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Fig.2 Otto DixThe Horror of the City, 1918Das Grausen der StadtBlack chalk and tusche39.8 x 39.3 cmPrivate Collection

Grosz exposed the pr imal-catastrophic aspect of themass spectacle of war in an impenetrable chaos ofl ines which bound and entwined the schematic formsof men. The metropol is was not a place where theaggressions released by war could be control led. onthe contrary, i t was only here that the trauma of thebatt lef ield erupted in panic-r idden massacres.

Dada's perception of contemporary media

ln Grosz'and Heartfield's Lile and Living in UniversalCity at Five Past Noon (ca. 1920, fig. a), the dense net-work of l ines becomes concrete through a staccatomontage of advert is ing, f i lm, and magazine images.TThe "roaring" quotat ions of the montage replace theoanicked mass scream of Pandaemonium and becomethe masses' mouthpiece. The "actual" f inds i ts wayinto the picture. After the war, the phantasmagoria ofthe advert is ing and f i lm industr ies, especial ly theAmerican ones, gr ipped the metropol is. Typif ied ci tydwel lers, as character ized by Grosz' pen, stand outfrom the chaos of l ines in the middle of the montagel ike dregs amid the whir l of the ci ty. Whi le the montagereleases the din of the mater ial world, the drawingmutely consol idates the apocalypt ic panic, hardness,and indi f ference of c i ty dwel lers ' physiognomies; thereis also fear in their distorted faces. Sherlock Holmes

Fig. 3 George GroszPandaemonium, 19'15-191 6Pen and ink47 x 30.5 cmPrivate Collection

mixes among these types, that c lue-seeking detect ivewith whom Grosz ident i f ied, having a stake in the busi-ness of the city but successfully avoiding participation.

The tension between montage and drawing makes i t

clear how the montage formally threatens to devour thedrawing. The latter's subjective expressiveness is out-done by the r ichness of media and opt ical st imul i .Drawing is no longer given the chance to evoke theemotions concentrated in the center of v ibrattng l ines.This contrast between drawing and montage illustratesHugo Bal l 's insight into "mass cul ture":

And when a further destruct ive, threateningelement-the mass culture of the modern bigci ty- joined the despair ing search for neworder for a shattered world, individual l i fedied, melody died. A single impression meantnothing any more. lnterwined thoughts andobservations crowded in on the brain, a sym-phony of emotions. Machines arose and took

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Fig. 5 George Grosz'Patriotic lnstruction' (for the Background portfolio), 1928'Ein bisschen gut zureden' (zur Hintergrund Mappe)Brush and ink over charcoal47.3 x65.4 cmEstate of George Grosz, Princeton, N.J.

remark that she had never seen an artist draw as fastas George Grosz. Even during his student years, Groszpracticed quick drawing with five-minute figure studies.A1924film called Creative Hands [Schaffende Hände]by Hans Cürlis deals with Grosz' drawing. Grosz nevergave up drawing during the Dada period, always usingmontage elements in contrast with drawn ones, or

drawn ones to contradict one another: an impersonallydrawn l ine versus one drawn with emotion or used in

a caricaturizing form. In Grosz' portfolio With Brushand Scissors (1920), one can follow his progress fromwork to work, as he slowly suppressed all traces of the"actual," the ci tat ions in montage as wel l as the emo-t ional or car icatural l ine, in favor of the impersonalrat ional depict ion which alone showed an engineer 'saesthetic. This portfolio was his attempt to reach a newdefini t ion of the art ist 's standpoint, approximating theengineer 's non-aesthet ic one. Ult imately, this was theviewpoint which Meidner had tried to express as earlyas 1913/14, referring to artists as the "contemporaries

of engineers."ts Beyond the "straight line," pittura

metafisica gave artists further aesthetic means for

expressing these posit ions radical ly and consistent lyin their art .

Sachlichkeit-an apotropaic attitude?

With the pencil drawing Wild West Scene (cat. no' 94,ill. p.132), among others, Rudolf Schlichter also reacted

to the chal lenge of urban media and the Americaniza-t ion of cul ture. The romantic iz ing archaicism of thisdrawing's subject stands in some contrast to the city'smodernity, but cont inues to refer to i t . "What are thedangers of the jungle and prair ie, compared with the

shocks and everyday conflicts of our civilization?"wrote Baudelaire, one of the f i rst modernist urbanApaches. "Whether man snares his victim on the boul-evard or spears it in obscure forests, does he notremain the eternal human, i .e. , the most perfect beastof prey?"16 For artists who aspired to a realistic point

of view, the metropolis was an asphalt jungle of crude-ness, hardness, depravity - a forest of opinions, mediaand competition, where they had to assert themselvesin combat.

The metropolis, moreover, like the Wild West, was anadventurous contrast to these artists' youthf ul provin-

cial ism. The ci ty was more pr imal and violent thanprovincial nature, which was characterized in theirminds by phi l ist in ism and narrow-mindedness. Themetropol is and the Wild West, American jazz imports,the gold rush, American westerns, Karl May novels andpulp-fiction books-all of this had fused since the timeof their youth into a popular myth of an urban contrastto provincial order, morality tricked out with a bit ofChristianity, and the Western value system. The mod-ern urban Apache escaped state control; the labyrinthof houses, passages, cellars, and backyards was his

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oz,,'oJnluonpe fuepuebel e 1oqflu aOuerls e olut slsalol ur0lln s,ecrreury 1o Är1aodaql qlm pe6reu p;ronn s,teu0eM ,paaput le6nlep srqlpolt^lns qcuoll Mol e pup reuDepl Ä;ug ,.sue6rqoy1alrUeM 1o uennOrnn aql ut oIBUS lpaje , eq11o pltom 6ur-6leute Älmau srql ol lxou ocejl p lnoqltM lues petrnbcepeq | ]eq] uotlecnpa lectsselc lo ajots aloqM oql,,'arnllnc utelsaM Jo slutejlsuoc 6urleur;qns eql lsure6euorsset66e pue Älreueluods ,sseuenrso;dxe

le1^ polp^-rlce qfiu Ectloulv eq1 u;.,,.uorldocuoc pue uotlcnjlsap1o eueb euosen:6 aq] ul Älrlensuas 6urutnq puelsnOsrp 6urqcler 'Ä1;entc pue ÄqledulÄs ,alrsep

lo loelpue oJtsap Jo punoi alqu.tol aql olutJlaseuo rnorqg Ä;uoplnoc ouo 'lt o^oqe llasouo 6urllnd ou seM oloqf,,:a1rl lo eepr uelsÄuotC 'cllstlelt^ s,Jolqctlr.{cs s}callo.lauacs tseAA pl4 Ournnelp er.{l u! umoqs }q6l} oql

'oltl ssejdal pue ssajd-dns leql srennod aql lle lo Molqpo^o aql tol eL,,,llo^o)pue uo\ecoAud )ol osle lnq ,uotlectxolut .to uotsla^tpro1 Ä1uo Äse1ue1 slr.ll to toue;O oql jollo tou op Äeqlpue :]uaulltllnl lo sotseluel pue seqstm aletodrocurlnq 'osnul a^tleldLuoluoc aLll ol lcafqns lou ole uotlctl-dlnd 1o sulnl pup slst4 aql,, ,1r lnd qcolg lsujf seJoJ 'lsoM lel oql lo q/u aql ut uo pontl qctLlM u,,'alll1eer0 e rol sOuol ot.lM olnleolc pesselddns oql lo treejppozrlpuiolxo,, oql lo soceJl eq1 panstnd xtO pue zso.lC'relqcrlqcg 'e;6unI upqln oq] 1o uorlcr;-d1nd eql lspruly

'ecuepuedeput pue ,oOe ,1cur1sul uo6urÄ;a.r lalclql eql q6nolql Äenn srq peqspls ep .e16unt

21

P / , t 4| , , "1t" I

t tFig.6 Kar l HubbuchThe Madman's Delirium, ca. 1922lm Rausch des lrrensLithograph45.3 x 61.2 cm

ing grounds of an eccentr ic urban hel l , ly ing in wait atthe scenes of madness, desire, and cr ime. The penci lshaded this hel l , giv ing i t the blackness and plast ic i tyof night, but s imultaneously the sober sharpness ofclear insights which can occur suddenly after intoxi-cated nights-hence the drast ic contrasts of l ight anddark tones in the drawings (f ig. 6). In i ts demands onthe faculty of abstract ion, the ci ty 's object iv i ty i tsel f ledto an unrestrained sensual glut tony as a complementof th is rat ional ist ic endeavor, wi th the eccentr ic"experiencing" having pr ior i ty over content of theexperience. This urban unleashing of the senses toreHubbuch into disi l lusionment to the point o{ excessand instabi l i ty.

ln Berlin and Departure (1922,ti7.7), we see the artistmaking his hect ic departure from the provinces. Look-ing around with a gaze of fearful ant ic ipat ion, he dis-misses the famil iar objects of everyday surroundings,the props of social stability such as bread, laundry, tiledstove, cuckoo clock, a crate of drawings. The journey'suncertainty is condensed into the melancholy of arrival.Si t t ing to the side, he observes catastrophies, prof i -teers, suicides, prost i tutes, and the mass of humanitywith melancholy brooding. In the ci ty - di f ferent fromgemütl ich, provincial , cuckoo-clock t ime - Chronos,disguised as a var iety act, { logs his horses, whi le thepatron who makes this tr ip possible is shown direct lyover the seated f igure of the art ist . The money in the

0urloordn lsureOe llesLutq lcelord ol peLl rellerrnp Äyceql qcrqM qynn Älrlenlcollolut ueq.ln oql1o ecueyodruroql tO6L se Ä;tea se pezrseqdulo peq 'ÄLuou6orsÄqdupqrn aql lo luopnls pue lsrOolorcos 'lauJrüls 6roeg

'eloL{M ct}oPqceq1le 6ur>1ool uoll auo slcelotd sltelap eql le 6ur1oo1:asuolep lo lce ue se poluasoJd sr ;;es1r 0urnnelp lo sso-cold oqt sz,," "po^lnc oql ol uotlelol ut outl 1qOrer1s eql6ururquloc ;o 'aceds Ourprnrp 1o 'Ourueyoqseto;;o 6ur-lool In!opuom lelll r.llrm ecelins eql qOnotql0urleatq'r.ule ue '6e1 y 'lcefqo aq1lo Ä1uo lult,1l l'' slpa} Ätc louop 1,, :oo] uorlceoJ s,uueutlcog ut leolc sauocoq stqf'suorlouro 'serqoqd 'sree;1sure0e llasu sptrO uorlenras-qo JoqoS 'ursredorlode up saulocoq polcell ste0uepslr pue pa^Jasqo sr Ä1lc eq1 LlclqM qlrnn Ä1rnrlca[qo eq-.1

tz,,'Äep Ärene e;uels elotu llasll0ur>1eu sr 1r 'Älrnr1ce altllue slLll lle qltM 'qliea uo Ä1rcsnoulsnpur Ä;1ue6rlrp ]soul or.{l 'ut lleslt 6ul66rp pue 6ut-Ä11'6urnup'0ur1lervr'slnol llp uo 0ur;nnetc,,'qcnqqnH loÄrerod ualuoc e' lpt ul r.,lcsplog suollV elolm,,' uotsuoul

uMoulun uotlecolulca0zxg6z

a s s e) I s tl o t J p a, 1 p u r, " 6,, iliz;?t

ZZ6l 'esserlsrlclrpeUJ pue ta1rzdrel Jo reutoC aql uOqcnqqnH lrey g'6r3

-rp fuene ur 0urnou srÄ1rc eq1,, 'uorlcalord ollltlsJolloacuo; pieoq oqf 'Ilemapts oql uo ueulsaped aql 6ur-uoteeiq] 'dell ;eururrrc ')lep e e1r1 sade6 'splofecs puesuoddns qlrm q6norql poutuiel 'qpea palootdn ,pe1en

-ecxa oqf 'Ä1rc eq11o Äpoq eq] 6upnlul pue burrnonepsenn Äennqns aLll Moq 'sOurqcle lo souas e ro; Äpn1s esp auop '(e '6ll 'ZZ6l) assettsqctrporrJ pue ta6tzdrc1p rauJoC aql uO Durnnetp stq ut pomoqs qcnqqnH

'polleuol Ä1s1oqcn1 e7,,'6ur6pnq ]noqlt^olcllo e ur 6ul;1nd sl ]l lpt.ll sootlou Jo^au pue - oqJo^erua^ Jts - elclto leuiola up punol Upc slt sllnd ftrc srql'Morq pollur.lm t{llM,, 'ssarOo.rd leoutl pue fil1r1n 'y1ordo1 e6epuoq s,eu11 lsureOe pue rennod ,souoJt.lC lsurebessouolpr pue uopoloq q6nolql slselotd aq pue ,aujtl

lueubels se Ä1rnr1ce ctlcor..l aql lle ezruOocet uec tolel-cads Äloqcuelou allf ftrc eql lo lou;oc 1se; Ätene olur(uruelueg te1leg) ,,otutl snouo6ouroq 'Ätdure,, sat;jecurerl aql 'uorlels uteJl laln saqcsalleH eL|} lo auop or.l}pup souoJr.lC ol spuodsalloc etnlcrd or.1l lo toluec oql ulurerl oqf ol!l sll 6urlerluelsqnsep Ä1rc oq] lo Mel er.lt seu6ra: ;euostedur s,1r1old lo Jopul.lo.t e st pueq s,uotled

uMoulun uotlecolui3 9z x g'ee

elrqdetgastarqv pun utueg

zz,6l'aJnuedeQ pue u uroaqcnqqnH pey 7'6t1

\q/.{ 'äp

*.5 i'i:i l\;r

..:.,-.it

23

and try to counter congest ion and closeness, ci tylife's destablizing effect.zg For he felt that the romantic"1" stood l i t t le chance of survival , exhaust ing i tsel famidst the urban chaos in ever more exalted attemptsat sel f assert ion unt i l i t became blasd. Simmel con-trasted this endangered "1" with the myth of the ci ty 's"funct ional body," which would "reconci le the con-tradiction between individual people and their environ-ment, which had now become abstract."go But eventhis myth was colored by what it opposed. As GertMattenklott has observed, it was "also a mystification,. . . a hypernatural ism whose object iv i ty. . . . remainedthoroughly related to post-romantic currents. lt appearsin the pair ing of [Stefan] George and Simmel, just astwo decades later in the constellation of surrealism andNeue Sachlichkeit."31

The attempt to represent urban chaos objectively thusimmediately includes meeting i ts chal lenge and mas-ter ing the fears and traumas ar is ing from the war 'supheaval. Beckmann's angular, decisive strokes-his"crystal clear lines and surfaces"32 - record his strug-gle and strain to "grasp the gruesome, twitching mon-

'rr: , ': ',.. '1 ,r ', ' ' i

ster of vitality." The need to overcome the destructivedynamic of what had occurred ("once again stabi l i ty,reconstruct ion, funct ional i ty. . ."os; l ies also in Grosz'emphasis on achieving "control of l ine and form."

The artists had in common their desire to meet the chal-lenge of real i ty and their real ism, understood f i rst of al las an attitude - even if from different ooints of view:for Beckmann, as love of one's fel low man, for Dix, asan affirmation of human expressions, for Grosz, as acynical statement of man's immutable ugl iness.

In contrast to Dada's individual-anarchistic understand-ing of the present, their understanding of t ime wastransformed into an historical category. Time left itstraces. The burden of memory, the apocalypse of war,weighed heavi ly. They wanted to show injury - forBeckmann as passion, for Dix as perplexi ty, for Groszas cynical defense. At a t ime when the ci ty uncon-sciously taught obl iv ion both in a sober l i festyle and athirst for pleasure, drawing recorded in all clarity thesemodes of suppression, and saw itself also as persist-ent evidence of the way in which this society was try-ing to erase its own memory, the processes of mortality,and death, rationalizing itself in a permanent, objectiveway, and marginal iz ing those who appeared as wit-nesses: the art ists. In their drawings, the art ists -especial ly Dix - succeeded above al l in showing themarks of t ime on bodies and physiognomies, andestabl ishing a contrast between the pr ivate, t ransientnature of the body and its objective social depiction.

, , i . ' , .d, : t ' l

Fig. 9 George GroszThe Workman's Holiday (trom the 'God With Us'

portfolio), 1920Licht und Luft dem Proletariat (aus der Mappe

'Gott Mit Uns')Photolithograph48 x 38.7 cmHarvard University Art Museums (Fogg Art Museum),Purchase - George R. Nutter Fund

Passersby - a'tinema of odious types"

The ci ty in Grosz' car icatures and urban scenes con-denses into an upside-down world which has lost itssalvat ion, where violence determines the urban phys-iognomy. After the fai lure of the revolut ion in 1919, thesea of houses became an exi t less pr ison. The feel ingof inevi tabi l i ty was shown with the sparest l ines in thedrawing Workman's Holiday (fig. 9). Grosz' choice ofmotif was inspired by Dor6's prison view Newgate Exer-cise Yard:( f ig. 10) but he ' rat ional ized' the scene unt i lonly precise contours remained. This scene of thesupervised walk round the prison courtyard once againbecame timely in 1933. Oskar Nerlinger, watching withthe objective eye of Argus from a watchtower, drew chil-dren as a teacher drilled them around a schoolyard (fig.11). The watchful overhead vantage-point, to be under-stood as both overview and supervision, characterizesthe violence which fol lowed from that sober period.Grosz, Hubbuch. Schl ichter - and in a sense GustavWunderwald and Grossberg too - tried to reveal in

:rz6l ul sojnlecuec stq lo aloj^ zsojg 'soutMelps,ualpltqc to ol^ls oql pue e6en6ue;-etnlld aldtllsol IcBq rlceai ol ulq pal elqlssod se reolc se 6ureqlo uotluolut srg 'elnlsod pue Äuou6orsÄqd s,Uaq3ur ta1tnqurcl) aql aleq prel zsolC Moq lo Äeldsrp fue;d-uroxa ue sr (1;.1- 'd '11 'gt 'ou 'lec 'tZ6t) uaql ttc4po4J6urnnelp aqt iadÄl cr;rcads-sselc E olut ocpl lenpt^tpulue Ourlcefo.rd 1o pelsrsuoc 6urnne:p;o sseco.rd ,zsoje

'pMoJc uelrlod-orlotl Äsnq e ol wntuowaepued lo sosseuj leutud'orloeL{c oL{} acnpal pue lotlal enr6 o1 papuo}ut ,6uuepto

1e lduape ue se uaos oq plnoLls so;nJectJpc asoql la^'(OOt 'd '|l'?V 'ou '1ec) (uletsutf 1re3) ,,sadÄ1 snorpolo euoutc,, e 'Älercos lo Mat^ ,zsole 1o erpedolcÄcuesnoaueluelsut ue ut oJaL{ lau 1;e - Ä6:e;c eq11e0to1ol lou 'slst;eltlu.l 'slopuo^ r.{c}eu ,sueuele;otd ,s1sr;e-uorleu ueulae pue sautlstltqd ,e1n1rlsoid pue elddrrc'Licrl pue tood :suer:lsepad se Jaqlo qcea olur uei Äaql

(lsef) utllag 'sUV ro Äuuapecywc09xzL

elrqder0 pue etaduel '1ured talledgpqlnqcs reo

gg6y'pteÄlooqcs aqJ_ra6ur;lep te>1sg 11 '613

ereg 'sedÄ1 Duuegrp oqt lol punol6 uourrloc 6ur6ue;-leqc e sp loalls oq] asoqc aH .o^tle se sadÄl aseqlÄeryod o1 pebeuetu lltls zsole lellennp Ä1rc 1o sedÄ1snoup^ aql lo selnlpcuec str.l papocold - pelroldxeaJoLll 'sJoltoloxo aJaL{ - qUOM struouoco pue sselco1 6urptocce eldoed 0urzuo6elec lo

,uotlcejlsqe lo

sseco.rd lenlcollolut ue lt uo^l tot^eL{aq pue ocuotcs-uoc s,upr.t.t o1 11 0ur1e;er 'uotleztleuotlel lo acJol snou-Äuoue oql peztueunq 'salnleotJec stq ut ,zsolC

le^

rs,,'uotlectltoj str.l Jo lcnpold seÄ;eueu 'unnpoul 1nde3,, e se (qcogg esetqdered o1)uMoqs senn 'Ä]rc eql o1 anbrun Älrsorueu ctlcoq eq] lleqlrnn leur;rag eq1 ,fuetluoc aql uO .ssautloltl enrs;ndu.rr;o uOrs e lou sBM ssauolep-ol-dn s,ul;lag ,s,,.smpl pueslcel luaueul:ed,, uo poseq Äulouoca ue qltm Älercos elem lo soeqc aql rage lue.redde oulecoq Älercos 6uluorl-cunl Jo sluelsuoc OurÄllepun oql lerll lualxo aql ol pall-rr1ed sadecspuel ueqrn rlor.{l'(tgL pue 602 dd 'ttt ,gOpue 0t 'sou 'lpc '1c) solrlod pup 'scLuouoca ,le1rdec;o

6ur16ue1ue poztleuotlel Älqbno.roq1 pue poztlejcneotnqe lo lno nnal6 qcrqnn ocuolot^ oqt oslp lnq ,acualot^

lecrylod Ä;uo 1ou utUag lo smotA lellnou ,,,enr1calqo,,

6urnetOuapoonla1e6ua111 sneqlqcnz wt 6ue6pp1

(7291 'uopuol 'ptoilof preqcueiA pue aro1 e^etsngÄq ebew6p4 V'uopuol wo4) ptel estctexl-apbne1r1

eJoO o^elsng jalle upstd 0t .6!J

vz

25

In order to achieve a style which would thusreproduce the drast ic, unadorned hardnessand unsent imental i ty of my subjects, I stud-ied the immediate manifestat ions of the artinst inct: I copied folk lor ic drawings in toi letstal ls, which seemed to me the most immedi-ate expression and direct translatton of strongfeel ings. Chi ldren's drawings also inspired meto this kni fe-sharp style of drawing, which Irequired to transmit my observations, dictatedat that t ime by absolute misanthropy.ae

Hate became the active imoetus for observation andcaricature, with Grosz revert ing in part to a languageof types which even Bruegel had used as a cr i t icalmethod of showing social abuses: for example, the fatcapital ist is a descendant of the f leshy glutton done inby his own greed and avarice, whose obesity laid himopen to r idicule-narrow forehead, pinched mouth,bull's neck, and dull, small eyes characterized this type.Caricatures of the fat clergyman not only exposed thecontempt and disregard for the church's highest law,moderat ion. In the context o{ Prussian 'moral mi l i ta-r ism, ' they also struck at conformity with the war-mongering government of Wilhelm l l , who tr ied tojustify his power politics in World War I as worldly exec-utor of the divine Last Judgement, under the slogan"God With Us." Grosz contrasted this f leshiness withthe poverty of the proletar iat , using the tradi t ionalantithetical pairing of thick and thin to show class differ-ences. Grosz used deformities and ugliness to lay bareGerman phi l ist in ism. Ugl iness had been associatedwith sins and l ies since the Middle Ages, interpretedas God's judgement on the heathen world of the devi l ,disbel ief , and depravi ty; Grosz seized on the "moral iz-ing" of the aesthet ic which this impl ied, though with-out sharing the Christ ian world-view. He made himselfboth plaint i f f and judge along Marxist-social ist l ines.

Grosz also reinstituted the symbolism of death and hell,which he connected with the growing power of the mi l i -tary. In addit ion to recal l ing the lethal v iolence of war,death symbol ism in the ci ty was also used in thoseplaces, where the phantasmagoria of c i ty l i fe was re-vealed as empty, vain and futile. The metaphor of deathwas especial ly l inked to the appearance of prost i tutes.In sel f-portrai ts o{ both Dix and Grosz from the earlytwent ies, woman, death, and the ci ty permeate thescenes (cf . f ig. 12).zt 1n many of the social ly cr i t icalartists'works, the metropolis was presented as a prosti-tuted body which had traded itself to the market forfinancial gain, offered its flesh and spirit to the businessof cul ture and advert is ing, and sold i ts language as a"whore of the press" (W. Mehring). The demonic,

Fig.12 Otto DixSelf-Portrait with Death, 1921Selbstbildnis mit TodGraohite43.5 x 35 cmCourtesy Serge Sabarsky Gallery

seductive effect of the whore of Babylon played a rolein these oictures.sa

The process of caricature involved not only exaggera-t ion and overstatement, but also an oversimpl i fy ingreduct ion. Linear signs were employed which seethewith harsh aggressivity, often looking like sketchy, hate-ful notes, not lacking in impulsiveness. But for al l that,i t seems to have been an impotent hatred which in-spired these drawings in Grosz. The bloody suppres-sion of the 1919 revolut ion weighed heavi ly on themetropol is, so that in some images (cf . f ig. '13), stat ichorizontals, not dynamic diagonals, were used to depictclass conf l icts, which were apparent ly seen as some-thing f ixed. Furthermore, poor and r ich were shownequal ly as Saturn's chi ldren. The proletar iat wasdenied sensory pleasures for f inancial reasons, whi lethe r ich, who could afford them, were not cul t ivatedenough to appreciate them. The hatefulness with whichGrosz laid bare this gluttonous crudity of the senseswas itself the constant evidence that everyone wasdeprived of sensual pleasure. To Grosz the aesthete,

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'olonoc paleos 'laslctr.1l e Äq 1q6u eq] uo peqctpM'uolsoUeqC aql 0urcuep Älrddeq aJdnoc e Äq peronccosr roluac asoqm 'elnlcrd oql Jo Ual eq] ol pupq zzel eÄq perueduoccp acuep e ur yed 6urye1 st ueulom or.11(gt 0ll) lro^^qsnrq eq1 q6notql uorlezrlÄ1s reteetO ol

pelcelqns spm qctLlM ,0urlured l!o or]] 1o luepuedepur

6urueeut e pelrnbce 1r ,Äpn1s Äleurtlr;atd e se po^toc-uoc sem (ZOt 'd'il1 ,tt .ou 'lec) qcÄldtrl stlodo4eyyoql iol 6urnnetp aq1 q6noqlly .laued laluac s,qcÄ1du1stlodo4ayy aL,1l Jo punol6elol oLlt ul JacuEp oleuoloql lo uotssncstp 6urnnollol aql

^q palprlsnllt oq lllM

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lo llnc,sarluoMl oql ol lselluoc ut ,,,Mau,, or.l] poutlop xl1 Lz6Lul 'lsed oql ut acuaroloJ lo lurod pexrl e 0urpurl Äldursueql oloul lueoul 'trtjol pue lo;oc ,e6en6ue;

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ulpog ug dulen oql pue ra^al acueq

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Fig. 15 Court Jester of Philip the GoodHofnarr des Herzog Philip des GutenDrawing from the Arras Codex (from Post, Jagdbild' p' 131)

This scene is a synthesis of the leisure time of the twen-ties. "With shouts of rapture, people plunged in, lettinggo at any price. This crazy dance fever, with its reck-lessly exaggerated orgies of contorted limbs, becamethe rage everywhere."+a While Dix translated the ec-

centricity of the dance into movement, Beckmann cap-

tured the "dance fever" in the "decisive zig-zag" of his

l ines (cf . cat. no. 1, i l l . p. 76). In Carl Einstein's words:Beckmann "makes strong use of the rushing diagonal,a dance cafe rushes forward into the tip of a dissectedtr iangle, whi le shovedtogether columns poke tnto i t ;

the divis ion is by sect ion, yet each composit ionalimpulse has to be dramatical ly motivated and the

drama put back into form. One is attempting some-thing demoniacal and complex. . . "45 Dancing, thegreat pastime of Berlin in the twenties, was the essenceof the greatest pleasure that could be squeezed from

the inflationary money: "Why save-for tomorrow?Who knows what the dol lar exchange rate wi l l be

tomorrow?"+o

Pleasure was subjected to the sober gaze of the art-ist, who saw in the stimulation a repeated attempt to

Fig. 16 Otto DixCenter panel from the Metropolis Triptych, '1927-1928M ittelteil des Grosssladf-Tri ptychonsOil on wood181 x 201 cmGalerie der Stadt Suttgart

drown out the emptiness of t ime, the "dead, unbear-able present" (Hugo Bal l ) , with the phantasmagoria ofthe lust for pleasure. "This is no drunkenness, no wi ld-ness. no compulsion to break chains, but putrefact ion

on the phosphorescent framework of society. I am well

aware that all cities fester this way, but few are as crude,insolent, and exposed as Berl in. These half-humansare dancing on abject misery, clucking and cooing past

begging stumps, and l iv ing out their sham pleasures

on credit ."47

Dix uses the Charleston and iazz rhythm to illustratethe efforts of the t ime to f ind diversion. l f , in Expres-sionism, the soul may be said to have taken on formin the dance - " to be ever dance, desire, f lame andyearning"4s - then i t was here celebrat ing i ts going-

out-of-business sale.

The dancer in the foreground occupres a special posi-

tion within lhe Metropolls triptych. lt is striking thatexactly this figure undergoes a large change betweenthe drawing and the oi l paint ing. In the drawing, herbody is vis ible through the loosely f lowing garment.

The fabric reveals as it conceals and thus allows thecontours and shadows to appear with all the moreimpact. In the paint ing, on the other hand, she isclothed in a heavier fabric. Her pleated veil flows ingreat sharp folds behind her, whi le with her r ighthand she tr iumphantly swings her ostr ich-feather

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8Z

29

decked out in the fet ishes of gold, expensive clothingand exquisi te jewelery, whi le in the drawing she ac-quires the meaning of sensual pleasure, luxuria.

Around the turn of the century, Aby Warburg consid-ered this body language in a cul tural-histor ical l ight,with the intention of establishing a connection betweenit and tradi t ional forms of pathos. He discovered thistype, which he cal led "Nympha," in Ghir landaio'sfresco Nativity of St. John. The following quotationshows how his cultural-historical analysis was coloredby subject ive, contemporary ideas which make himspir i tual ly akin to Dix:

This l ively, l ight- footed and rapid gait , thisirresist ible energy, this str iding step, whichcontrasts with the aloof distance of al l theother f igures, what is the meaning of i t a l l? . . .My condit ion var ied between a bad dreamand a fairytale.. .Sometimes she was Salomedancing with her death deal ing charm in frontof the licentious tetrarch; sometimes she wasJudith carrying proudly and tr iumphantly witha gay step the head of the murdered com-mander; then again she appeared to hide inthe boy-l ike grace of l i t t le Tobias . . . Some-times I saw her in a seraph flying towards Godin adorat ion and then again in a Gabrielannouncing the good t idings. I saw her as abridesmaid expressing innocent joy at theSposalizio and again as a fleeing mother, theterror of death in her face, at the Massacre ofthe Innocents. . . l lost my reason. l t wasalways she who brought l i fe and movementinto an otherwise calm scene. Indeed, sheappeared to be the embodiment of movement. . . but i t is very unpleasant to be her lover " . .(Nov. 23, 1900)."ss

In the end, Warburg classi f ied her among the Maen-ads, point ing out the ancient Dionysian element in her,which stands in contrast to the otherwise stat ic f iguresof al l Renaissance art . For Warburg, her l ivel iness andsensuality became a sign of the Quattrocento's conf lictbetween magic and rat ional i ty.se Now Dix si f ted themagic-Dionysian histor ical dimension of this l ivelyfemale image into the contemporary appearance of hisdancer in the drawing. She may not be the only one inmotion, but her movement deviates from the Charles-ton's mechanical step. The dancer 's body languagehas, however, r ig idi f ied into a pose which sel ls i tsel fsensat ional ly. Nevertheless, the vamp's appearancewas l inked to chaos and disorder, sensual i ty and thedestruct ion of patr iarchal "peace and quiet."

Whi le the vamp may have embodied the manic side ofthe sachlich era, the cripples in the triptych brought outits melancholy aspect. A tension arose between thesetwo emotional poles, whose complementariness set upthe cultural conf l ict of the twent ies, and subversivelyundermined the "objectivity" of this world. A year afterthe triptych was completed, Aby Warburg also recog-nized this polarity as the Janus-head aspect ol West-ern cul ture: "Sometimes i t looks to me as i f , in my roleas a psycho-histor ian, I t r ied to diagnose the schizo-phrenia of Western civ i l izat ion from i ts images in anautobiographical reflex. The ecstatic 'Nympha' (manic)on the one side and the mourning rivergod (depressive)on the other. . . "s2

NoteslElias Canetti, TheTorch in My Ear trans., Joachim Neugroschel

(New York, 1982), p.282.2ibid.sludwig Meidner, "An Introduction to Paint ing Big Cit ies," trans.

by Victor Miesel, in Ludwig Meidner: An Expressionist Master (AnnArbor, 1978), pp. 30, 31.

+cf. Alexander Dückers, Max Beckmann: Die Hölle 1919(Ber l in, 1983).

sE.L. Kirchner, quoted in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880-1938(Berl in 1980), p. 196.

6Meidner, " lntroduction," p.31.7On this lost col lage/montage, see Hanne Bergius, "Zur

Wahrnehmung und Wahrnehmungskr i t ik im Ber l iner Dadaismus"in Eckhard Siepmann, ed., Montage: John Heartfield (Berlin, 1977),pp. 43-47.

eHugo Bal l , "Kandinsky" lecture given in the Galer ie Dada,Zurich, April 7, 19171, in Hugo Ball, Der Künstler und die Zeitkrank-helt (Frankfurt a.M., 1984), p. 42f.

gRaoul Hausmann, "Dada ist mehr als Dada" in Raoul Haus-mann, Am Anfang war Dada (Giessen, 1973), p. 86.

10Hugo Ball , Die Flucht aus der Zeit (Lucerne, 1946), p. 158.11On this, cf . Hanne Bergius, Dada Berlin 1917-1922, Chaos und

Monotonie als komplementäre Erscheinungsformen der Moderne(dissertat ion, Dortmund, 1980), and Hanne Bergius, "Dada alsBuffonade und Totenmesse" in Stefanie Poley, ed., Unter der Maskedes Narren (Stuttgart, 1981).

12Ball, Flucht, p.78.l3Quoted in Siepmann, Heartf ield, p.7.lacf . Alexander Dückers, George Grosz: Das Druckgraphische

Werk (Berl in,1979), p. 201f. (M Vl)l sMeidner, " lntroduct ion," p.111.l6Charles Baudelaire, 'Journaux Int imes, Fusdes XXl," quoted

in Werner Hofmann, Georg Syamken, Mart in Warnke, Die Men-schenrechte des Auges: über Aby Warburg (Frankfurt a.M., 1980)pp. 90,91.

lTErnst Bloch, "Die Si lberbüchse Winnetous" in Ernst Bloch,Erbschaft dieser Zeit (Zurich, 1935), p. 114. Cf. Hanne Bergius," 'Lederstrumpf' zwischen Provinz und Metropole," in RudolfSchlichter, 1890-1955 (Berlin, 1984) pp. 33a-46a.

lsErnst Bloch, "Traumschein, Jahrmarkt und Kolportage," inBloch, Erbschaft, p. 12O.

leRudolf Schl ichter, Tönerne Füsse (Berl in, 1933), p. 52.zoschlichter, Füsse, p. 253.2lRudolf Schlichter, Zwischenwelt. Ein lntermezzo (Berlin,

n.d. \ , p.22.22Ernst Bloch, Erbschaft, p. 120.2sOn the 1920-21 opposition to the Novernbergruppe asbeing

purely an exhibit ing society, see Helga Kl iemann, Die November'gruppe (Berl in, 1969). Dix, Grosz, Höch, Scholz and a number ofothers joined Schlichter in this protest.

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