Revolutionary Context

Early 20^th century was a period of many revolutions on all social fronts. Naturally, artistic expression was used as a medium of announcing the new, recalling the past, projecting into the future and protesting the undesirable ways of the world. The Mulatto was painted in 1913, in the fast-changing and cacophonous pre-World War 1 social environment.

The culture of Berlin in 1910s and 20s was very fertile and gave birth to sophisticated and innovative artistic styles in different art forms: Bauhaus (1919-33) in architecture and design; German modernism in literature (Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz, 1929); German expressionistic cinema (Lang, Dietrich); music (Weill and Brecht); New Objectivity (Grosz) and German expressionism in painting (Nolde); German idealism and aesthetic theory in criticism (Benjamin); and analytical psychology and philosophy (Jung). (Laqueur) This cultural fertility extended onwards until Adolf Hitler took power in 1933 and stamped out this culture that he considered decadent.

The most important artistic revolution that pertains to the work in focus is German Expressionism. As discussed in one of the earlier posts, 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 characteristics of German Expressionism in painting were bright colors, thick obvious brushstrokes, and bold forms. (MOMA)

On the political front, it is possible to relate this work to the series of national revolutions that happened in different corners of the world, as colonized countries demanded their independence from empires. Empires played the most important role in the racial mixing that defined the 18^th and 19^th centuries. When countries gained their national character, questions of racial diversity became more prominent and gave rise to artistic trends like primitivism and political extremities like Nazism.

A discussion of this work would not be complete without a reference to a destructive anti-revolution that directly affected it two decades after its completion.

After his ascent to power, Hitler rejected all forms of modernism as “degenerate art,” and 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 is particularly important since it can be read as the epitome of all that the Nazis despised: she demonstrates what mixing races will produce and supplies pictorial evidence for the Nazis' point of view claiming the necessity of keeping German blood pure. (Bradley, Chapter 5)

Sources:

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

Laqueur, Walter Weimar: A cultural history, 1918-1933, Putnam, 1974

Moma: German Expressionism - 

http://www.moma.org/collection_ge/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:E:4327|A:AR:E:1&role=1

http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/artists

Abstract

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In this paper I am going to explore the relationship between the “self “ and the “other” through both a societal and a biographical approach. I will focus my research around the identity of the woman in the painting, or her anonymity. Was she someone Nolde knew personally or was she an imagined character in his head? What are each option’s implications in relation to Nolde’s artistic choices in this painting? I will use the following observations as my starting point: The woman Nolde chooses to portray in this painting is of mixed heritage and two cultures, as implied by the painting's name. She is not idealized and creates a superimposition of modern nightlife (implied by the make-up and the jewelry) on an exotic subject. Her expression evokes curiosity and mystery, and the choice of painting her eyes closed suggests a dream-like state, which is further strengthened by the halo-like structure around her head. This dreamy expression is inviting into her world, and encourages the viewer to project himself/herself into the sensory field implied by the artist’s choices. The intention of the painting might be to attract the viewer’s attention to the artist’s interest in exotic subjects at the time of this painting’s execution. 

It is important to contextualize this within Nolde’s life and the social conditions he lived in. Nolde’s two-year association with the “Brucke” (“Bridge”) renewed and strengthened his interest in the arts of Africa and Melanesia. (Benson, 13). “Mulatto” was painted right before 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) I will try to discover the importance of the timing of this painting: Was it painted as a preparation for his voyage? Does it represent what he expected to encounter? Or is it based on what he had previously encountered that later inspired him to travel to the South Seas?

Finally, I will explore the importance of this painting within a framework of “self vs. other.” What does it tell us about Emil Nolde? Here I will borrow from different philosophers, mainly from Lacan. His famous claim “L’autre, c’est moi” (The other is me) will be one of the hypotheses I will be testing: Was Nolde painting himself in the form of the “other”? I will also consider the ideas of racial purity that were being seeded in the society in his time, which later become the fountainhead of the Nazi movement. Where does Nolde stand in the face of the question of racial purity? Is this painting an element in his manifesto of diversity, proclaiming the inherent value of the “mulattos”?

To summarize I can say that I will be writing my final paper on the relationship between the self and the other as it relates to the biographic and societal context of this painting. My thesis will be that this relationship was present and significant at every level of Emil Nolde’s life and the Germany of the early twentieth century, and that it can be read in this painting through the visual clues.

Sources:

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

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

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.

Label & Exhibition Alternatives

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Label:

Emil Nolde, a German Expressionist, portrayed scenes of urban life in early 20th century, while also borrowing inspiration and themes from non-Western art. The Mulatto brings these two fields of interest together, situating an exotic figure in Berlin's nightlife. The bright smeared colors of her heavily-applied make-up, and the halo-like nondescript shape around her head all help to communicate her non-idealization and mixed influences shaping her identity. His treatment of questions about racial diversity was in conflict with Nazi ideas of racial purity of the 1930s and 40s. All of his works were confiscated and this work was exhibited in the Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937. 

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Different ways of exhibiting:

Before discussing a few alternatives to how this painting can be exhibited, I want to borrow some thoughts about the deliberate decisions museums make from a previous paper I wrote on the subject.*

<< Any decision of how to exhibit a certain artwork in a museum setting involves decisions of categorization. In the story of art told by a museum, categorization is the most important element; it is simultaneously the backbone of the presentation and the perspective through which the visitors perceive it. Classifying and mapping are devices for describing difference and hierarchy, and they exist within and through  “assumptions about time and its narrative, history.” (Nelson 39) Such assumptions define the tone of the museum in telling the story of art and the approach it takes toward the foundational principles of art history, namely, influences, reactions, relations and other ways of establishing connections between different works of art.

Bruner, Goodnow and Austin define categorization as a “man’s ability to render discriminately different things equivalent, to group the objects and events and people around him into classes, and to respond to them in terms of their class membership” (Bruner, Goodnow & Austin, 1) Therefore, categorization is the act of simultaneously seeing the similarities between the different and the difference between the similar.

These observations come with a warning. When applied to art, this practice may prove problematic, inefficient, or even deceiving. The discerning art historian must be very careful when labeling art works, as careless classification can lead to “jagged gerrymandered divisions of art history.” (Nelson 28) The museum is an attempt to homogenize the heterogeneity of the art world: to interpret, order, classify.  As Schubert says, the allure of categorization is irresistible, so much that the “mechanism of classification can become more important than the classified object and, in a wider sense, the world it stands for.” (Schubert 145) Indeed, it is very common for an art museum visitor to remember the visit within the framework of the categories the divisions in the museum imply, rather than the actual art work seen during the visit. >>

In light of these observations and thoughts, I can suggest a few alternative ways of exhibiting Nolde's Mulatto. The most obvious of these would be a periodic/stylistic exhibition ("German Expressionist", "Early 20th century"). This framework would help the visitor get the bigger picture of the period, perceive common stylistic and thematic trends, and sketch a thread of progression within the specific period. For example, the German Expressionism exhibiton at MOMA in the summer of 2011 employed both a chronological and thematic categorization within the period, discussing how important events like the World War I influenced the inspirations and techniques of the artists.

Another possible way of exhibiting this painting would be a thematic organization ("degenerate art", "urban life in early 20th century") Tracing these themes through different periods, styles and cultures, a curator can convey the sense of the theme's universality. For example, the current exhibition at Tate Modern in London explores the theme of modern urban life in the past few decades in different cities like New York and Tokyo through photography and film. Such a categorization helps the viewer extrapolate the theme in question to his/her life today and think about how (s)he would have contributed to such an exhibition if asked.

Finally, another suggestion could be to exhibit The Mulatto, along with other works alluding to primitivism, in a traveling exhibition in the countries Nolde visited during his South Seas voyage. Such a decision would first de-contextualize the painting, then to re-contextualize it within its sphere of inspiration. It would be interesting to see what the reactions of the native populations would be to their portrait from the eye of a Westerner.

  MOMA New York, German Expressionism Exhibition, Summer 2011

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

Bruner, J. S. , Goodnow, J. J., Austin G. A. A study of thinking New York: Wiley and Sons, 1956.

Nelson, Robert S. "The Map of Art History." The Art Bulletin 79.1 (1997): 28-40.

Schubert, Karsten. The Curator's Egg : The Evolution of the Museum Concept from the French Revolution to the Present Day /. London : One-Off Press :; Distributed by Christie's Books, 2000.

  

Image Source: http://www.brigittabungard.com/German-Expressionism

Related Works

Below are three works that I thought were related to Emil Nolde's Mulatto due to their contextual and stylistic similarities (or differences). 

"Street, Dresden" by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1908

Oil on canvas, 59 1/4" x 6' 6 7/8" (150.5 x 200.4 cm)

Kirchner and his colleagues, in Germany, created the artistic language we know today as German Expressionism that mainly depicted reflections of German street life, mainly in Dresden, right before World War I. In this painting, like in The Mulatto the central position is occupied by women, but differently this time the women in the center are framed by a crowd in the background. In addition, in this painting, the women look directly at the viewer, whereas the woman in Mulatto avoids a direct eye contact. This differentiated relationship between the central figure and the intended audience of the works could be a reflection of the different standings of these two different groups of women in the early twentieth century German society. It could also be argued that due to the ease with which these women seem to be offering themselves to the viewer, they could be prostitutes. This ambiguity about social positioning is a parallel theme in these two works, and in many works by Brücke artists. The use of striking and bright colors is another overarching characteristic of this group of artists, which simultaneously gives the painting a vivacious and a nightmarish quality. The jarring colors and the fluctuating forms also parallel the changing society of the time, and the artistic choices reflect the artists' anxieties.

"Dialogue" (Zwiesprache) by Max Pechstein, 1920
Woodcut, 20 1/16 x 14 7/8" (51 x 37.8 cm)

Early 20th century expressionist looked outside European societies for inspiration and primitivism was a common theme explored by many artists. Far-flung tribal societies in the South Pacific and Africa were fascinating sources for these artists and they borrowed from those cultures repeatedly. In this painting, Pechstein depicts two nude figures on a beach, bringing together elements from his interest in tribal African culture and travels to Oceania. Stylistically, these two paintings have many parallels as well. As explained in Moma's guide to primitivism they borrowed "bold volumetric shapes, geometric ornamentation, decorative patterning, and flattened planes from art and objects encountered in ethnographic museums and commercial galleries, at exhibitions at World’s Fairs and zoos, and in reproductions in books and periodicals." This common interest in these distant cultures was motivated by an idyllic vision of a simpler and more primitive life, and possibly also by their liberating effect from the stifling mores and traditions of the European society. 

"The Seed of Areoi"by Paul Gauguin, 1892
Oil on burlap, 36 1/4 x 28 3/8" (92.1 x 72.1 cm)

Paul Gauguin was a post-impressionistic artist, greatly influential to the next generation of European artists, including the German expressionists. I wanted to include this work because I believe that it could be useful in identifying the roots of some stylistic and thematic trends of the early twentieth century. Gauguin traveled to the South Pacific island of Tahiti, then a French colony. He hoped to find an enchanting and peaceful paradise; however, he was disappointed to find the island tainted and corrupt by French colonialism and sickness. He was still enchanted by the people he encountered in his travels and conflated these impressions with primitivist ideas. Once again borrowing from Tate's guide, the most important ways in which he influenced the future movements can be cited as "his use of bright, flat, and unrealistic colors and his interest in recovering a "pure" subject, closer to nature."

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Through these related works, I have gained a deeper understanding of some overarching themes of  German Expressionism, sources of inspiration and historical influences. I hope to explore these further in the future.

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Sources: 
 

Barr, Alfred H. German Painting and Sculpture, exhibition cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1931

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

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