Art Viewing Adventures: New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit): 1920s German Art - Video

Firouzeh Nourzad joins us to discuss German art during the period between the end of World War I and the Nazi Party’s rise to power in Germany (1919-1933), which saw the birth of a new movement in art informed by the social, economical and political realities of post-war Germany. Labeled as New Objectivity, the movement rejected expressionism and did away with romanticism and emotionalism in many areas of art.

The artists approached their art from a straightforward and often sordid point of view. Footprints of New Objectivity could be seen in a variety of artistic genres in that period of time: visual arts, photography, architecture, film, and literature. Otto Dix, Max Bechmann, George Grosz and August Sander were amongst the many prominent artists in this field. The movement ended in 1933 when Hitler and his National Socialists party came to power and declared such works of art as “degenerate art.”