German art of the twentieth century

This book examines the most influential esthetic theories and the sallent artists of the past fifty years in Germany. Painting, sculpture, and prints have each been separately chronicled by an outstanding authority.
Ever since the first group of German expressionists was formed in Dresden in 1905, Germany has played a vital role in the development of modern art. In this survey each successive stage is discussed and is related to the catire scheme of European achievement.
Beginning with Lovis Corinth, modern German painters have shown a predilection for vehement expression and for certain romantic attitudes very different from the Sahool of Paris. The current of extreme emotion formed by loder sohn-Becker, Rohlfs, and Nolde was more systematcally elaborated in the work of the Brücke community of artists the Blue Rider group, led by Kandinsky and Mar and later joined by Klee, tempered their experiments with a new formalism and profound spirituality.
Dr. Haftmann’s interpretation of Kandinsky is illuninat ing tracing his first non-objective paintings of 1910 back to the Jugendstil and turn-of-the-century symbolism. He analyses such subsequent developments as Kokoschka’s ballucinating realism; the disenchantment and desper ation which followed the first world war, so briliantly satirized by Grosz and Dix, the imaginative playfulness of Ernst and Schwitters which foretold Surrealism, the power. ful allegories of Beckmann, and finally the combination of science, dedicated craft ideals, and personal mysticism of the Bauhaus. In conclusion he considers the more recent reputations of Winter, Werner, and Nay.