Neue Sachlichkeit

Neue Sachlichkeit: see new objectivity.

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Neue Sachlichkeit

(German; “New Objectivity”)

Movement in German painting of the 1920s and early 1930s reflecting the cynicism and resignation of the post-World War I period. The term was coined in 1925 by Gustav Hartlaub, director of the Mannheim Kunsthalle, for an exhibition including works by George Grosz, Otto Dix, and Max Beckmann, the movement's leading exponents. They worked in a realistic style, as opposed to the prevailing styles of abstraction and Expressionism, using meticulous detail to portray evil in smooth, cold, and static images derived from Italian Metaphysical painting for the purpose of violent social satire. The movement ended in the 1930s with the rise of Nazism.

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Neue Sachlichkeit 

a current that arose in the 1920’s in German painting and graphic art. A reaction against the individualistic rebellion and formalistic extremism of expressionism, the Neue Sachlichkeit movement was related to another European artistic movement of the same period, neoclassicism. Its general principles were similar to those of Italian metaphysical painting and French neo-Ingresism.

The members of the Neue Sachlichkeit sought to counteract the ideological chaos of bourgeois society and the hectic pace of modern life by creating models of a crystal clear, mystical, would-be world. By depicting such an artificial world with the utmost clarity and detail, some of the artists, including A. Kanoldt, C. Mense, and G. Schrimpf, unwittingly expressed the alienation of the individual from a cold, mechanized reality. Other members of the Neue Sachlichkeit, using exaggerated forms of artistic expression, imparted to their works a grotesque quality and deliberate social criticism. Such socially critical works were produced by Otto Dix and G. Grosz.

REFERENCES

Reingardt, L. “Novaia veshchestvennost’ i ridzhionalizm.” In the collection Modernizm … [2nd ed.]. Moscow, 1973. Pages 208–16.
Roh, F. Nach-Expressionismus. Leipzig, 1925.
Schmied, W. Neue Sachlichkeit und magischer Realismus in Deutschland: 1918–1933. Hannover, 1969.