Berlin, circa 1921: The painter Hans Richter turns his talents to film and produces one of the earliest abstract films, Rhythmus 21. Clocking in at just over three minutes, it's a significant departure from the newsreels, romances, cliff-hangers, and penny-dreadfuls that made up the bulk of film production in the early ’20s—the first decade in which the film industry began to play a major economic and cultural role around the world. [more inside]
posted by scody
on Jun 14, 2011 -
9 comments
Artist
John Heartfield was one of those who recognized the threat of Nazism early on. Remarkably, he created his
anti-fascist art inside Germany, until 1933 when Hitler came to power. He continued to pointedly satirize the Reich (and those who made it possible, as his bitter image of the League of Nations illustrates) from exile in Czechoslovakia. The nature of his work makes it very clear that Hitler's goals and intentions were obvious well before the war. (
via)
posted by CheeseDigestsAll
on May 10, 2009 -
30 comments
DADA Hits the MOMA. DaDaism was an art movement that arose prior to the rubble of WW1 where the
artists led a creative revolution that shaped the course of modern art by combining different mediums to create a message of protest and hope.
The MOMA exhibit tells one story
(scroll to data and select full program - req flash 7) and the New Yorker
reaffirms the influence on art today. However, the real story is with
Richard Huelsenbeck, the ring leader and founder of the DaDa movement An
interview with him from December 1960 (45 mins mp3) explains the start - as one of the few German artists in protest to the war. My favourite part is where he tells of picking out the name DaDa from an encyclopedia at a cabaret.
posted by Funmonkey1
on Jul 19, 2006 -
23 comments
I was wandering around the internets looking for early twentieth century ephemera and look what I found.
Digital Dada Library
“This page provides links to some of the major Dada-era publications in the International Dada Archive. These books, pamphlets, and periodicals are housed in the Special Collections Department of the University of Iowa Libraries. …Each document has been scanned in its entirety.”
EphemeraNow “is a family-friendly Web site dedicated to the commercial art of mid-century America.”
The Ephemera Society “is a non-profit body concerned with the collection, preservation, study and educational uses of printed and handwritten ephemera.”
and more!
For those of you who have complained that this place is getting too “US politics-filter” I give you
Glasgow Digital Library Collections which has all sorts of stuff including a great
history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932
posted by Grod
on Oct 26, 2004 -
10 comments
The University of Iowa, of all unlikely places, maintains the
International Dada Archive. I suppose someone had to try, since almost no one understands it. There you can not only view images, but download PDFs—page by page, unfortunately—of
many Dadaist publications. Most of them are in various non-English languages, but still worth looking at just for the visual design.
And yes, the urinal is there, but you'll have to find it yourself.
[via
Consumptive]
posted by Su
on Mar 17, 2002 -
8 comments
