Historical Context

In an attempt to discuss the historical context in which the “Mulatto” was created, I want to first explore some of the important periods in Emil Nolde’s life.

He was born as Emil Hansen in the Prussian Duchy of Schlesweig (part of Denmark since 1920). He was a self-taught artist, pursuing his dream of becoming an independent artist only after he was 31. He attempted to join Stuck’s class in Munich, but was refused. Kandinsky and Klee were students there at the time, and the refusal by the Munich Academy of Fine Arts to accept him as their equal infused Nolde with bitter disappointment that kept him away from academy for the rest of his life. In 1905 Nolde joined the first expressionistic movement in Germany, the famous “Brucke” (“Bridge”) movement group in Dresden. (Benson, 13) He was associated with this group only for 2 years, but it still had a significant influence of his art: it renewed and strengthened his interest in the arts of Africa and Melanesia. (Benson, 13) Benson describes this effect as “Nolde’s forms became more strongly individualized; his fantasy richer, his colors bolder, and more fiery.” (Benson, 13)

“The Mulatto” was painted at a particularly important time in his life: In 1913 his voyage to the South Seas by way of Moscow, Siberia, China, Japan, Java and Burma “introduced many new elements into his work.” (Benson, 14) After his return, his figures became more unusual, fantastic, sometimes even grotesque, and definitely more mask-like. Nolde wrote many years later that his heart “beat faster when he painted a Russian, a Chinaman, a South-Sea Islander or a gypsy.” (Benson, 14)  Although there is nothing specific documented about the creation of “Mulatto”, it is safe to assume that it was painted during his journey, and is the portrait of an unknown, exotic woman.

The most important historical context defining this work is that of German Expressionism. Expressionism was a movement that emerged simultaneously in various cities across Germany as a response to a widespread anxiety about humanity’s increasingly discordant relationship with the world and left an important directional and stylistic mark on many different artistic disciplines. Some famous German expressionist artists were Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Heinrich Campendonk, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, Lyonel Feininger, Rudi Feld, Conrad Felixmüller, Heinz Fuchs, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Vasily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, Georg Kolbe, Käthe Kollwitz, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, August Macke, Jeanne Mammen, Franz Marc, Ludwig Meidner, Otto Mueller, Max Oppenheimer, Max Pechstein, Christian Rohlfs, Egon Schiele, and Karl Schmidt-Rotluff. (MOMA) The artists of early 20^th century were preoccupied with Primitive Art. This preoccupation was prevalent in the works by Brucke group artists. They were mainly attracted to its spontaneous and uninhibited nature.

It might be helpful to contextualize this painting within the Nazi-censored art world of the day as well. Although this painting was made two decades before the Nazi movement took off, it is closely related thematically. Since Hitler rejected all forms of modernism as “degenerate art,” Nolde’s work was officially condemned by the Nazi regime. Although he was initially sympathetic to National Socialism, Nazis nevertheless confiscated 1,052 works, more than from any other artist. He was prohibited by Nazis from painting in 1941, but continued secretly in watercolor until bombs destroyed his studio in Berlin and the archive of his prints in 1944. This painting can be read as the epitome of all that the Nazis despised: she demonstrates what mixing races will produce and supplies pictorial evidence supporting the necessity of keeping German blood pure. (Bradley, Chapter 5)

All these different grounds of historical and biographical contextualization point in one direction: there is a complex network of influences shaping Nolde’s work. I am looking forward to discovering more about these influences.

Adolf Hitler and Adolf Ziegler visiting the "Degenerate Art" Exhibition. 1937.

Selected Bibliography:

Ackley, Clifford S., Timothy O. Benson, and Victor Carlson. Nolde: The Painter's Prints. Exh. cat. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1995.

Benson, E. M. "Emil Nolde." Parnassus 5.1 (1933): 12,14+25.

Bradley, William S. Emil Nolde and German Expressionism: A Prophet in His Own Land. Vol. no. 52. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1986.

German Expressionism: Works from the Collection. 2012. Museum of Modern Art.

< http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/index>

Moeller, Magdalena M., and Manfred Reuther, eds. Emil Nolde: Druckgraphik aus der Sammlung der Nolde-Stiftung Seebüll. Exh. cat. Berlin: Brücke-Museum, 1999.

Questions and Sources

Questions:

1) Can this painting be evaluated from a post-structuralist perspective with an emphasis on the differences between the self and the other; and the dominant and the repressed? Will a Lacanian approach reveal new meanings? 

2) Who is the woman in the painting? Is she a real or an imagined character? Is she a generalization of all that Nolde associated with exoticism?

3) Was there a disconnect between what Nolde intended and how the painting was received? Was it an intentional catalyzer for the Nazi reaction?

4) Was the painting ever privately owned? If so, by whom? Does that change our understanding?

5) What is the painting’s relationship to other paintings by Nolde made in the same period? Similarly, how is Nolde’s style related to some artistic trends in Germany and rest of Europe in the early 20^th century?

Sources: 

Barron, Stephanie, Wolf Dieter Dube, and Palazzo Grassi. German Expressionism : Art and Society. 1st ed. New York: Rizzoli, 1997. 

Benson, E. M. "Emil Nolde." Parnassus 5.1 (1933): 12,14+25.

Emil Nolde : Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Graphics. London: Fischer Fine Art Limited, 1976. 

“German Expressionism: Works from the Collection.” 2012. Museum of Modern Art.

< http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/index>

Grijp, Paul van der, 1952-. Art and Exoticism : An Anthropology of the Yearning for Authenticity. Vol. 5. Berlin: Lit, 2009.  

Lacan, Jacques, 1901-1981. Autres Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 2001.

Laqueur, Walter. Weimar, a Cultural History, 1918-1933. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974.

Museum of, Modern Art, Starr Figura, and Peter Jelavich. German Expressionism : The Graphic Impulse. New York: Museum of Modern Art :Distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 2011.

Museums After Modernism : Strategies of Engagement /. Ed. Griselda Pollock and Joyce Zemans . Malden, MA : Blackwell, 2007.  

Nolde, Emil. Das Eigene Leben. Berlin: Rembrandt Verlag, 1931.

Seldis, Henry J. “The Nolde Paradox: Half Demon, Half Mystic: NOLDE EXHIBITION”; Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 28 July 1963: d13.

Schmidt, Paul Ferdinand. Emil Nolde, Leipzig: Kirkhardt & Biermann, 1929.

Historical Newspaper Articles

Articles:

The Nolde Paradox: Half Demon, Half Mystic: NOLDE EXHIBITION
Seldis, Henry J. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 28 July 1963: d13.

Nolde: Redeemed by His Art: " Nolde's art, not his political persuasions, placed him in jeopardy during the Nazi regime."
By JAMES R. MELLOW. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 23 Sep 1973: 151.

THE PAINTINGS HITLER HATED: AND WANTED DESTROYED. ON VIEW, AT HARVARD'S BUSCH-REISINGER MUSEUM.
Robb, Christina. Boston Globe (1960-1981) [Boston, Mass] 17 Dec 1978: AA6.


Through these historical newspaper articles, I learned more about Emil Nolde’s personality, style and movement associations, and contemporary perception by critics. I believe that discovering an artist’s personality and life is the best way to understand his work. Therefore, these articles will shed light on The Mulatto as well.

The Boston Globe article explains that Nolde’s The Mulatto was part of a 1937 Nazi exhibit “that toured Germany as an example of what the party line called degenerate art.” In addition to this, the New York Times article claims “Nolde’s art, not his political persuasions, placed him in jeopardy during the Nazi regime.” His relationship to the Nazi movement is significant as it raises questions of intentions vs. perception.

In the Los Angeles article, entitled: “The Nolde Paradox: Half Demon, Half Mystic”, Nolde’s life is pictured as imbued by a sense of paradox. Paul Klee described him as “Nolde, the primeval soul. Nolde is more than a mere creature of earth. He is a demon of the earthly region. Even one who resides elsewhere senses in him the cousin of the depths, a cousin by election.” One of the most important complexes in his personality is that although he insisted that he was striving to create a new German art, none of his spiritual ancestors were German. Seldis argues “he takes his point of departure from Goya, Rembrandt and Daumier.” This point could be important in the discussion of identity, and its multifaceted relationship to a variety of sources of inspiration.

Another interesting point mentioned in this article is that he was “filled with haughty Nordic myths of racial superiority.” This is particularly important since “the Mulatto” was a particularly controversial painting and was dismissed by the Nazis on the basis that it was against their ideals of racial purity. Nolde has a very complicated relationship with ‘race’ and this surfaces in his works. I will definitely explore this in depth with the hope discovering his reasons for painting figures like The Mulatto.
The article also explains that, despite his complexities and mysterious evocations, “Nolde’s public was touched directly by the artist since contemporary faces and figures appear in his visions of the archaic and the fantastic, linking this world of myth with the present day world.” 

One common theme of all these articles is the relationship between the artist’s biography and the themes explored in his oeuvre. They suggest that his changing spheres of artistic association and interest in non-European cultures shaped the direction his art took at different periods of his life. As I move forward with my research, I will explore these themes and read some philosophers, mainly Lacan, who wrote extensively about the relationship between the self and the other.

Contextual

Emil Nolde’s Mulatto is exhibited currently in the Sackler Museum of Harvard University, and was previously exhibited as a part of the Busch-Reisinger collection. With the closing of the Fogg Museum and Busch-Reisinger for renovation, some art works have been moved into the Sackler to create the best representation of the museum’s complete collection. The relatively small size of the museum and the importance of the art works in exhibition give the museum a special character. Due to this density of important works surrounding Nolde’s Mulatto, the viewer engages in an unconscious process of comparative appreciation of the artwork. It is exhibited in the middle of Ernst’s ‘Untitled’ and Leger’s ‘Composition’, two works of very different character and style. 

Although I have been unable to find information about the specific creation process of Nolde’s Mulatto, it is safe to assume that this painting was targeted for museum-exhibition. I have two main reasons for this assumption: First, I was unable to find any information indicating that this painting was commissioned by someone or that it was ever privately owned. Second, this painting carries many similarities to other paintings by Nolde painted around the same time (subject, style, etc.), therefore, it is very likely that he intended these to be a series, exhibited together to demonstrate his stylistic and thematic trends in the period of their execution. Proceeding with this assumption, I wanted to bring in some relevant thoughts from a paper I had previously written on museums and museology.* 

A museum is a microcosm – a world of its own, the constant re-writing of art history and an experiment in concept formation and categorization.  When a visitor walks its symbolically charged spaces, built on deliberate decisions about how to position material things in the context of others, a new narrative of art is enacted. 

Museums make experiential and contextual efforts that create active and evolving spaces where the human tendency to categorize is tested against “a number of factors including the existing divisions between objects, the particular curatorial practices of the specific institution, the physical condition of the material object, and the interests, enthusiasms, and expertise of the curator in question. “(Hooper-Greenhill 6) Foucault, in an attempt to connect this observation about constraints factoring in the narrative of art to a universal truth, exclaims: “Truth is of the world: it is produced by virtue of multiple constraints.” (Foucault 13) Museums are constructed from an array of spatial, idiosyncratic and cognitive factors. Although subject to many constraints and changing circumstances, some museums create compelling stories of art and important cases for study of museology. Sackler is what we might term a meta-museum, a segmented museum of museology, simultaneously exhibiting a collection of art works and different modes of categorization and presentation.

Sources:

* Bereketli, Ezgi, “A Visit to the Sackler Museum: A tour of art historical methods of categorization, their cognitive explanations, potential problems and alternatives” Paper written for Expos 20, Spring 2009

Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of Human Sciences. New York:, 1973.

---. "The Political Function of the Intellectual." Radical Philosophy.17 (1977): 12-4.

Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge /. London ;; New York : Routledge, 1992.

--> Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

--> Students exploring the first floor galleries of modern and contemporary art in Sackler Museum.


(image sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sackler_Museum,_Harvard_University.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/harvardartmuseum/7845933366/in/photostream/)