Expressionism and Dadaism

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian expressionist and print maker in the late 19th and early 20th century. He greatly influenced German expressionism and is most known for his painting, The Scream. When he first attended college he studied to become an engineer, but later became sick and left. He then pursued his painting career at the Royal School of Art and Design of Christania in Paris. He idolized European art from such artists as Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gaugin.  He also took a great interest in symbolism which later transitioned into expressionism which he is most notable for because of the psychological themes in his paintings which struck people's interest and emotion.

"The Scream," Edvard Munch, 1893

In the painting, The Scream, its colors are very dark and dull which is done intentionally to evoke a feeling of sadness and pain. The sky, for example, reminds me of blood which translates to suffering, and the water gives that off the fear of suffocating with no way out. The bald eyebrowless man with the hands to his face screaming portrays panic and fear of death and isolation. What made this painting even creepier were the two people standing in the back as onlookers withdrawing from helping this poor man out which further confirms how alone this screaming man really is. This man feels trapped in his own predicament without any help isolated from society. His mental state is unstable which only deepens his suffering and because of all the pain going on in this picture death is the inevitable conclusion. This conveys Nihilism by denying any type of positive emotion such as happiness, unity, life, and most of all hope. This man is dreaded by hopelessness and cannot find a solution that will help save him. This is a psychological depiction of one's mind when feeling intolerable pain. On a side note, this remarkable painting was recently sold for $119,922,500 in 2012. Four versions of this painting were finished with oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard.

"The Sick Child", Edvard Munch, 1885-86

The Sick Child is an oil painting of a distraught mother sitting beside her daughter's death bed as she holds her hand with her head down in horror. The mother clearly shows us that there is no hope left for her daughter's recovery from her fatal illness. The daughter has her head turned towards her mother yet it looks like she's either unconscious, too weak to talk, or possibly even dead. Like Edvard Munch's previous painting, The Scream, this one also conveys emotion of anguish, misery, hopelessness, and death. However, the difference in this painting is that this painting seems more real since we can see the humanly features much clearer in this one. Although, it also has very gloomy and dull colors like The Scream that represent an aura of sadness yet again. The Nihilistic theme in this painting is the worthlessness and dreary reality of a lost life. However, it is much more direct and seems more personal than The Scream because this shows a connection between people and what emotion death can cause like anger and emptiness. This lifeless eerie painting can almost be described as torture to some degree because it can relate to anyone who has lost a family member. This too is also intolerable pain, and no parent ever wants to bury their own child. The fear of outliving your child is also something to recognize. Nothing in this painting features happiness, life, or hope.

Hannah Hoch

Hannach Hoch was a German Dada artist who is most known for her work during the Weimar period. She was also one of the originators of photomontage. Before she became an iconic figure in Dadaism, she first went to school for graphics class and met a very influential artist and friend, Raoul Hausmann, a member of the Berlin Dada movement. She learned much from Hausmann and had an intimate relationship with him. When they separated she began exhibiting her work around Europe and was noticed for her most famous work, Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic, which was a collage of different pictures pasted together. She became a Dada artist because she wanted to expose the horrid truth of sexism, war, and racism during that era.

"Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic," Hannah Hoch, 1919 

In this Dada style photomontage by Hannah Hoch, it shows us the era of industrialization and militarism of imperialists. This picture was made by cutting out photos and joining them together to create an illusion of an unreal subject. The colors are mostly yellow and black to highlight the heavy machinery, metal parts, and other mass producing objects to display the power of government and strength of economy during the early 20th century. There are laborers, dancers, women and men alike, that are shown countless times which represent the foundation of war and the power of communism. The nihilistic themes in this photo revolve around Hannah Hoch's anti-war, anti-sexism, and anti-racism movement. She disregards what good any of it is doing and sees no value in it because of all the negative social and political issues it caused. The photo is chaotic to look at to say the least, and it's meant to because it characterizes the the development of unequal human rights, labor laws,  mass production, and a meaningless war. The words anti and Dada are shown a few times in the picture as well which clearly delivers Hannah Hoch's contemptuous viewpoint toward the Industrial age. Hannah sees everything during this time as a setback rather than progression for mankind. Her pessimistic perspective in this photomontage reminds us that she didn't support the transition into the new ear and found it hurtful for society which is exactly what Nihilism represents.