Series: Visual Cultures and German Contexts

How did German aesthetic values change during the Weimar Republic and after its immediate collapse at the beginning of the National Socialist period? Contrary to conventional narratives that depict modernist aesthetics as static, shaping principles of modern art and design, this volume argues for their complexity and ever-shifting nature. Illuminating the vital exchanges that occurred across multiple art forms during...

Herbert Bayer was one of the most extraordinary artists associated with the Bauhaus school. A true multimedia artist, he united graphic design, art, and architecture in a unique style that came to represent the bold aesthetic approach of the movement. A teacher with the school until 1928, Bayer went on to become a highly successful graphic designer in Germany, and...

The essays in this collection address the German television series Babylon Berlin and explore its unique contribution to contemporary visual culture. Since its inception in 2017, the series, a neo-noir thriller set in Berlin in the final years of the Weimar Republic, has reached audiences throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas and has been met with both critical and popular...

The harsh realities of wartime and Weimar-era Germany called for a new kind of art. Dada, followed by Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), confronted social and political issues in new and bold ways. This book highlights how Otto Dix (1891–1969) – one of the leading artists connected to these artistic movements – employed these new approaches to reveal the injustices of...