As I was leaving the  Metropolitan Museum this evening – noticed there was another show at the museum I had not seen Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s – decided to go back into the museum and spent the next 90 minutes fixated on a GREAT SHOW that was also Unique.

 

Otto Dix – Portrait of Anita Berber -1925 (left) and Portrait of The Art Dealer Alfred Flechtheim – 1926 (right).

In fact, New York City is full of great shows just now …. more great shows in one city at one time than ever.  This is going to be a long post ….. and if it gets too long, I’ll do a second post.

I was not aware that German Art in the 1920′s had a movement called “Verism”.  According to the show notes online…

“Although often romanticized as the backdrop for erotic cabaret shows and sexual licentiousness, German cities of the 1920s were actually in the throes of rampant unemployment, hyperinflation, and social panic. After the initial patriotic fervor for—followed by the crippling devastation of— World War I, a group of artists known as the Verists questioned their own involvement in the atrocities and focused on the country’s quickly changing social landscape and uncertain political future.”

I can imagine what it must have been like to live in Germany in the 1920′s – World War I was over, millions of German Solders were killed, but just as many came back injured – many lived on the streets - the economic and political climate was a mess and a  deep disillusionment and pessimism set in.  Yet, at this very moment, some of the greatest German Artists lived and thrived – and painted what they saw and felt – and that’s what this show is all about.  I’ll probably need to buy a catalog of this show as it made a very strong impression on me.

You can see some of the German Portraits here.

The show really could have been called….Otto Dix and his contemporaries – 1920 -1933.   Otto Dix’s work took up half the show ….and what a range of work….I bet the better part of Dix’s work from the 1920′s was sitting in a couple of rooms of the Metropolitan Museum.

One thing about all these artists …. Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Karl Hubbuch, Christian Schad and Rudolf Schlichter – they all could draw … very well …and in Otto Dix’s case – as well as Albrecht Durer.  It’s clear where the heritage came from… all the artists here are fantastic but Max Beckmann, Otto Dix and George Grosz are the only ones really know in the United States – and Beckmann is more well known because he had a following and several well known artists admire his work.   The other thing about these words are …they are very morbid.  

Verism appears to be a way to categorize people as a certain “type” and then paint them as a representation of the type of person the artist thinks they are… at least this is what I got out of the explanation given at the show.

Otto Dix – 1921 – Portrait of Dr. Hans Koch

The portraits are a representation of an “archtype” if you will, more than a specific portrait of person.  In this case, Dr. Koch’s features are distinct – but it’s his ”persona” or “archtype” that is being painted.  It’s more or less the same with the rest of the show.

There’s also a lot of drawings in the show – all of them are GREAT!

 

The collection of German Art assembled here is probably the most extensive of any I have seen and most likely, the largest body of German Art outside Germany.  And this is the very first show of “Verist” art.

You can see the rest of the show – you have till February 19th 2007 – I’ll go back to see it at least a couple of times in the next 3 months.

There’s so much more to talk about – and the rest of the artists …but I’m exhausted from seeing 4 shows in one day …I’ll try to write up American Artists in Paris 1860 – 1900 tomorrow.

Time for bed.