Between Wars

The movement that came about known as Dadaism, is a movement that developed in rebellion of World War I.  In this movement of art you no longer see the formal elements of art being used, in fact most of the work made in this time period was intentionally made to not make sense.  Due to the horrors experienced from the war a lot of what people thought made sense no longer did, in fact the things that didn't make sense is what actually made sense during this movement.  As you can see in George Grosz's piece of art called Victim of Society, it depicts a man being shaven by a razor.  Along with many of the abstract elements such as the patch work done to construct the face and the question mark and bagel to form the top of the head and hair, dada art had no real structure.  Most art made during this period had a message within the art.  This piece of art I think was trying to give us the idea that people didn't think much for themselves and were groomed into what the media or society wanted us to be.  The question mark taking the place of the top of the head where the brain would be and the razor as if it was grooming someone gave me this idea, as if to say people weren't sure what to think and they were what society made them to be.  Along with this style came may others in the 1900's including modernism.  In the online lecture we are shown pieces by Jacob Lawrence from his Migration series.  Lawrence was inspired by Goya, Dormier, and Orozco along with many events such as the Harlem renaissance and the history of African Americans.  In this series it depicts blacks struggling and fighting against oppression and also working and educating themselves.  He was heavily influenced by European Modernist with his excellent use of color, flat space and pattern.  The thing I found especially interesting about these painting were the colors used.  The intensity of the colors bring emotion to these pieces, whether it shows struggle, empowerment, or hard work the color brought those emotions to life in this series.

George Grosz's "Victim of Society"