World War II

Art 109A: Art Since 1945 Westchester Community College Fall 2012 Dr. Melissa Hall

World War II (1939-1945) World War II began in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland

German troops parade through Warsaw, Poland. PK Hugo J.ger, September 1939 http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/

World War II (1939-1945) In 1940 Paris, which had been the center of the European avant garde, fell to the Nazis

Adolf Hitler in Paris, June 23, 1940 http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/

World War II (1939-1945) The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought the United States into the conflict

Sinking of the USS Virginia, Pearl Harbor, 1941 Image source: http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/pearl_harbor_attack

World War II (1939-1945) The US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war to an end in 1945

Mushroom cloud of smoke billowing 20,000 ft. in the air after atomic explosion over the city of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 LIFE

Hiroshima before the bombing Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

Hiroshima after the bombing Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

Europe lay in ruins

Aftermath

Herbert Mason, St. Paul’s, London, during the Blitz, 1940 Wikipedia

William Vandivert, Dresden after the Allied bombing, 1946 LIFE

Aftermath Russia and the United States emerged as opposed superpowers with competing claims to world dominance.

Harry S. Truman, President of the United States 1945-1953 Image source: http://www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/record.php?id=100

Joseph Stalin, political leader of the Soviet Union, 1924-1953

Aftermath Under the “Truman Doctrine” Russia and the United States entered the Cold War

Harry S. Truman Delivering the Truman Doctrine Speech, 1947 Image source: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/displayimage.php?pointer=14687

Aftermath This took the form of an arms race

Image source: http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/cold-war-espionage-and-computer-security/

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arms_race

Aftermath And the advent of the “nuclear age”

Image source: http://www.conelrad.com/books/print.php?id=267_0_1_0

Aftermath The end of the war also brought revelations of the Nazi extermination camps

Buchenwald Concentration Camp, April 16, 1945 LIFE

Aftermath The most shocking discoveries were made by British troops at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945

Bergen-Belsen, 1945

“As they explored No.1 Camp, the liberators encountered scenes reminiscent of Dante's Inferno - a living example of hell on earth. They discovered 20,000 emaciated naked corpses lying unburied on the open ground or in the barrack blocks. Some inmates had literally starved to death where they lay, too weak even to drag their wasted bodies away from the typhus-infested corpses that surrounded them.” Dr. Stephen A. Hart, “Liberation of the Concentration Camps,” BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/liberation_camps_04.shtml

Aftermath There were so many corpses it was necessary to use a bulldozer to move them to a mass grave

The Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp April 1945: A British Army bulldozer pushes bodies into a mass grave at Belsen. - 19 April 1945 Imperial War Museum

Aftermath 3,000 lives were lost in the World Trade Center attack

The northeast face of Two World Trade Center (south tower) after being struck by plane in the southwest face. Image source: Wikipedia

Aftermath An estimated 6 million jews were killed in Nazi concentration camps

A British soldier at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, May 1945. The camp was burned. The sign was put up to tell the world about the horrors that went on there. Image source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/the_war_ends/teachers_resources.shtml

Aftermath When General Dwight G. Eisenhower led his troops into the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau he wrote: “The things I saw beggar description.”

American GI’s under the command of General Eisenhower Dachau, 1945

Aftermath Many others referred to the “unspeakable,” “indescribable,” or “un-representable” nature of what they had seen

The Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp April 1945: Former guards are made to load the bodies of dead prisoners onto a lorry for burial. - 17-18 April 1945 IWM Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bergen_Belsen_Liberation_01.jpg

Bearing Witness Although Eisenhower thought that what he saw was indescribable, he did do so anyway – sensing the necessity of bearing witness for future generations

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945 Wikimedia

Bearing Witness The necessity of “bearing witness” to the trauma of war was the most compelling concern for the postwar generation of artists

A British soldier at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, May 1945. The camp was burned. The sign was put up to tell the world about the horrors that went on there. Image source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/the_war_ends/teachers_resources.shtml

Bearing Witness The challenge they faced was to represent something that was unrepresentable

Walter E. Cummings, Buchenwald Ohrdruf Corpses Image source: Wikimedia

Bearing Witness Many of them chose an abstract style -- believing it was the only way to represent what could not be described by more conventional means

Pablo Picasso, Charnel House, 1945 Museum of Modern Art

Postwar Abstraction In the immediate aftermath of the war, artists on both sides of the Atlantic arrived at abstract styles independently

Arshile Gorky, Charred Beloved, 1946

Postwar Abstraction While abstract expressionism was emerging in the United States in the 1940’s, its European counterpart, l’art informel, was developing in France

Jean Fautrier, Nude, 1943 (from the Otages series) Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Postwar Abstraction New approaches to figuration also registered the trauma of war

Alberto Giacometti Man Pointing

Jean Dubuffet Large Sooty Nude

Postwar Abstraction Our study of postwar art will begin in Europe, but it is important to keep in mind that American Abstract Expressionism was emerging at the same time

Nina Leen, The Irascibles, 1950 LIFE Magazine

Web Resources

Audio Slideshow of the Liberation of Belsen, with the original BBC radio broadcast http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4445811.stm

Liberation of the Concentration Camps –BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/liberation_camps_01.shtml

Video on The Holocaust (YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHAF0sgzKOs

Documentary on Hiroshima (YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9lwvImJqT0

John Cage In the Name of the Holocaust http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8CSLliG2oo