1914 The Avant-Gardes at War | Kat. Bundeskunsthalle Bonn

A big review in the anniversary year

Due to the unprecedented use of technology and materials, the First World War is considered the "primal catastrophe of the 20th century", a century whose moral low point was to be the National Socialist policy of war and extermination. But the worlds that collapsed in 1914, when 70 million soldiers in Europe, Africa and Asia went to war, which subsequently cost the lives of 17 million people - these worlds had already become fragile in the years before, and quite a few writers, musicians and artists had long since grown weary of them and therefore, like many of their fellow citizens, cheered the outbreak of war. Franz Marc summarised this zeitgeist - in line with countless statements by his contemporaries - as follows: "In our era of the great struggle for the new art, we are fighting as 'savages', unorganised people against an old, organised power. The battle seems unequal; but in intellectual matters, it is never numbers but the strength of ideas that wins." However, the exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn and the catalogue carefully edited by curator Uwe M. Schneede do not just bring together the well-known sources and protagonists, but go a decisive step further by tracing the transmission processes in the international art movements of the time. How did they get into, through and out of the war? What remained, how were the avant-gardes transformed or reshaped and became the starting point for a completely new self-image in art? What intermediate steps can be traced, under what historical conditions and what is the relationship between Expressionism, Cubism, Dadaism and other competing concepts of art up until the 1930s? This enormous, one could almost say: human-historical cultural step, which led the 20th century through all its ups and downs, is presented in a variety of ways using works, photographs and personal testimonies. A minor sensation is the fact that almost all of the protagonists had themselves photographed in uniform in their studios - although some of the paintings that can be seen on the walls in the background of these photos are also shown in the book and in the exhibition.

Works in the exhibition by: Jean Arp, Roberto Marcello Iras Baldessari, Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Carlo Carrà, Lovis Corinth, Robert Delaunay, Otto Dix, Marcel Duchamp, Raoul Dufy, Heinrich Ehmsen, Conrad Felixmüller, André Fraye, August Gaul, Albert Gleizes, Natalia Goncharova, Walter Gramatté, George Grosz, Otto Gutfreund, Raoul Hausmann, Erich Heckel, Richard Huelsenbeck, Willy Jaeckel, Marcel Janco, Alexej von Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, Käthe Kollwitz, Alfred Kubin, František Kupka, Fernand Léger, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Aristarkh Lentulov, Max Liebermann, August Macke, Vladimir Majakovsky, Kasimir Malevich, Franz Marc, André Mare, Frans Masereel, Ludwig Meidner, Jean Metzinger, Gabriele Münter, Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, Emil Nolde, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Hans Richter, Luigi Russolo, Egon Schiele, Gino Severini, Max Slevogt, Jacob Steinhardt, Franz von Stuck, Vladimir Tatlin, Leon Underwood, Henry Valensi, Theo van Doesburg, Édouard Vuillard, Albert Weisgerber, Ossip Zadkine

Exhibition:
Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, 8/11/2013 - 23/2/2014