Dietmar Elger

A precursor to surrealism, the Dada movement stressed the absurd and unpredictable, lashing out against traditional standards of aesthetics. Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray were among the most famous proponents of Dada, creating works that dared viewers to expand their notions of what can be considered art.Featured artists include: Max Ernst, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Johannes Baader, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, Kurt Schwitters, Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray

V roku 1916 sa v kabarete Voltaire v Zurichu konala schôdzka umelcov, spisovateľov a emigrantov. V tieni prvej svetovej vojny sa tak začal šíriť umelecký a literárny smer známy ako dadaizmus. Hnutie, ktoré trvalo do roku 1923, vzniklo ako prejav individualistickej vzbury intelektuálov, ktorí detskou naivitou, nespútanou obraznosťou a extravaganciami chceli bojovať proti konvenciám. Dadaizmus bol namierený proti buržoáznej predstave života a umenia. Nebral do úvahy logiku, morálku, ani konvencie, snažil sa vytvárať provokatívne antiumenie a odmietal každý estetický systém. Hlavnými formami umeleckého výrazu boli koláž, montáž alebo vymýšľanie nových výtvorov – obrazov, sôch alebo fonetických básní – spájaním ľubovoľne vybraných jednotlivostí z rôznych kontextov.

A dadaizmus nem kizárólag művészeti, irodalmi, zenei, politikai vagy filozófiai mozgalom volt. Épp ellenkezőleg, mindez együtt, miközben mindennek az ellenkezője: művészetellenes, provokatívan irodalmi, játékosan zenei, politikailag radikális, ugyanakkor parlamentellenes, és olykor egyszerűen csak gyerekes. A dadaisták többsége ennek szellemében ápolgatta több irányú tehetségét. Előadóművészként cseppet sem voltak kevésbé találékonyak, mint a vizuális technikák terén.

Let's get abstract Making sense of revolutionary new forms Abstraction shook Western art to its core. In the early part of the 20th century, it refuted the reign of clear, indisputable forms and confronted audiences instead with vivid visual poems devoid of conventional, representational imagery and characterized instead by allegories of emotion and sensation. This radical artistic adventure established new artistic means, as much as narratives. Expression became characterized by shocking juxtapositions of color, light, and line. Artist abandoned the conventions of brush and easel and played with new materials and methods of artistic gesture commercial paints and housepainter's brushes, working on unstretched and unprimed canvases, moving the canvas to the floor, and applying paint with hands. This essential introduction spans the international breadth, conceptual depth, and seismic impact of Abstract art with a thorough survey not only of the big names such as Picasso, Klee, Kline, Rothko, and Pollock, but also lesser-known figures who made equally significant abstract contributions, including Antoni T pies, K.O. Gotz, Ad Reinhardt, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

Anxious angles: The pioneers and masterworks of "degenerate" ExpressionismGerman Expressionists were uneasy and angry. Emerging at the dawn of the 20th century, they railed against Christian and bourgeois values as much as rampant urban industrialization. Anti-imperialist, they were dispersed, shattered, and depleted by the horrors of the First World War, and rallied their efforts only to be officially erased by the Nazi "Degenerate Art" exhibition of 1937.In this comprehensive TASCHEN collection, director of the Gerhard Richter Archive Dietmar Elger gathers the many artists and elements of this urgent, scattered, complex movement into one authoritative overview of its protagonists, principles, and essential role in 20th-century modernism. Finding a critical calm amid the frenzy of color and distortion, the book distills Expressionism's leading collectives, Die Brucke and Der Blaue Reiter, as well as its regional characteristics across its Berlin and Munich hubs, and its North German, Rheinland, and Viennese variants.Along the way, we compare and contrast themes and stylistic choices as this dispersed group of artists wrestled with their modern industrial reality. We find luminous streaks from Wassily Kandinsky, and the sickly hues of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the futurist facets of Franz Marc, and a partial Impressionist throwback in the gaudy dabs of Emil Nolde. We meet fat faces, tired faces, and faces like African masks. We walk into seedy bars with bloated old men, and then enter a claustrophobic yellow room occupied by an awkwardly posed nude. We are crushed in a cacophony of city sound and smoke, and then left alone with woods, a lake, and silence.Spanning this richness and range in Expressionist output, Elger features such well-known figures as Beckmann, Kandinsky, Kirchner, Kokoschka, Nolde, Schiele, while taking care to present inadequately studied artists such as Conrad Felixmuller, Ludwig Meidner, and Marianne von Werefkin. The result is an expansive, inclusive, dependable digest of a vivid, often violent mode of expression, and the yearning and unease behind its frenzied paintwork.