For those in Southern California, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is currently showing 70 German Expressionist posters dating from the 1920’s and 1930’s. The exhibit, titled War, Revolution, Protest, presents a range of poster works extolling political action as well as promoting theaters, cabarets, and the newly-founded film industry. The exhibition comes from LACMA’s Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, which possesses one of the greatest German Expressionist collections in the world. Obviously this is a must see show for any fan of the bold and confrontational art from that period, but students of history and design will also get a lot out of this important exhibit. If you can attend you may also want to view the concurrently running, Rauschenberg: Posters, a collection of over 100 mass printed works from American artist, Robert Rauschenberg. The prints on display date from the 1960’s to the present, and some are surprisingly political in nature. His silk-screen, Signs, is a montage of iconographic images from the late 60’s. Images of the slain John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy; Martin Luther King Jr. resting in his coffin; anti-Vietnam war protestors; scenes of the riots that burned US cities; rock singer Janis Joplin (who would die of a drug overdose), all mixing to become a potent sign of the times. Upon its release, Rauschenberg said the work was “conceived to remind us of the love, terror, violence of the last ten years. Danger lies in forgetting.” While a great many seem to have indeed forgotten… War, Revolution, Protest and Rauschenberg: Posters gives us all an opportunity to remember. Now running, both exhibits close June 12, 2005. For more information: www.lacma.org

Bourgeois art circles are buzzing with the news that the pickled shark by artist Damien Hirst has been sold to an unnamed American collector for around 12 million dollars. Suspended in a vat of formaldehyde and titled, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, the marinated 14-foot shark launched Hirst’s lucrative art career in 1992. Now one of the richest and most famous of the postmodernist charlatans (artiste), Hirst laughs all the way to the bank.

I’m reminded of The ThreePenny Opera, the musical theater production by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. That tale featured the anti-hero, Macheath, an efficient and cold blooded thug who fancied himself a businessman. In the play’s most famous song, The Ballad of Mack the Knife, the notorious crimes of Macheath are evoked:

“See the shark has teeth like razors, all can read his open face. And Macheath has got a knife, but not in such an obvious place. See the shark, how red his fins are, as he slashes at his prey. Mac the Knife wears white kid gloves which give the minimum away.”

Yes, Brecht’s play moralized on the havoc of a world controlled by money, a yarn still applicable… even when applied to the depredations of the art world.

German Expressionist artists like Käthe Kollwitz, Otto Dix, John Heartfield, George Grosz, and Max Pechstein had a profound influence on me over the years. In 1918 Pechstein wrote, “Art will no longer be considered, as it has been in the past, an interesting and genteel occupation for the sons of wealthy loafers. On the contrary, the sons of common people must be given the opportunity, through the crafts, to become artists. Art is no game, but a duty to the people! It is a matter of public concern.” Such eloquence still resonates in the present, especially for those of us concerned with making art a part of everyone’s daily experience. In 1920, Pechstein wrote his Creative Credo, communicating the ecstasy and frenzy of artistic creation:

“Work! Ecstasy! Smash your brains! Chew, stuff yourself, gulp it down, mix it around! The bliss of giving birth! The crack of the brush, best of all as it stabs the canvas. Tubes of color squeezed dry. And the body? It doesn’t matter. Health? Make yourself healthy! Sickness doesn’t exist! Only work and I’ll say that again - only blessed work! Paint! Dive into colors, roll around in tones… in the slush of chaos! Chew the broken off mouthpiece of your pipe, press your naked feet into the earth. Crayon and pen pierce sharply into the brain, they stab into every corner, furiously they press into the whiteness. Black laughs like the devil on paper, grins in bizarre lines, comforts in velvety planes, excites and caresses. The storm roars - sand blows about - the sun shatters to pieces - and nevertheless, the gentle curve of the horizon quietly embraces everything.

Beaten down, exhausted, just a worm, collapse into your bed. A deep sleep will make you forget your defeat. A new day! A new struggle! Ecstasy again! One day after the other, a sparkling, constantly changing chain of days. One experience after the other. That damned brain! What is it that churns and twitches and jumps in there? Hah! Tear your head off. Then we’ll scrape it out and scratch it out. Get rid of every little bit. Sand! Water! Scrub it clean. There now!! Almost as good as new… an unused skull. Night! Night! No stars, pitch black. Without desire! Tomorrow is another day.”

In 1937 the Nazis would prohibit Pechstein from creating or exhibiting. They removed his artworks from museums and instead included them in their infamous Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition. Pechstein survived the reign of fascism and continued to work as an artist in West Berlin until his death in 1955. Read more about Max Pechstein and the German Expressionists.