Artist Response To War Essay

The twentieth century was a strenuous yet a revolutionary time for humanity. Having two World Wars that ended in mayhem and drove a hole into the economy, there were also new political systems coming into play and many artists began to express their political opinion through every form of art known to man. For example, Wilfred Owen, in addition to being a solider in the World War One, he was also a famous poet. One of his most famous poems is “Dulce et Decorum Est” which was written specifically to describe the harsh reality of the war. Another form of art was Pablo Picasso’s painting “Guernica” which was also a response to politics. Wilfred Owen’s poem and Pablo Picasso’s painting were two very different forms of art that had similar responses to the historical and political events.

The First World War started in 1914 and ended in 1918. The causes of World War I were militarism, alliances between European countries, imperialism, nationalism and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Keegan, 2014). Primarily, it may be cited, that its cause was a struggle between the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy) and the Allied Powers (France, Great Britain and Russia) over the expansion of Serbia into the Balkans.

     World War 1 started when Archduke and Archduchess were killed while on a visit in Serbia. The

The time between World Wars was a tense and significant point in the history of humanity, especially for the European continent. France had suffered immensely during the First World War, and the psyche of the nation was deeply shaken. The result was, for some, a desire for a return to the comparatively peaceful state felt prior to the War. The “Call to Order” as it became known embodied this effort. Many artistic movements were abandoned, temporarily or permanently. Such was the fate of the Futurist movement, which somewhat naively glorified all of the things that had made World War I so incredibly destructive to the continent, technology, and violence. A resurgence of classical styled art followed. Just as the populous sought

Art teaches us about the past. Past people, places, and events are the foundations of artwork to realist artists. Realism is the art movement in which artists try to convey their subject matter truthfully. Having graphic and detailed forms of art based, for example, on past wars allow us to see and understand a time different from our own. Realist pieces of art from the past are especially helpful because we have few documents of these times, let alone any photographs. For example, the painting The Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West, based on the Seven Year’s War, not only shows us the gruesome realities of war, but also makes us stop and think about war seriously. Why was this war fought and what did it accomplish? Was it worth losing

At the start of the 1900s, the world was in troubling times. With a global war beginning in 1914 with barely twenty years of rest before the second World War initiating. Layered on top of this unrest, Spain was in the middle of it’s own crisis with a civil war ensuing in the 1930’s. With all the unrest, it is improbably to believe that artists were not greatly affected by the events of the world at the time. I am interested in how the wars specifically influenced the emerging art movements in the early to mid 1900’s, such as Dada and Surrealism. With a focus on Surrealism, how did the ideas identifiable to Surrealism emerge differently in different locations, and in relation to the war? I will view the direct involvement of popular

World War 1 began in 1914 and lasted till 1918. What sparked this war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This was between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, who was the Central Powers and Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States, who was the Allied Powers.

As a number of leading artists got involved in the War, most of the art campaigns stopped. Individual artistic creations became less radical and started to step down from abstraction to concrete representations. In particular, the program in which the government appointed the artists as war correspondents has resulted in some of the most exceptional artworks of this century. This is, perhaps, because the artists have been exposed to wider issues of human nature, which were absolutely catastrophic and tragic.

Numerous people have no idea about the relationship between the World War and artistic. The relationship between art and war was long ignored by historians, it's now coming to light just how meshed they really were. Why don’t we hear more about the wartime contributions of these famed modernists? Perhaps this is because of the “negative relationship many artists… [had] with the military” ("The Forgotten History of How Modern Art Helped Win World War II.").

World War One was the first and big war of the 20th century. This war involved countless countries because of nationalism, imperialism, territorial issues, economic rivalries, and militarism. The war first started with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.

By the end of World War I in 1918, artist had a remarkable change in their styles of art. Two very pronounced artists, Fernand Leger and Max Beckman, served in the war and impacted their art profusely. World War I was an era of industrialization in culture and in the economy, and as the world changed, so did European Art.

The Great War was the definition of turbulence. It launched the world into a state of chaos that was absolutely unprecedented. The war had a definite effect on the citizens and their perceptions of the world. There were some that were overtaken by a sense of meaninglessness; the deaths of their friends and families, and the amount of people and countries involved. People found this meaninglessness in the war, and reflected in the actions of society. The war would not stand if the flaws of society had not permitted it to get that far. These individuals saw the need to reflect the misery of a generation in their art. Focusing on the rise and fall of an art form through the lens of Hannah Höch’s artwork and activism, allows one to see the intricacies of art, technology, feminism, and sexuality come together, and the effects that a totalitarian society has on personal expression.

Many historical events took place during the 20th century that will be remembered forever, but the one central event that everyone is aware of and will forever be remembered was World War One. That being said, World War One, also known as the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war, which originated in Europe and lasted from July 28th, 1914 to November 11th, 1918. It was the first large scale war, which involved nations from around the world and ultimately resulted in the death of over 17 million people, in addition to having an enormous impact on the old empires and the politics of the world. It began as a local war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia in 1914 and grew into a war involving 32 countries, which involved the Allies, which included Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the U.S. who fought against the Central Powers, which included Germany, Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

War impacts everyone differently, especially since it is dependent on multiple, subjective matters: feelings towards both fighting sides, relationships to soldiers, perspective on how necessary the war may appear, and so on. Up until May 1, 1937, Picasso had been relatively uninspired for his grand addition to the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair. His stance on the war greatly inspired the mural. He was very much against the Spanish dictatorship taken on by Generalissimo

Dada is the artistic and literary movement that emerged during World War I. Dada was a revolt against the culture and social convention of which people started to question the validity after witnessing the brutality of World War I. Dada artists or writers no longer believed that their work needs to be picturesque and flawless. Whereas the traditional artists and writers considered that aesthetic and perfection of their work is primary, as Hugo Ball wrote, “For us, art is not an end in itself,” for Dada artists and writers, the aesthetic of their work was not as important as the idea itself. Confronting the established traditions of art or literature, Dada became the first major anti-art/literature movement. Apart from not meeting the