Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity)
June 01 - July 27,2024
From Redbud Arts Center:
"Redbud Arts Center is pleased to present works on paper from our collection by the artists Otto Dix, George Grosz, Jeanne Mammen, Rudolf Schlichter, and Max Beckmann with a show titled "Neue Sachlichkeit” (New Objectivity).
This exhibition is in conjunction with Print Houston 2024 9th celebration of original prints.
On November 11, 1918, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. A “new” world ensued and encapsulated daily life in Germany with Berlin and Dresden acting as the nexuses. Painters such as Otto Dix, George Grosz, Max Beckmann, Jeanne Mammen and Rudolph Schlichter, all of whom served in WWI, narrated their own perspective about life in the newly formed Weimar Republic, which lasted from 1918 to 1933. Die Neue Sachlichkeit or New Objectivity was born.
“The art historian Dennis Crockett says there is no direct English translation, and breaks down the meaning in the original German:
Sachlichkeit should be understood by its root, Sache, meaning “thing”, “fact”, “subject”, or “object.” Sachlich could be best understood as “factual”, “matter of fact”, “impartial”, “practical”, or “precise”; Sachlichkeit is the noun form of the adjective/adverb and usually implies “matter-of-factness” …
The artists depicted a new reality in response to their experience of The First World War, disrupting the established form of Expressionism.
Through their careful strokes, realistic viewpoints, and socially engaged themes, each one of them deranged the Expressionist Movement and made it fail to continue.
Die Neue Sachlichkeit shows facets of the “new “ life after WWI, showing war cripples, rape, prostitution, misery, poverty, widowhood, violence, and death. The works about this period in human history, our history, juxtapose a new but dark reality with a joie de vivre and the decadence of night life during the time of the Weimar Republic."
Opening: June 01, 2024 | 6-9 pm
Redbud Arts Center
303 East 11th Street
Houston, TX 77008
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