in the animated films of Lotte Reininger, filmic adaptations of Heinrich Zille''s social commentary in the 1920s, the photography of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and depictions of female sexuality in Magnus Hirschfeld''s oeuvre. By bridging multiple artistic fields, this highly interdisciplinary work provides a fresh perspective on the ever-changing art and aesthetic principles of early 20th century Germany.>

Auteur
Deborah Ascher Barnstone is Professor and Head of Architecture at the University of Sydney, Australia. Barnstone is a licensed architect in Germany, holds a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University, and holds a PhD from TU Delft. Her recent monograph works include Beyond the Bauhaus: Cultural Modernity in Breslau, 1918-1933 (2016), Art and Resistance in Germany (2018), and The Break with the Past: Avant-garde Architecture in Germany, 1910-1925 (2019). She co-edits Bloomsbury's Visual Cultures and German Contexts book series.Donna West Brett is Associate Professor and Chair of Art History at the University of Sydney, Australia. She is author of Photography and Place: Seeing and Not Seeing Germany After 1945 (2016); and co-editor with Natalya Lusty of Photography and Ontology: Unsettling Images (2019).

Contenu
List of Illustrations Introduction 1. Shadow Schein and Scherenschnitte: Lotte Reiniger and the Silhouettes of Early Weimar, Erin Maynes (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA) 2. Cinema of the Underprivileged: Heinrich Zille's Influence on Weimar Street Film, Andréas-Benjamin Seyfert (UCLA, USA) 3. Moholy-Nagy: Shadows and Space-Time, Donna West Brett (The University of Sydney, Australia) 4. Female Sexuality, Sex Research and the Visual Arts, Birgit Lang and Eliza Coyle (The University of Melbourne, Australia) 5. In Pursuit of Beauty: Manassé and Erotic Photography in the Weimar and Nazi Eras, Camilla Smith (University of Birmingham, UK) 6. Visual Diversity within Gleichschaltung? The Diffusion of 'New Typography' during the Interwar Period in Germany, Patrick Rössler (University of Erfurt, Germany) 7. The Case of Color in 1920s and 1930s German Architecture, Deborah Ascher Barnstone (The University of Sydney, Australia) 8. Altars to Ambition: The Triptych Revival in Late Weimar and National Socialist Germany, Peter Chametzky (University of South Carolina, USA) 9. Cabaret in Transition: Ilse Bois' Parodies Between the Times and Between the Genres, Mila Ganeva (Miami University, USA) 10. The Case of Breker: Sculpture Reception, 1919 1943, Nina Lübbren (Anglia Ruskin University, UK) 11. Flamboyantly Gay, Jewish and Avant-garde: Alfred Flecthheim's Dealing with Transitional Aesthetics, Transsexualities and Antisemitism, Fae Brauer (University of East London Centre for Cultural Research, UK) Index