The art rag
The art rubbish was the name of a well-known pamphlet by the Berlin Dadaists George Grosz and John Heartfield , which appeared in April 1920 in the magazine " Der gegen " Notorious for his "anti-art" standpoint, " Der Kunstlump " essay was written in response to an appeal by the painter Oskar Kokoschka . The expressionist German painter and playwright had implored the German public to take measures to protect national cultural assets during civil war-like conditions. This appeal had appeared in more than 40 German newspapers in March 1920; Kokoschka urged everyone involved in violent political clashes to protect works of art. He was reacting to the events in Dresden of March 15, 1920: on this day, in the wake of the counter-revolutionary Kapp-Lüttwitz putsch, there had been armed fighting between counter-revolutionary sections of the Reichswehr and striking workers - the latter were to take place as part of a nationwide general strike until May 17. March 1920 remain victorious. However, 59 people were killed and 150 injured at the Dresden Postplatz alone.
A stray bullet also hit Peter Paul Rubens ' painting " Bathsheba " in the neighboring picture gallery in the famous Zwinger . Kokoschka, since 1919 art professor in Dresden, asked participants of all political stripes to wage street fights far from places where human culture could be endangered. For him, the artists of Dresden “ were responsible for not having put a stop to the robbery of the poor future people of their most sacred goods by all means. ” The painter seriously urged the parties to the civil war not to do their “ martial exercises before the Gemäldegalerie des Zwinger, but rather on the heather shooting ranges. "
The " art rag" pamphlet, interspersed with Dadaist provocation, addressed " to all those who are not yet stupid enough to approve of the snobbish utterance of this art rag, the urgent request to take an energetic stand against it. " In confrontation with Kokoschka, the " Creator of 'psychological' philistine portraits ", Heartfield and Grosz criticized the bourgeois concept of art, to which anti-bourgeois Expressionism still adhered . The authors questioned the value of an art which, despite their miserable living conditions and the frightening fact of the right-wing radical Kapp Putsch, wanted to lead the workers into a world of ideas untouched by it and above it. The Kokoschka case, " who, like the maid, worries and trembles with the rulers ", was just one occasion for the Dadaists to be able to expose the functioning of the bourgeois art industry.
Interestingly, Grosz and Heartfield were also criticized for their spirited attack on established conceptions of art by Gertrud Alexander in the feature section of the Red Flag of the KPD . Grosz and Heartfield were party members.
In their response to Kokoschka, Heartfield and Grosz spoke out against the autonomous status of art, independent of social processes. Some see in this statement by the avant-garde Dadaists an anticipation of the postmodern position, which would also like to integrate art socially and at the same time criticize established art institutions.
Quotes
"The title" artist "is an insult."
"The term" art "is a cancellation of human equivalence."
"The deification of the artist is synonymous with self-deification."
"The artist is never higher than his milieu and the society of those who approve of him. Because his small head does not produce the content of his creations, but processes (like a sausage kettle of meat) the worldview of his audience".
(from: " Der Kunstlump " by George Grosz & John Heartfield)
Web links
- Der Kunstlump , in: The opponent , Vol. 1, No. 10-12, December 1919, full text at Blue Mountain Project