English 3554E Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Ludwig Meidner, In Parenthesis, War Artist
15 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
War portrayed as a virtually ungovernable force. Winning comes at such a horrific cost. Central powers lost 7-8 million (without civilian casualties) 1st half of the war was treated like a 19th century war (horses), as if technology was just additive (tanks, guns). Produces anxiety of life, mortality, strength, soldiers masculinity. Had a nervous breakdown mid-composition in 1931 from his memories of the war. Modernism: assumption that it"s a reaction to ww1, reflected in art. People were terrified by the war and it lead them to the modernist aesthetic. Painting shows an air raid but they didn"t exist yet. During ww1, 1918, british, this is a new world . Canada/britain commissioned war artists to represent events. 2 vanishing points (spot of orientation), by having 2 there is a disruption of space, disorientation. In such a landscape, sunrise and sunset are blasphemous . War reduces man to insect, machine, slave. The farther from the center, the more human it looks.
