Expressionism (Africa)
- The sound of Experiment
- Oct 21, 2024
- 14 min read
Updated: Oct 24, 2024
unknown title, referred to as "March on Washington". It's by Norman Lewis. Created in 1965
Introduction
In the early 1900s, the aesthetics of traditional African sculpture became a powerful influence among European artists who formed a vanguard in the development of modern art. In France, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and their friends from the Paris School combined the highly stylized treatment of the human figure in African sculptures with painting styles derived from the post-impressionist works of Cézanne and Gauguin. While these artists knew nothing about the original meaning and function of the West and Central African sculptures they encountered, they immediately recognized the spiritual aspect of the composition and adapted these qualities to their own efforts to move beyond the naturalism that had defined Western art since the Renaissance. German expressionist painters such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner of Die Brücke, based in Dresden and Berlin, combined African aesthetics with the emotional intensity of dissonance of color tones and figurative distortion to depict the anxieties of modern life, while Paul Klee of the Blaue Reiter movement in Munich developed transcendent symbolic images. Expressionist interest in non-Western art intensified after a gauguin exhibition in 1910 in Dresden, while modernist movements in Italy, England, and the United States initially engaged in African art through contacts with artists of the Paris School. While artworks from Oceania and the Americas also attracted attention, especially during the surrealist movement of the 1930s, interest in non-Western art by many of the most influential early modernists and their followers focused on sub-Saharan African sculpture (Murrell).
Historic Overview
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Germany expanded its borders into Africa through colonization. Although short-lived, it lasted only until World War I, colonization led to new ideas in German expressionist art. Members of the groups The Bridge (Die Brücke) and the Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) copied objects of African origin in their work, including statues and masks. Most artists were exposed to African culture and images when they visited German ethnographic museums and performances. For members of The Bridge, indigenous peoples represented the immediacy, authenticity, and immediate closeness to the natural world that the artists hoped to achieve. Germans of the early twentieth century were presented with reminders of colonization through postcards and advertisements. These images often contained racist caricatures and exaggerated depictions of African culture. Nevertheless, members of the group The Bridge (Die Brücke) were less caustic in their depictions of Africans. While most remained silent on colonization issues, Emil Nolde was vocal in his opposition. When colonization ended, groups like the Bridge (Die Brücke) were part of Germany's historical art past, but Black works were not. The dissolution of the colonies led to several changes: 1) racial works were no longer innovative, 2) ethnographic broadcasts disappeared, and 3) many German expressionist works were confiscated or destroyed by the Nazis. The surviving icons, however, are an enduring testimony to Germany's cultural exchange with Africa as the twentieth century began (Institution).
For much of the twentieth century, this interest was often described as Primitivism, a term denoting a perspective on non-Western cultures that is now considered problematic. Artists in interwar Germany worked extensively with African compositional devices, dismissing naturalism as inadequate for their plan to represent the anxiety, dislocation, and utopian fantasies of interwar German society. Paul Klee (Paul Klee) developed a distinct abstract style while teaching at the Bauhaus. In the modern postcolonial era, the influence of traditional African aesthetics and processes is very deeply embedded in the artistic practice of the time. The increasing globalization of the art world, which now includes contemporary African artists such as Malian photographer Seydou Keïta and Ghanaian-born sculptor El Anatsui, makes any term that assumes a gap between Western and non-Western art increasingly controversial. In attempting to understand the full range of aesthetic foundations of early modernism, the exploration of African influences on contemporary art remains relevant today (Murrell).
Politics
The 19th century was fraught with colonization and invasion of the African continent by European powers. They took control of most of the continent, including its traditional artifacts. The European countries that took part in the Struggle for Africa collected many items which they transported back to Europe. These African artistic objects were not originally considered art but symbols of the imperial power of Europe. By the 1870s, European museums had already begun to exhibit these African artifacts, not as artifacts but rather as ethnographic objects of a less civilized people. Objects of art were not appreciated for either their aesthetic or expressive qualities, and Europeans never understood the meaning or significance of these works (Team).
Towards the turn of the century in the early 1900s, several colonial art exhibitions were held in Europe, especially in France and Germany, including the World's Fair in Paris, which showcased some African statues and masks. These occasions gave the public the opportunity to see a wide variety of many different African artworks. The audience's initial reaction was a combination of awe and horror at what they perceived as wild, frightening and strange objects. Despite mixed feelings, some open-minded and intellectually insightful artists, many of whom were dissatisfied with the canon of European art, began to draw inspiration from these African works of art. Around 1905 artists in Paris and Germany began to reflect certain African characteristics in their works. This type of fusion is what created the modern arts as we know them. Expressionist art movements were created, and the art world as we know it has taken a new and different approach to this day, all as a result of Africa's artistic creations. In Germany artists such as Emil Nolde were greatly influenced by African arts, especially with regard to masks and sculptures, although it may be that they did not fully understand the meaning of African works or the intention of the anonymous creators of African art. Their art style, influenced by African artworks, sought to express the world solely from the perspective of the subject, i.e. their works were radically distorted to evoke moods or ideas. This type of art is known as expressionism. Expressionist artists preferred the expression of emotional experience over physical reality. Other artists who used this art style included Fritz Blale, Konrad Felix Mueller, George Gross, Erich Haeckel, Karl Hofer, Max Beckmann, and Carl Schmidt-Rotlouf, among others. Expressionist art began in Germany around 1905, at a time when African arts were beginning to gain acceptance. The expressionists basically did not create art based on realism. The artists sought to depict subjective feelings and reactions within a person stimulated by objects and events. Even European sculptors such as Ernst Barlach incorporated expressionism into his works (Team).
Arts
Modern Art was the first movement of creative expression to bridge the divisive Western and non-Western art world. Looking through the contemporary lens of today's world's post-colonial era, it is clear that African art is at the root of most styles practiced since the late 19th century (Berman). However, most of the inspiration for the Avant-Garde movement in Paris and later in the United States, the rise of German expressionism, and even the postwar and contemporary African-American movements began with one influence—African art. Regarded as primitive and more or less objects of strange, primordial people, for most African sculptures, masks and woven fabric were sources of great stimuli for others due to the challenging aesthetics of the pieces. Although, their woven fabrics, baskets, masks and sculptures were never appreciated as art but rather as objects of yet another colonized civilization. For example, the popular wax-copper and brass alloy casting technique used throughout Renaissance Italy was actually invented in Nigeria. On a trip to Algeria in the 19th century, prehistoric ruins from 10,000 BC were excavated in 1847 back to Britain.
The Modern Art Movement produced some of history's most notable artists, but their inspirational themes could be bought for pennies on the dollar. The Modern Art movement changed not only the style of artistry but broke the mold into what was considered beautiful and acceptable. Modern Art is an extremely loose term for art that originated between the 1860s and 1970s and dominated Western culture with the most notable styles evolving being impressionism, cubism, futurism, expressionism, and surrealism. Before the 19th century, most works of art were commissioned by the church, royal family, or the wealthy few to depict a religious or mythological message (Berman). However, this creatively limited artists to a minimum circle of people and their preferences. The publication of Dr. Sigmund Freud's book in 1899, The Interpretation of Dreams, inspired artists to think and create art like never before. He spread the idea of the subconscious and had artists explore their dreams of symbolism and personal iconography to convey their subjective experiences. Thus, groups of artists boldly challenge the idea that art should depict the world around them as realistically as possible. The beginning of the Modern Art movement had artists experimenting with whimsical colors, techniques, and means to express people, places, and things around them instead of trying to send a story or message to the public. Those few artists who chose to go against the rule had no idea how famous they would become. As with France and the United States in the early 1900s, a small group of German artists were incredibly moved by African artworks. The origins of Expressionism were in Germany, centered around creative art that broke with naturalism in order to seek to evoke various emotional influences from their audience. Often these works of art featured slightly unrecognizable figures and out of touch with any sense of reality. After moving to Berlin and exposing himself to the international avant-garde style of cubism, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was inspired by more African tribal art, as seen in Melancholie's 1914 print. From there he produced woodcuts and wooden sculptures until he was exiled after the Nazis came to power in the 1930s because Expressionism was a degenerate art form according to Hitler. Other artists between the two world wars worked with African compositional ideas to promote their rebellion against naturalism. It simply could not portray the desired levels of anxiety, dislocation and utopian fantasies and interwar society enough for these artists, however Expressionism allowed them to create pieces that evoked these reactions from their viewers. Much of African art is still considered, in terms of value, more on a historical basis than aesthetically and combined with natural history exhibits (Freeborn, 2005). African Art took from its roots as generosity back to the European homelands of their colonizer, not much has changed today ((10) Modern Art & Its African Influence | LinkedIn).
Music
In music, the expressionist movement inspired the atonal and emotionally charged style that subsequently developed around Arnold Schoenberg and his circle in Vienna. An accomplished amateur painter himself, Schoenberg was strongly influenced by Expressionism in the visual arts and produced several paintings in this way. Much of his music before 1920 also embraced an expressionist approach to depicting violent emotional states. But musical expressionism was short-lived. While some composers continued to draw inspiration from it, it had already fallen out of favor by the 1920s (Expressionism). The term expressionism "was probably first applied to music in 1918, especially to Schoenberg", because like painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) he eschewed "traditional forms of beauty" to convey strong emotions in his music. The sociologist Theodor Adorno interpreted the expressionist movement in music as aiming to "eliminate all conventional elements of traditional music, anything typically rigid." He saw this as analogous to "the literary ideal of 'scream.'" Adorno also described it as related to the unconscious and states that "the depiction of fear is at the center" of expressionist music, with dissonance dominating, so as to eliminate the "harmonious, affirmative element of art". Expressionist music "would thus reject the figurative, sensual qualities associated with impressionist music. Instead, he would try to realize his own purely musical nature—in part ignoring compositional conventions that placed "external" constraints on the expression of "internal" visions. Expressionist music often features a high level of dissonance, extreme dynamic contrasts, constant change of textures, "distorted" melodies and harmonies, and angular melodies with great leaps. The three central figures of musical expressionism are Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) and his students, Anton Webern (1883-1945) and Alban Berg (1885-1935), the so-called Second Viennese School. Other composers associated with expressionism include Ernst Krenek (1900–1991), Paul Hindemith (1895–1963), Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971), and Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915). Another important expressionist was Béla Bartók (1881-1945). Especially his early works, such as The Castle of Blue Owl (1911), The Wooden Prince (1917), and The Miraculous Tangerine (1919). Important precursors of expressionism were Richard Wagner (1813–1883), Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) and Richard Strauss (1864–1949). Later composers, such as Peter Maxwell Davis (1934-2016), "have sometimes been considered to have perpetuated the Expressionism of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern," and the most distinctive feature of Heinz Holliger (b. 1939) "is a strongly involved invocation ... the essentially lyrical expressionism found in Schoenberg, Berg and, most importantly, Webern." (‘Expressionist Music’).
Notable Compositions
Three Piano Pieces, Op 11 - Arnold Schönberg (1909)
It is a set of pieces for solo piano. They represent an early example of atonality in the composer's work. The first two pieces are often referred to as the one in which Schoenberg abandoned tonality, which had been common practice in Western music for centuries. The three tracks are given a section of atonal musical space through the projection of material from the first piece onto the other two, including the repeated use of patterns. The third track is the most innovative of the three as it isolates its musical parameters and uses them in a structural, yet unsystematic way that foreshadows the complete serialism of the 1950s ('Three Piano Pieces (Schoenberg)').
Bluebeard's Castle – Bela Bartok (1911)
The Castle of the Duke of Blue Blood (Hungarian: A kékszakállú herceg vára, literally The Castle of the Blue-Blooded Duke) is a one-act symbolic opera by composer Béla Bartók to a Hungarian libretto by friend and poet Béla Balázs. Based on the French folk legend, or conte populaire as Charles Perrault tells it, it lasts about an hour and develops only two song characters: Bluebeard (Kékszakállú) and his younger wife Judith (Judit). The two have just left and she returns to his castle for the first time. Bluebeard's Castle, Sz. 48, was composed in 1911 (with modifications made in 1912 and a new ending added in 1917) and first performed on 24 May 1918 at the Royal Hungarian Opera in Budapest. The Universal Edition published the phonetic (1921) and complete scores (1925). Boosey & Hawkes' full score includes only German and English song translations, while the dover version reproduces the global version of the Hungarian/German vocal score (with page numbers starting with 1 instead of 5). A revision of the EU phonetic score in 1963 added a new German translation by Wilhelm Ziegler, but it seems that it did not correct any errors. Universal Edition and Bartók Records published a new version of the work in 2005 with a new English translation by Péter Bartók [hu], accompanied by an extensive list of errors (Wikipedia Contributors).
Pierrot Lunaire on. January 21 – Arnold Schönberg (born 1912)
It's a melodrama. It sets to music 21 selected poems from Albert Giraud's cycle of the same name, as translated into German by Otto Erich Hartleben. The work is written for recitation which delivers the poems in a melodramatic style of recitation (Sprechstimme) accompanied by a small orchestral ensemble. Although the music is atonal, it does not use Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, which he did not use until 1921. It is one of Schoenberg's most famous and frequently performed works (‘Pierrot Lunaire’).
Three Japanese Lyrics - Igor Stravinsky (1913)
Each of the Three Japanese Verses bears a dedication: Maurice Delage, Florence Schmidt, and Ravel, respectively. They premiered in January 1914 in Paris in a program that also included the premiere of Ravel Mallarmé and Quatre Poèmes Hindous' songs with similar Delage music. Stravinsky found the texts for the Verses in an anthology of Japanese script translated into Russian (the titles are the names of ancient poets). "The impression they made on me was exactly like that made by Japanese paintings and engravings," the composer said. "The graphic solution of the problems of perspective and space shown by their art prompted me to find something similar in music."
The Wooden Prince – Bela Bartok (1914-1916)
It is a one-act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók from a screenplay by Béla Balázs. Although it never achieved the fame of Bartók's other ballet, The Miraculous Tangerine (1926), it was successful enough at its premiere to push the Opera to stage Bartók's opera, The Castle of the Blue Owl the following year. Like The Blue Owl, The Wooden Prince uses a huge orchestra, although critic Paul Griffiths believes it sounds like an earlier work in style. The music shows the influence of Debussy and Richard Strauss, as well as Wagner (‘The Wooden Prince’).
The Miraculous Mandarin – Bela Bartok (1918-1924)
It is a one-act pantomime ballet based on the 1916 story by Melchior Lengyel. It premiered on 27 November 1926 under the baton of Eugen Szenkar at the Cologne Opera in Germany, caused a scandal and was subsequently banned on moral grounds (‘The Miraculous Mandarin’).
The Young Maid - Paul Hindemith (1922)
Paul Hindemith (16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violinist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring Europe extensively. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity) style of music in the 1920s, with compositions such as Kammermusik, including works with viola and viola d'amore as solo instruments in neo-Bahian spirit (Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) - The Young Maid, Op.23b, 1922 - Muziekweb). the song cycles Die junge Magd (1922; "The Young Maid"), based on poems by Georg Trakl (Paul Hindemith | German Composer | Britannica).
Second Symphony - Ernst Krenek (1923)
Ernst Krenek can almost certainly be regarded as the archetypal composer of the Weimar Republic, dealing at one time with an astonishing array of styles from expressionism to jazz and neoclassicism. In the powerful Second Symphony, which received a controversial premiere in Kassel in 1923, expressionist elements are very much at the forefront in the uncompromisingly atonal musical language and extreme contrasts of dynamic range and emotion. Designed on an extensive, almost Malerian scale, the dominant messages of the work are those of rebelliousness and anger – a clear response to the turbulent political climate of the time. Although later in life Krenek provided a fairly clear program to guide listeners through this vast musical canvas, the complex structure of the symphony can only be convincingly deciphered when an experienced conductor is at the helm. Fortunately, Lothar Zagrosek has all the necessary credentials to realize this, having already recorded the work once before with the ORF Symphony Orchestra ('Krenek'). The only twenty-three-year-old Krenek paints here in dark colors and creates gloomy, otherworldly worlds of sound: with the softest and lowest string tones, the cellos glide through movement as if lost, following no particular direction. The violas join the search for the cello with their own motif, and the other groups of instruments gradually enter – the intensity of the "search" is amplified, but it does not find a musical indicator, for example in the form of a recurring theme. When the Symphony premiered in Kassel in 1923, the audience's reaction was very mixed: it oscillated between fascination with the inconceivable in this music and sheer irritation. The work went down in history as one of a series of twentieth-century music scandals. Krenek dedicated the music to his then-wife Anna Mahler, daughter of Gustav and Alma Mahler (‘Symphony No. 2, Third Movement’).
A Survivor from Warsaw - Arnold Schönberg (1947)
A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46, is a cantata by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg written as a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. The main narrative is obscure. "There should never be a tone" in his solo vocal line, the composer wrote. It was directed for narrator, male choir and orchestra. It arose from a proposed collaboration between Jewish Russian immigrant dancer Corinne Chochem and Schoenberg. The work was first performed by the Albuquerque Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Kurt Frederick on November 4, 1948. Czech writer Milan Kundera dedicated an essay in his book Encounter (2010) to a Warsaw survivor. It bothers him that educated people don't know that the cantata "is the greatest memorial ever dedicated to the Holocaust... [but] people are fighting to ensure that the killers are not forgotten. But they forget Schoenberg." (‘A Survivor from Warsaw’).
Bibliography
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Murrell, Authors: Denise. ‘African Influences in Modern Art | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History’. The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aima/hd_aima.htm. Accessed 28 Feb. 2023.
Paul Hindemith | German Composer | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Hindemith. Accessed 1 Mar. 2023.
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) - The Young Maid, Op.23b, 1922 - Muziekweb. https://www.muziekweb.nl/en/Link/U00000584673/CLASSICAL/Die-junge-Magd-op-23b-1922. Accessed 1 Mar 2023.
‘Pierrot Lunaire’. Wikipedia, 30 Jan. 2023. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierrot_lunaire&oldid=1136513523.
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‘The Miraculous Mandarin’. Wikipedia, 6 June 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Miraculous_Mandarin&oldid=1091869539.
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