Modernist Aesthetics in Transition: Visual Culture of the Weimar Republic and Na

Modernist Aesthetics in Transition: Visual Culture of the Weimar Republic and NaCondition: BRAND NEW ISBN: 9781350442528 Format: Paper over boards Year: 2025 Publisher: Bloomsbury Description: How did German aesthetic values change during the Weimar Republic and after its immediate collapse at the beginning of the National Socialist period? Contrary to conventional narratives that depict modernist aesthetics as static, shaping principles of modern art and design, this volume argues for their complexity and ever shifting nature.

Condition: BRAND NEW
ISBN: 9781350442528
Format: Paper over boards
Year: 2025
Publisher: Bloomsbury


Description:
How did German aesthetic values change during the Weimar Republic and after its immediate collapse at the beginning of the National Socialist period? Contrary to conventional narratives that depict modernist aesthetics as static, shaping principles of modern art and design, this volume argues for their complexity and ever-shifting nature.




Illuminating the vital exchanges that occurred across multiple art forms during a period of unmatched cultural activity, this multi-disciplinary volume explores the cultural transition between Weimar- and National Socialist-era Germany and offers a fresh perspective on the fate of modernism during a time of censorship and social stigma. Featuring essays on architecture, painting, photography, film, sculpture, cabaret, typography, and commercial design, the volume explores competing and comparable themes across German art from 1919-1945 and addresses how modern approaches like New Vision coexisted with more traditional and established artistic modes.


Such visual complexity is evident from the volume's eclectic coverage- these include 'sexology' and eroticism, visual grammar in typography and architecture, the reception of Weimar art in the National Socialist period, and the formation and transformation of queer and Jewish identities. The volume encompasses subjects as different as shadow in the animated films of Lotte Reininger, filmic adaptations of Heinrich Zille's social commentary in the 1920s, the photography of L iszlo Moholy-Nagy, and depictions of female sexuality in Magnus Hirschfeld's oeuvre. By bridging multiple artistic fields, this highly interdisciplinary work