This painting shows a fashionable lady from the late 1920s in mourning. \u00a0She is wearing a black coat with grey fur, a hat and a black veil. The striking realism of the painting is typical for the post-expressionist movement in Germany at that time. This new realism in art is called “Neue Sachlichkeit” or “New Objectivity”.<\/p>\n
Rather than some goal of philosophical objectivity, it was meant to imply a turn towards practical engagement with the world, an all-business attitude, understood by Germans as intrinsically American: “The\u00a0Neue Sachlichkeit\u00a0is Americanism, cult of the objective, the hard fact, the predilection for functional work, professional conscientiousness, and usefulness.”<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Nazi\u00a0authorities condemned much of the work of the New Objectivity as “degenerate art” and many artists went into exile\u00a0after the Nazis seized power in 1933.\u00a0The painter Martin Mendgen, though,\u00a0fell for the official art of the Third Reich and became an ardent disciple of German propaganda.<\/p>\n
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This painting shows a fashionable lady from the late 1920s in mourning. \u00a0She is wearing a black coat with grey fur, a hat and a black veil. The striking realism of the painting is typical for the post-expressionist movement in Germany at that time. This new realism in art is called “Neue Sachlichkeit” or “New … Continue reading Lady In Mourning<\/span>