Undergraduate Course: Expressionism, Dada, Bauhaus and Beyond (HIAR10109)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Expressionism reached its climax before the outbreak of World War I when artists in Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Munich rebelled against the prevailing aesthetic and the moral and religious conventions of their time. The belief in the need for artistic renewal, a belief carried over from Secessionism, motivated painters such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc to create a new visual language, characterised by vivid colours and stark contrasts. But in the late teens and the 1920s, disillusioned by the experience of mass destruction and violence during the First World War, artists such as George Grosz and Otto Dix became increasingly occupied with socially- and politically-engaged subjects. Disaffected Expressionists thereby became Dadaists, and we will consider the meaning of this term and the activities of two Dada circles; one in Zurich (the birthplace of what would become a global movement), and the other in Berlin. At the Weimar Bauhaus, leading figures of the European avant-garde developed utopian ideas about reshaping society through art. These powerful artistic expressions of modernity troubled many contemporaries and led to a backlash in the 1930s, when the National Socialists declared such works 'degenerate'. From exile, leading artists made crucial contributions to the development of modern art and architecture. We will also consider the post-45 generation, and in the 1960s and 1970s artists such as Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer developed a form of art that some critics controversially dubbed 'Neo-Expressionism', which attempted to deconstruct the idealism of the German tradition in a manner that caused great controversy in their homeland. We will fully explore the disruptions and continuities in modern German art in the twentieth century, and the often problematic reception of Expressionist visual culture.
These groups and movements will not only be examined in terms of their stylistic features, but also within the context of socio-historical study and visual critical theory. The course is designed so that seminars and essay topics complement one another. The key themes of the seminars are also partially determined by current work by Dr Christian Weikop on a forthcoming exhibition at the Royal Academy ('Expressionism: The Cult of Youth'; 2019) and in this and other regards the course is very much research-led.
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| Course description |
Week 1
Introduction to the Course
Seminar Reading:
Shulamith Behr, Expressionism, London, 1999.
Further Reading:
* Jill Lloyd, German Expressionism: Primitivism and Modernity, London, 1991
* Jill Lloyd, Van Gogh and Expressionism, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, 2006
* Rose-Carol Washton Long, German Expressionism: Documents from the End of the Wilhelmine Empire to the Rise of National Socialism, California, 1993
* Nina Lubbren, Rural Artists' Colonies in Europe, Manchester, 1870-1910
* Gill Perry, Francis Frascina, and Charles Harrison, Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction, The Early Twentieth Century, London, 1993
* Colin Rhodes, Primitivism and Modern Art, London, 1994
* Christian Weikop, 'Brücke and Canonical Association', in Reinhold Heller (ed.), Brücke: The Birth of Expressionism in Dresden and Berlin, 1905-1913, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2009, pp.102-127.
* Christian Weikop, 'The Arts and Crafts Education of the Brücke: Expressions of Craft and Creativity', Journal of Modern Craft, 1:1 (2008)77-100.
* Shearer West, Utopia and Despair: The Visual Arts in Germany 1890 - 1937, Manchester, 2001
Week 2
Viennese Modernism: Art at the Crossroads
Seminar Reading:
* Carl Schorske, Fin de Siècle Vienna, Politics and Culture, 1981
* Peter Vergo, Art in Vienna, 1975
* Christian Weikop, 'Ver Sacrum; The Printed Face of the Vienna Secession', in Jill Lloyd (ed) Vienna 1900: Style and Individuality, 2011
Further Reading:
* Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de- Siècle Culture, 1988
* Wolfgang Fischer, Gustav Klimt and Emilie Floge: An Artist and his Muse, 1992
* Gottfried Fliedl, Gustav Klimt 1862-1918: The World in Female Form, 1989
* Tobias Natter (ed.), The Naked Truth: Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Other Scandals, 2005
* Susanna Partsch, Gustav Klimt: Painter of Women, 1994
* Marie-Amelie Zu Salm-Salm (ed.), Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka: Vienna 1900, 2005
* Carl Schorske, Fin de Siècle Vienna, Politics and Culture, 1981
* Shearer West, Fin de Siècle: Art and Society in an Age of Uncertainty, 1993
* Frank Whitford, Gustav Klimt, 1993
Week 3
Austrian Expressionism: Gerstl, Schiele and Kokoschka
Seminar Reading:
Tobias Natter (ed.), The Naked Truth: Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Other Scandals, 2005
Further Reading:
* Emst Gombrich, Kokoschka in his Times, 1986
* Oskar Kokoschka, My Life, 1974
* Tobias Natter (ed.), The Naked Truth: Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Other Scandals, 2005
* Susanna Partsch, Gustav Klimt: Painter of Women, 1994
* Marie-Amelie Zu Salm-Salm (ed.), Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka: Vienna 1900, 2005
* Carl Schorske, Fin de Siècle Vienna, Politics and Culture, 1981
* Shearer West, Fin de Siècle: Art and Society in an Age of Uncertainty, 1993
* Frank Whitford, Gustav Klimt, 1993
* Frank Whitford, Oskar Kokoschka, A Life, 1986
Week 4
Brücke Expressionism: Dresden and Berlin
Seminar Reading:
* Christian Weikop, 'Brücke and Canonical Association', in Reinhold Heller (ed.), Brücke: The Birth of Expressionism in Dresden and Berlin, 1905-1913, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2009, pp.102-127.
* Christian Weikop, 'The Arts and Crafts Education of the Brücke: Expressions of Craft and Creativity', Journal of Modern Craft, 1:1 (2008)77-100.
Further Reading:
* Stephanie Barron, German Expressionism: Art & Society 1909-1923, 1997
* Tim Benson, Expressionist Utopias, 2001
* Frances Carey and Anthony Griffiths, The Print in Germany 1880-1932: The Age of Expressionism, 1984
* Donald Gordon, Expressionism: Art and Idea, 1987
* Reinhold Heller, Brücke: German Expressionist Prints from the Granvil and Marcia Specks Collection, 1988
* Jill Lloyd, German Expressionism: Primitivism and Modernity, 1991
* Jill Lloyd, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: The Dresden and Berlin Years, 2003
* Frank Whitford, Expressionist Portraits, 1987
* Norbert Wolf, Kirchner, 2003
Week 5
Der Blaue Reiter: Munich
Seminar Reading:
Rose-Carol Washton Long, German Expressionism: Documents from the End of the Wilhelmine Empire to the Rise of National Socialism, California, 1993
Further Reading:
* Shulamith Behr, Women Expressionists, 1988
* Sean Rainbird (ed) Wassily Kandinsky: The Path to Abstraction, 2006
* Reinhold Heller, Gabrielle Münter: The Years of Expressionism 1903-1920, 1997
* Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, The Blaue Reiter Almanac, (reprinted 2006)
* Armin Zweite (ed.), The Blue Rider in the Lenbachhaus, 1989
Week 6
Reading Week
Week 7
Expressionism in the First World War and 1920s
Seminar Reading:
Rose-Carol Washton Long, German Expressionism: Documents from the End of the Wilhelmine Empire to the Rise of National Socialism, California, 1993
Further Reading:
* Stephanie Barron (ed.), German Expressionism: Art & Society 1909-1923, 1997
* Stephanie Barron (ed.), German Expressionism 1915-1925: The Second Generation, 1989
* Stephanie Barron (ed.), German Expressionist Sculpture, 1983
* Richard Cork, Avant-Garde Art and the Great War, 1994
Week 8
Zurich and Berlin Dada
Seminar Reading:
Rose-Carol Washton Long, German Expressionism: Documents from the End of the Wilhelmine Empire to the Rise of National Socialism, California, 1993
Further Reading:
* Dawn Ades, Dada and Surrealism, London, 1974
* Dawn Ades, The Dada Reader, 2006
* Dawn Ades, Photomontage, 1986
Simon Alaric, Berlin Dada, Berlin Revolution, 2003
* Leah Dickerman and Brigid Doherty (eds), Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris, 2005
* Leah Dickerman, The Dada Seminars: CASVA Seminar Papers v. I, 2005
Stephen Foster (ed.), Dada Spectrum: the Dialectics of Revolt, 1979
* Richard Huelsenbeck, Memoirs of a Dada Drummer, 1974
* R. Motherwell, Dada painters and poets, 1951
* Hans Richter, Dada: Art or Anti-Art, 1965
* Richard Sheppard, Modernism - Dada - Postmodernism, 2000
* Willy Verkauf, Dada: Monograph of a Movement, 1975
Week 9
Bauhaus
Seminar Reading:
* Rose-Carol Washton Long, German Expressionism: Documents from the End of the Wilhelmine Empire to the Rise of National Socialism, California, 1993
* Christian Weikop, 'The Arts and Crafts Education of the Brücke: Expressions of Craft and Creativity', Journal of Modern Craft, 1:1 (2008)77-100.
Further Reading:
* Achim Borchardt-Hume (ed), Albers and Moholy-Nagy: From the Bauhaus to the New World, 2006
* Uwe Westphal, The Bauhaus, 1991
* Frank Whitford, Bauhaus, 1984.
Week 10
Degenerate Art and Neo-Expressionism (Baselitz and Kiefer)
Seminar Reading:
Jack Cowart, Expressions: New Art from Germany; Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff, Anselm Kiefer, Markus Lüpertz, A.R. Penck (St Louis Art Museum, 1983).
Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin Buchloh, Hal Foster, and Rosalind Krauss, Art Since 1900, Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism, pp. 348-359.
Further Reading:
* Peter Adam, The Arts of the Third Reich, London, 1992
* Stephanie Barron, "Degenerate Art": Fate of the Avant-garde in Nazi Germany, 1991
* Shearer West, Utopia and Despair: The Visual Arts in Germany 1890 - 1937, Manchester 2001
Week 11
Art of the GDR and New German Painting
Seminar Reading:
Christoph Tannert (ed.), New German Painting Remix, (Munich: Prestel, 2006)
Further Reading:
* Jack Cowart, Expressions: New Art from Germany; Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff, Anselm Kiefer, Markus Lüpertz, A.R. Penck (St Louis Art Museum, 1983).
* Christian Weikop, 'Just how new is 'New' German Painting?' Art Book, 14/3 (2007): pp. 8-10. Available as pdf/jstor
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Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate detailed knowledge and critical understanding of the historical and artistic development of modern and contemporary German art, especially with respect to the legacy of Expressionism.
- Demonstrate awareness of the broader contextual dimensions of German art and society.
- Have a secure understanding of the key issues concerning German cultural identity.
- Discuss in seminars and write in essays about challenging and demanding art historical and theoretical concepts, which inform a fuller aesthetic appreciation and critical understanding of the course material.
- Demonstrate skills of spoken communication for your 10-15 minute powerpoint presentation exercise. You will also develop your inter-personal skills, listening to and commenting on your colleagues' work, as well as points raised in discussion by the tutor.
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Reading List
Reading
Every week, you will be given extract reading from book chapters and articles. Some of this material will be photocopied; some will be available on JSTOR. You will be expected to read these extracts in advance of the seminar. In addition, you will individually be given extended reading lists, depending on which topic you select for the coursework essay.
General Reading List
Shulamith Behr, Expressionism, London, 1999.
Reinhold Heller (ed.), Confronting identities in German art: myths, reactions, reflections, 2003
Colin Rhodes, Primitivism and Modern Art, London, 1994
Peter Vergo, Art in Vienna, London, 1975
Rose-Carol Washton Long, German Expressionism: Documents from the End of the Wilhelmine Empire to the Rise of National Socialism, California, 1993
Shearer West, Utopia and Despair: The Visual Arts in Germany 1890 - 1937, Manchester 2001
For further reading see Syllabus |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Christian Weikop
Tel: (0131 6)51 4229
Email: C.Weikop@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: Sue.Cavanagh@ed.ac.uk |
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