Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« October Surprise Nor'Easter | Main | Des Moines Register Iowa Poll- Cain And Romney Basically Tied »
October 29, 2011

Open Thread [Truman North]

Below the fold, A short essay on art culture in the Weimar Repbublic. Apologies to resident art guy CAC for the amateur opinion.

But it's essentially another open thread, since the other one is stale.


On Weimar and the Struggle for Continuity as Expressed Through Art

At the crossroads of impoverishment, upheaval, technological acceleration, and reinvigorated leftism resides an avant-garde which moves with synergy and abandon to commit acts of creative destruction in the spheres of art, life, work and culture. It is the same in all places and all cultures where these four forces meet. And it was no different in Weimar, which was born from the ashes of the Second Reich and their defeat in the Great War, in the adolescence of the electric century.

In this, I essentially agree with E.J. Hobsbawn, the Jewish Communist historian who worked in Germany at the sunset of the Weimar Republic, during the Second World War, and its immediate aftermath. But where he sees Weimar as the fertilizer for European art and culture for the rest of the century, my background in art history informs my view that Weimar was a necessary maturing step for an art world which exploded with new ideas, techniques, and media following the revolutionary period of 1848-1852.

In fact, the film-makers of the Weimar era did indeed create the tropes and conventions we still see repeated and refined today in artistic and popular films and TV. However, even they required inspiration from those who were working in still media in Europe during the prior 25 or 30 years. Still work movements such as impressionism, romanticism, the absurdist plates of Odilon Redon, the compressed insanity of Van Gogh and Munch, Fauvism (Derain and Matisse), primitivism, expressionism, Picasso’s many revolutionary works in paint and collage, the abstractions of Russian, Italian and Spanish artists among many others, Marcel Duchamp’s readymades and Dadaist work; the statuary of Rodin, Boccioni and Brancusi; the architecture of the Crystal Palace, The Eiffel Tower and the Paris Opera; the interior design of Horta’s Stairway, Tassel House. All of these predate and inform the Weimar’s artists.

Rather than say that Weimar’s artists were the genesis of European art in the 20th century, I would rather say that they were excellent and innovative craftsmen who applied the ideas of 19th century and early-20th century art to new media (which I don’t mean to diminish—it’s no mean feat), and built upon the foundation laid by others during the same period.

That they did this within the cultural crucible of the Weimar Republic ought not to be a surprise.


And since you probably skipped all that crap, here's a nice funny Internet video.

digg this
posted by Open Blogger at 07:38 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Moron Robbie - If this is how Georgia hires attorneys, imagine how they manage elections: "I think it was grump928 who made an outstanding po ..."

Don Black: "is everyone over on the main page, slapping f5 lik ..."

JackStraw: ">>The long-shredded pretense to impartiality is su ..."

Moron Robbie - If this is how Georgia hires attorneys, imagine how they manage elections: "Wakandyass it is! ..."

Don Black: "NYR 0 COL 0 end 1st p 🏒 ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: "If the Wakandians hadn't been isolationists then t ..."

Puddleglum at work: "[i]173 167 I’ve often speculated that the re ..."

Moron Robbie - If this is how Georgia hires attorneys, imagine how they manage elections: "If the Wakandians hadn't been isolationists then t ..."

Ciampino - Bloody 'experts' again ...: "158 For being the alleged "birthplace of civilizat ..."

sock_rat_eez - these lying bastardi e stronzi have been lying to us for decades [/b][/u][/i][/s]: "got to have a spread of alternatives, amirite? ..."

Bulgaroctonus : "167 I’ve often speculated that the reason th ..."

Hairyback Guy: "Anita Bryant > All Other Female Crooners ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64