1920-1945: The Artistic Culture between the Wars 9788876248047, 8876248048

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Art of the Twentieth Century

1920-1945

The Artistic Culture

between the Wars

volume 1

1900_1919 The Avant-garde Movements

volume 2

1920-1945 The Artistic Culture between the Wars

volume 3

1946-1968 The Birth of Contemporary Art

volume 4

1968-1999 Neo-avant-gardes, Postmodern and Global Art

volume 5 2000 and Beyond Contemporary Tendencies

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/artoftwentiethceOOOOunse

Art of the 20th Century Protagonists, Movements and Themes of Art from 1900 to the Present Day

The book has been published thanks to the collaboration and the contribution of

UniCredit Group

The Art of the 20th Century

1920-1945 The Artistic Culture between the Wars

© 2006 Skira editore, Milan

All rights reserved under international

The documentary work, gathering of

© David Alfaro Siqueiros, Hans Jean

copyright conventions.

information and arrangement of the

Design

Arp, Giacomo Balia, Max Beckmann,

No part of this book may be

narrative texts is due to a group of

Marcello Francone

Hans Bellmer, Etienne Beothy, Max

reproduced or utilized in any form or

young scholars; each of them took care

Bill, Peter Blume, Antoine Bourdelle,

by any means, electronic or

of a specific segment of the work,

Victor Brauner, Andre Breton,

mechanical, including photocopying,

as specified below:

Massimo Campigli, Carlo Carra,

recording, or any information storage

Felice Casorati, Marc Chagall, Giorgio

and retrieval system, without

de Chirico, Fortunato Depero, Filippo

permission in writing from the

Copy Editor

De Pisis, Andre Derain, Gustave

publisher.

Timothy Stroud

De Smet, Charles Despiau, Otto Dix,

Editorial Realisation

Translation Leslie Ray, Liam MacGabhann, Lorenzo Sanguedolce, Language Consulting Congressi, Milan

Layout Serena Parini

Oscar Dominguez, Raoul Dufy, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, George Grosz, Thomas Hart

Iconographic Research

Benton, Auguste Herbin, Auguste

Federico Pecchenini

Johannes Itten, Alfred-Auguste Janniot, Vasily Kandinsky, Alexander Kanoldt, Moi'se Kisling, Paul Klee, Frantisek Kupka, Henri Laurens, Fernand Leger, Carlo Levi, Jack Levine, Osvaldo Licini, Alberto Magnelli, Rene Magritte, Aristide Maillol, Andre Marchand, A. John Marin, Marino Marini, Andre Masson, Fausto Melotti, Jean Metzinger, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Henry Moore, Georgia O’Keeffe, Meret Oppenheim, Ubaldo Oppi, Jose Clemente Orozco, Anton

Printed and bound in Italy. First edition

American Art between Tradition and Avant-garde (Domenico Quaranta) Crisis of the Avant-gardes and Return to Order (Paolo Bolpagni)

ISBN-13: 978-88-7624-804-7

Paris 1920-39

ISBN-10: 88-7624-804-8

(Fiorenzo Fisogni)

Distributed in North America by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.,

American Art between the Two Wars (Domenico Quaranta)

300 Park Avenue South, New York,

Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity)

NY 10010.

and Magic Realistn

Distributed elsewhere in the world by

(Michela Valotti)

Thames & Hudson Ltd., 181a High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX, United Kingdom.

From the Novecento Italiano to the Second Generation of Futurism (Paolo Bolpagni) The International Abstract Front (Paolo Bolpagni)

Pevsner, Francis Picabia, Jackson

Surrealism

Pollock, Franz Radziwill, Hans Richter,

(Domenico Quaranta)

Mark Rothko, Alberto Savinio, Christian Schad, Georg Schrimpf, Gino Severini, Ben Shahn, Mario Sironi, Chaim Soutine, Alfred Stieglitz, Sophie Taeuber Arp, Yves Tanguy, Dorothea Tanning, Giuseppe Terragni, Georges Vantongerloo, Remedios Varo, Max Weber, Grant Wood, Osip Zadkine, by SIAE 2006 © The Estate of Francis Bacon, by SIAE 2006 © The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, by SIAE 2006 © Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation, by SIAE 2006 © Paul Delvaux Foundation, by SIAE 2006 © Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milano © Fondation Le Corbusier, by SIAE 2006 © The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York / by SIAE 2006 © SUCCESSION H. MATISSE, by SIAE 2006 © Successio Miro, by SIAE 2006 © SUCCESSION PICASSO, by SIAE 2006 © Man Ray Trust, by SIAE 2006 Tutti i diritti riservati

Surrealism in America and the Advent of Abstract Expressionim (Domenico Quaranta)

Art of the 20th Century

1920-1945. The Artistic Culture between the Wars

Guide for Readers

The Art of the 20th Century is a book structured in¬

The essays

to five volumes that is distinguished by its innova¬

A fundamental part of the structure of the work is

tive style and by its format, which offer readers var¬

its organisation into short essays; these are detailed

ious possible approaches and uses of its content.

and new in their interpretative style, inspired by a multidisciplinary approach that gives precedence

The narrative text

to the cultural with respect to the purely historical

Each volume has a narrative text that accompanies

and artistic aspect. Entrusted to scholars of inter¬

readers through the chapters in the reconstruction

national renown, these contributions are full-blown

of the various historical events, the background cul¬

investigations that, due to the wealth of analyses

tural panorama and the individual artistic and in¬

and scope of the essays, are intentionally not illus¬

tellectual personalities that have characterised and

trated precisely so as to become a third possible

profoundly marked the artistic culture in various

path of independent reading.

cities and countries, in a constant and complex com¬ parison of links and contrasts. The text has been

The synoptic tables

written with the collaboration of young scholars

Each volume possesses a rich apparatus of synop¬

with the intention of going back over the various his¬

tic tables distributed year by year in relation to the

torical moments of artistic debate, forming a con¬

chronological segment identified, in which histori¬

sistent thread running through that helps readers dis¬

cal events are connected with the most significant

entangle themselves amid situations, movements,

events in science, literature, music and criticism and,

groups, artists and works.

obviously, with the world of art itself. The latter is

The subdivision into chapters follows a geo-histor¬

divided into geographical areas, with particular at¬

ical format; that is, it identifies cities and/or nations

tention to the centres of inspiration and action, and

that became centres of debate in specific years and

includes movements of artists, the execution of em¬

the clashes—often bitter—between innovations and

blematic works and the formation and breaking up

traditions. This focus is accompanied by an account

of groups and factions.

conducted year by year—indeed, often month by month—highlighting pockets of works, events and

The thematic bibliography

comparisons that clarify the relations between the var¬

Each volume offers readers a synthetic thematic bib¬

ious components of the artistic culture examined.

liography structured into works of a general char¬

Analysis boxes

ments/groups and artistic personalities of particu¬

In order to avoid excessive fragmentation, the nar¬

lar significance. The thematic bibliography gives

acter and works dedicated to individual move¬

rative text is accompanied by a number of boxes for

precedence to recent texts that can be found on the

analysis, making it possible to highlight and focus

market and gives an account of newly published

clearly on a specific subject, an event, a situation, a

works on the themes discussed. The structure fol¬

personality, contributing to enriching the overall

lows that of the chapters of each individual book.

itinerary with details. The analytical index The illustrative apparatus

There is an analytical index for each volume, with

Images play a fundamental role in this work, not on¬

the names, artists and works cited and/or illustrat¬

ly as a medium and as the visualisation of the state¬

ed in the texts and essays. It is a useful instrument

ments and analyses presented in the text, but above

for consultation, but it is also a precious store of in¬

all as an independent path for reading. The works

formation: indeed, besides the personalities from

have been chosen with the intention to give partic¬

history and culture, the index gives the titles of mag¬

ular precedence to examples that are little seen

azines, movements, associations, groups, and above

and/or known, yet that are important in the gener¬

all the names of the artists, with places and dates of

al discourse, this alternating with the presentation

birth and death, and the list in chronological order

of works that have definitively become part of an ide¬

of the works cited in the volume, each with their cur¬

al and shared gallery of the masterpieces of moder¬

rent location.

nity. The matching and linking, the details and tech¬ nical captions, all enable the reader to read in visu¬ al form the differences and similarities, the reciprocal influences, the extraordinary technological and ex¬ pressive innovations, together with the sudden re¬ turns to tradition, the thematic innovations and the inexorable transformations of style.

The narrative text

Analysis boxes

The essays

The synoptic tables

Scientific Committee

Gabriella Belli Carlo Bertelli Germano Celant Ester Coen Ida Gianelli Valerio Terraroli, editor of the work

Contents

11 12 18 22 28

American Art between Tradition and Avant-garde - The group of the Eight - Steichen and Stieglitz’s Choices - Dadaism in New York - Synchromism

30

Artists’ Writings and Critical Debates 1920-45 Charles Harrison

45

Crisis of the Avant-gardes and the Return to Order - Paris 1920-39

56 84

Aspects of Dance in Europe in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Patrizia Veroli

93 98 101 113

American Art between the Two Wars - American Realism - American Abstractionism - Mexican Muralism

126

Photography and Art between the Wars Maria Gough

240

Film and Arts from Futurism to Neorealism Gian Piero Brunetta

255 255 263 276 287 290

The International Abstract Front - Constructivism - Bauhaus - Neo-plasticism in The Netherlands - Abstractionism in France - Abstractionism in Italy

296

Decorative Arts and Decoration... Valerio Terraroli

307 309 320

Surrealism - The Birth of Surrealism - Cultural and Political Positions of Surrealism - Surrealist Forms and Protagonists of the Movement - Surrealism in Spain - Surrealism in Belgium - Surrealism in Great Britain - Others Surrealisms: from Europe to Latin America - Surrealism in the United States - Surrealist Sculpture

335

141 148 170

183 183 190 199 210 213 215 222 226 227

Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) and Magic Realism - Neue Sachlichkeit The Art of Propaganda (1920-45) Jeffrey T. Schnapp From the Novecento Italiano to the Second Generation of Futurism - The Seven Painters of Novecento - Novecento Italiano - Valori Plastici - Magic Realism - The Six of Turin - The Roman School - Italiens de Paris - Corrente - The Second Generation of Futurism

350 358 362 364 371 374 379

Surrealism in America and the Advent of Abstract Expressionism

Appendix 396 423 433

Synoptic Tables Bibliography Index of Names, Artists and Works of Art

American Art between Tradition and Avant-garde

Paul Strand Wire Wheel, 1917 (detail) Silver bromide print enlarged from negative, 33 x 26 cm New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Alfred Stieglitz Collection

From the last decade of the nineteenth cen¬ tury until the first years of the twentieth, the United States underwent an unprecedented period of social, economic and cultural evo¬ lution. American energy, initiative and in¬ dustry attracted workers from all over the world, including many European countries. The phenomenon of immigration caused an exponential increase in the population and their concentration in the large cities made it necessary to reconsider their structure and development: major roadways were con¬ structed and the first skyscrapers were built, the infrastructure moved underground and electric light became the dominating element of the urban landscape. Along with this unstoppable development arose a renewed sense of belonging, a na¬ tionalistic pride born from a total adherence to the American way of life and from an un¬ conditional faith in American democracy; this was manifested through the reaffirmation of a tradition which was until then misun¬ derstood, the attention towards the AfroAmerican culture, the will to describe Amer¬ ican life and reality, creating an American literature and art. This process was not, of course, without contradictions: in fact, if American literature emerged prematurely from its European in¬ fluence, as early as the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the path to liberation from its inferiority complex with regards to European art would be long and rugged and would only be completed after World War II. That did not diminish the fact that the Amer¬ ican art scene, during the first decades of the twentieth century, was characterised by a growing vitality, which seemed, as in the case of society, to spawn from contradictions— contradictions which were often corrosive, but capable of unleashing a great energy, the true motor of this evolution. At the beginning of the twentieth centu¬ ry, the panorama of American art, concen¬ trated in the major cities, was essentially char¬ acterised by two poles: on one hand, there was the circle of academic painting, orient¬ ed around Neoclassicism and still heavily in¬ fluenced by early nineteenth-century French painting; on the other hand, the painting of the great and popular portraitists, trained in

Europe, who considered European painting, particularly French, an unrenounceable mod¬ el, The champion of this refined, romantic portraiture was without a doubt John Singer Sargent, who considered himself ‘an Amer¬ ican born in Italy, schooled in France, who resembles a German, speaks like an Eng¬ lishman and paints like a Spaniard’. In an American artist’s training, a stay in Europe was still practically indispensable. And many, once in Europe, were so thoroughly inte¬ grated in the intellectual circles that they nev¬ er returned. Such was the case with artists like Alfred Sisley, Mary Cassatt, James Abbott McNeill Whistler—who were Americanborn, but bred entirely in European culture and training. At the polar opposite of this radical Europeanism, beginning as early as the last quar¬ ter of the nineteenth century, a decisively American trend in realism had developed, represented primarily by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and Frederic Remington. They programmatically drew upon American history and life, working with new media, such as illustration (Homer and Remington) and photography (Eakins) to characterise their realism. The path was different of artists such as Frederick Childe Hassam, who was trained in Europe and later returned to the United States, where he experimented with his im¬ pressionistic language on New York’s urban landscape, contributing significantly to the diffusion of impressionist novelty in Ameri¬ ca. In addition, at the beginning of the twen¬ tieth century, the world of exhibitions was still dominated by two institutions—the Society of American Artists and the National Acad¬ emy of Design, both located in New York— a system that blocked all innovation. In 1886 in Philadelphia, Eakins was expelled from the Academy for having removed the cloth that covered a model’s hips during a lesson; nonetheless, he continued to teach, and through his student, Thomas Anshutz, his substantial anti-Europeanism and his re¬ search of a pictorial expression inspired by realism were passed on, intact, to the young Robert Henri, who lived in Europe from 1888 to 1891, where his attention was not dis¬ tracted by Impressionist innovations, but

I 11

William J. Glackens

Hammerstein's Hoof Garden, 1901 Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm New York, Whitney Museum of American Art

Opposite William J. Glackens

At Mouquin's, 1905 Oil on canvas, 122.4 x 92 cm Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago

Pages 14-15 George Benjamin Luks

The Wrestlers, 1905 (detail) Oil on canvas, 122.8 x 168.6 cm Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, The Hayden Collection - Charles Henry Hayden Fund

rather was focused upon Rembrandt, Hals, Velazquez and Manet’s ‘Spanish period’. Once again in Philadelphia, Henri attracted a group of young artists, primarily working as illustrators for some major newspapers. Influenced by Henri’s charismatic personal¬ ity, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, John Sloan and George Luks turned to the reali¬ ty of the streets of their city, already very fa¬ miliar to them through their journalistic work, and applied the attention for the ques¬ tion of current events to contemporary life and to the fast and abbreviated technique of oil-painting illustrations. In 1895, Henri de¬ parted for Paris once again, and in 1900, on his return, setded down in New York to teach at the New York School of Art. Here, in the meantime, his Philadelphian companions,

12 I American Art between Tradition and Avant-garde

attracted by the greater work opportunities offered by the prestigious New York news¬ papers, had caught up with him and the group was united again.

The group of the Eight Guided by Henri’s teaching, which encour¬ aged catching ‘the spirit of today’s people’, his followers hit the streets, shops, bars, the¬ atres and gambling rooms, which they paint¬ ed with a quick and spontaneous brush¬ stroke. Their realism rarely had the tone of social accusation, as in the early works of Joseph Stella, for it normally maintained a tone of vitality and joy, an optimistic vision, even in a street scene with beggars or man¬ ual labourers at work. In 1907, Henri was called upon to serve on the panel of the Na-

The group of the Eight I 13

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