New Objectivity
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The New Objectivity, or neue Sachlichkeit (new matter-of-factness), was an art movement which arose in Germany during the 1920's as an outgrowth of, and in opposition to, expressionism. The term is applied to works of pictoral art, literature, music, and architecture. The end of New Objectivity came at the end of the Weimar Republic as the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler seized power in 1933.
Franz Roh (1925) listed the differences:
| Expressionism | Post-Expressionism |
| ecstatic objects | plain objects |
| many religious themes | few religious themes |
| the stifled object | the explanatory object |
| rhythmic | representative |
| arousing | engrossing |
| dynamic | static |
| loud | quiet |
| summary | sustained |
| obvious | obvious and enigmatic... |
| monumental | miniature |
| warm | cool to cold |
| thick coloration | thin layer of color |
| roughened | smooth, dislodged |
| like uncut stone | like polished metal |
| work process preserved | work process effaced |
| leaving traces | pure objectification |
| expressive deformation of objects | harmonic cleansing of objects |
| rich in diagonals | rectangular in frame |
| often acute-angled | parallel |
| working against the edges of image | fixed within edges of image |
| primitive | civilized |
- (Kaes et al, 1994)
The New Objectivity is similar to neoclassicism, and compared to expressionism, is realism. Painters include George Grosz and Otto Dix, and also Max Beckmann. Composer Paul Hindemith may be considered both a New Objectivist and an expressionist, depending on the composition, throughout the 1920s.
In architecture as in painting and literature, New Objectivity describes German work of the transitional years of the early 1920s in the Weimar culture. In particular, it describes the stripped-down, simplified building style of the Bauhaus, the urban planning and public housing projects of Bruno Taut and Ernst May like the Weissenhof settlement, and the industrialization of the household typified by the Frankfurt kitchen.
External link
- Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) Image Library (http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/styles/NeueSachlichkeitNewObjectivity.html)
Source
- Kaes et al., eds (1994). The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, p.493. Berkeley: University of California Press. Cited in:
- Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226012670.