AFTERMATH Art in the Wake of World War One at the Tate Britain
AFTERMATH
Art in the Wake of World War One
At the
Tate Britain
On the
29th July 2018
A
solitary abandoned helmet often symbolised a dead soldier, this iconic image
was used by French, British and German war artists. The Tate’s exhibition to mark the centenary
of the end of hostilities in what became known as The Great War or even “the
war to end all wars”, focuses on official and unofficial war art, meaning
depictions of the fighting on canvas or in sculpture. There are also the unofficial efforts of the
men, matchbox covers, letter openers, ash trays, money boxes made from used and
abandoned shell cases, spent cartridges and other wasted metal that surrounded
them on the battlefield. Some of these
pieces are very finely made indeed and they underline the wasted creativity,
the lives thrown into the mouth of battle, devoured and destroyed.
Following
the end of the war, for the focus of this exhibition is the aftermath, a term
derived from agriculture meaning the harvest at the end of a summer, the French
and British constructed cenotaphs, literally meaning “empty tomb”. This was meant to symbolise the unknown
soldier, the many names separated from their remains and, of course, their
loved ones. Little mention was made of
the millions of African, Asian and other colonial troops who fought on all
sides. Recovery in Germany was much
slower, and a proper national war memorial was only constructed in 1931. Before this only smaller German towns and
cities constructed their own memorials to commemorate the fallen just as
smaller French and British towns had done.
Disabled veterans were given prominence at the French commemorations,
they even led the parade of honour contrasting with their British counterparts
who ushered disabled veterans into grandstands where they would be
inconspicuous. Attempts to marginalise
the disabled were also followed by general attempts to revise the image of war,
even censorship was employed when images of war were perceived to have gone too
far.
Depictions
of wounds, disabilities and shell shock as in the medical portraits of Henry
Tonks (1862-1937) completed in 1916-17 clearly go beyond mere depictions to
become actual portraits. These were
never exhibited in the artist’s lifetime only being used for medical purposes. German post-war artists like Otto Dix
(1891-1969), Heinrich Hoerle (1895-1936) and Conrad Felixmüller (1897-1977) were
more socially committed than their French and British contemporaries and tended
also to depict the consequences of post traumatic stress disorder or shell
shock as it was known then. In Dix’s The Card Players (Kartenspieler 1920) three veterans attempt to play cards, somehow
manipulating the deck with a variety of artificial prostheses. The work has an implicit and satirical
anti-war message, but such works did not fit in with the aims of the emerging
National Socialists. Advances in
medicine such as the triage system meant that casualties were removed quickly
from the battlefield for treatment.
Thus, men who might have died of their wounds even thirty years earlier
were now saved but they had much to endure on the home front. Dix’s work Match Seller (Streichholzhändler
1920) emphasizes the pitiable treatment of veterans as they are reduced to the
most abject work and existence. Dix’s
work was exhibited under the auspices of German pacifism but his own commitment
to pacifism was ambivalent for he believed that an artist should record rather
than proselytise.
The
breakdown of traditional community and culture due to the horrific impact of
modern, mechanised warfare led to an emergent avante garde consisting of
movements such as Dada and Surrealism.
Other contemporary movements like Futurism and Vorticism had promoted
militarism or at least been ambivalent towards the impact of war. Andre Masson (1896-1987), the photographer
John Heartfield (1891-1968) and Max Ernst (1891-1976) all recorded the post-war
years, attempting to bring politicians to account, witnessing the beginnings of
a new arms race. Many were politically
committed like John Heartfield who was an active member of the Communist
Party.
Lithograph
series by Kathe Köllwitz (1867-1945), Max Beckmann (1884-1950) and Georges
Roualt (1871-1958) evoke a traditional response to propaganda for these could
be handled and viewed in the home rather than at gallery exhibitions. Köllwitz’s work War (der Krieg 1920) is
her depiction of personal suffering after her son Peter was killed at the
front. In a succession of images, stark,
bleakly contrasting, she depicts the guilt and suffering of widows and parents. Beckmann’s Hell (die Hölle 1919)
insinuates us into a Berlin which has descended into chaos and barbarism. Roualt’s lithograph series Misery of War (Miserere et Guerre 1926) uses muted religious iconography to make
its points about compassion and suffering.
The simplicity, directness and economy of the form makes it a formidable
tool of art and truth telling but not powerful enough to prevent the rise of
militarism in Germany in the post-war era.
The politicians knew that if the images scandalised and disgusted society
enough that they could still be banned under the auspices of “patriotism”.
Room
6 Return to Order explains how
artists began to adopt traditional, conservative and reactionary techniques and
views to respond to the era of reconstruction that followed the war. A familiar combination of Classicism and
Modernity is evoked in Eric Gill’s (1882-1940) sculpture Mankind (1827-8 stone).
George Clausen’s (1852-1944) The
Road, Winter Morning (1923) and Felix Vallotton’s (1865-1925) Road at St Paul (Var) (1922 both oil on
canvas) evoke the popularity of traditional depictions of the landscape on both
sides of the English Channel. Christian
apologists like Winifred Knights (1899-1947), Albert Birkle (1900-1986) and
Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) linked the post-war period with the aftermath of
apocalyptic Christian events such as the deluge or the crucifixion.
However,
in Germany social reconstruction was hindered by continuing political
instability and economic collapse.
George Grosz’s (1893-1959) drawing Toads
of Property (Die Besitztkröten
1920 ink on paper) ponders the role of war profiteers and other opportunists
who made fortunes out of human misery.
Grosz’s work Grey Day (Grauer Tag 1921 oil on canvas) records
the work of ‘The Council Official for Disabled Veterans’. The council worker’s hilariously satirical
moon face seems eerily inverted, he walks away from the grimly apathetic
disabled veteran and seems to have no conception of the war and its
consequences. The solitary worker who
meanders through the canvas does not even have a face. Reconstruction was beginning in Germany and
across the world and these images pinpoint the post-war culture of pubs and
clubs too. Artists were beginning to
look to America for examples of profound Modernist turmoil, decadence and
innovation. The skyscrapers of New York
City depicted in works like Paul Citroen’s (1896-1983) Metropolis (1923 printed paper and photographs) seem to symbolise
the youthful ambition and yearning of the new era.
Paul
Murphy, Tate Britain, July 29th, 2018
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