CHICAGO.- The Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago presents Living Modern: German and Austrian Art and Design, 1890–1933, on view through September 16, 2007. Modernism was not only an innovative aesthetic recognized by its crisp, abstracted forms and progressive use of materials, but also Modernism was a way of thinking about contemporary life. Amid a backdrop of industrialization, urbanization, world war, and reconstruction, many progressive German and Austrian artists and designers dreamed of a better world. Several common themes and aspirations emerged from this Utopian vision, but the styles and subjects varied remarkably. While some artists and designers appealed to traditional forms of representation and modes of production, others emphasized innovative expressions and technologies.

On Thursday, June 7, from 5 to 7 p.m., Living Modern: German and Austrian Art and Design, 1890–1933 will open at the Smart Museum of Art with a reception and introductory talk by Reinhold Heller, Professor of Art History and Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago. The exhibition features more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and household designs drawn from the Smart Museum’s collection. With works representing several major artistic and design movements—including Symbolism, Jugendstil, Expressionism, New Objectivity, and the Bauhaus—the exhibition looks at the various “Modernisms” that together contributed to the richness of life in Germany and Austria during a remarkable period of cultural, social, and political transformation

Modernism came of age in Germany and Austria in the first three decades of the twentieth century, heralded by shifts in style, subjects, and themes. Artists and designers frequently shared interests, including the aspiration to create a better world and reintegrate art into daily life. Yet this common desire to create new forms reflecting and influencing the rapidly changing world did not manifest itself in any one way.

Within artistic and design centers and across geographic and political boundaries, a variety of movements appeared in Germany and Austria—including Symbolist and Jugendstil aesthetics of the 1890s, Expressionist tendencies before World War I, and Constructivist and Bauhaus designs of the turbulent 1920s. In these progressive movements, old and new forms coexisted, mingled, and competed. Artists and designers issued appeals to traditional modes of representation and production as well as to contemporary forms and technologies. These dissonant calls for a new art and progressive design ultimately led to many varied approaches to living modern.

Exhibitions often isolate these movements or separate works by media, limiting the opportunity to recognize aesthetic and ideological correspondences present in the various “Modernisms” embraced in Germany and Austria. Living Modern: German and Austrian Art and Design, 1890–1933 instead puts the work of artists and designers side-by-side, focusing on the shared interests and common goals that underpin the visual culture of the period. The exhibition draws upon the Smart Museum’s significant holdings of German and Austrian art, most notably the Museum’s impressive collection of German works on paper. In addition to these highlights, the exhibition features a recently acquired and extremely rare silver tea service designed by the Bauhaus metalworker Marianne Brandt.

The exhibition is divided into three overlapping, thematic sections: Multiple Modernisms, 1890–1920; Alternate Modernisms, 1905–1933; and Constructed Modernism, 1920–1933. Roughly chronological in order, each section examines what it meant to be living a modern life, and traces key styles and themes in German and Austrian art and design during a period of cultural redefinition, social transformation, and political reorganization.

Multiple Modernisms, 1890–1920 - Following political unification in 1871, Germany modernized rapidly as the old agrarian economy was replaced by a new capitalist industrial system. Artists, writers, and reformers of the era had a double-sided notion of modernity: for some, it was a positive challenge, while for others it was an unavoidable ill. For example, in the wake of rapid industrialization and uncontrolled urban growth, some German and Austrian artists, architects, and designers sought to repair the perceived rupture between art and society by putting art at the service of industry. Others, however, chose to mix conservative subjects with modern styles and presented images of the German countryside or exotic lands as an alternative to mechanized, materialistic “civilization.”

This opening section of Living Modern examines the old and new forms that mingled in a bewildering number of styles: Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism, Secession, and Expressionism, and in the applied arts, Jugendstil and Arts and Crafts. While each sought to critique modern living, no one movement was dominant. Instead, these multiple modernisms offered a variety of artistic possibilities.

Alternate Modernisms, 1905–1933 - In the decades leading up to World War I, Expressionist artists, often aligned with members of two groups, Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), fervently championed the reorganization of contemporary society. Employing abstract figural and non-objective forms in their paintings, drawings, and prints, the Expressionists emphasized emotional and spiritual content to project an ideal future. Brücke members often framed their vision for society in the idyll of the country, couching their classless bohemia in images of rural lakes and coastal beaches, as in Erich Heckel’s East Baltic Seacoast. But they also celebrated the bustling life of city streets and gritty urban amusements such as the cabaret.

The carnage and destruction of World War I galvanized artists in Germany and Austria. While Expressionism remained a vital movement in the immediate post-war years of civil revolt and political reconstruction, by the middle of the 1920s it gave way to the harsh realism of New Objectivity. Fueled by loathing for militarism and nationalism, artists such as Otto Dix and George Grosz produced biting social commentaries directed against the powerful and wealthy of Weimer Germany, even as the country achieved greater social and economic stability. This section includes the entirety of Dix’s great print cycle The War (Der Krieg), which depicts the grotesque details of the First World War in a series of fifty prints.

Constructed Modernism, 1920–1933 - During the interwar period in Germany and Austria, modernist artists, architects, and designers assumed that their works should contribute to social change. From tubular steel chairs to laboratory glass teapots, objects announced a radical change in the concept of how one should live. Incorporating new materials and methods, buildings were purged of traditional ornamentation; interiors were made to be light, airy, and easy to clean. The dwelling became a site of a more dynamic kind of life, dedicated to the healthy body, intellectual pursuits, and outdoor activity.

This final section of Living Modern focuses on the Constructivist phase of the Bauhaus, when Germany’s pre-eminent design school shifted its focus from the artistic to the technical. Even graphic works such as László Maholy-Nagy’s wood engraving Untitled [planes and circles] heralded the renunciation of the artist’s hand in favor of the machine aesthetic of industrial manufacture. The Bauhaus objects of the period—with their geometric clarity and rigor—were developed as prototypes for mass production. The school envisioned a Utopia that was constructed aesthetically and the new Bauhaus forms became tied to the hope for a new and egalitarian society.