German art: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{short description|none}}

~~{{Short description|History of German works of art}}~~

[[File:Creglingen-002.JPG|thumb|[[Late Gothic (art)|Late Gothic]] ~~altar~~Marienaltar by [[Tilman Riemenschneider]], 1505-1508, Herrgottskirche, [[Creglingen]]]]

'''German art''' has a long and distinguished tradition in the [[visual arts]], from the earliest known work of figurative art to its current output of [[contemporary art]].

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==Prehistory to Late Antiquity==

[[File:Venus-of-Schelklingen.jpg|thumb|left|[[Venus of Hohle Fels]], 35,000 to 40,000 BP, the oldest known figurative work of art (true height {{convert|6|cm|in|abbr=on}})]]▼

The area of modern [[Germany]] is rich in finds of [[prehistoric art]], including the [[Venus of Hohle Fels]]. This appears to be the oldest undisputed example of [[Art of the Upper Paleolithic|Upper Paleolithic art]] and [[figurative art|figurative]] sculpture of the human form in general, from over 35,000 years BP, which was only discovered in 2008;<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/14/science/sci-venus14 Venus figurine sheds light on origins of art by early humans] [[Los Angeles Times]], May 14, 2009, accessed December 11, 2009</ref> the better-known [[Venus of Willendorf]] (24–22,000 BP) comes from a little way over the Austrian border. The spectacular finds of [[Bronze Age Europe|Bronze Age]] [[golden hat]]s are centred on Germany, as was the "central" form of [[Urnfield culture]], and [[Hallstatt culture]]. ▼

▲[[File:Venus-of-Schelklingen.jpg|thumb|left|[[Venus of Hohle Fels]], 3542,000 to 40,000 BP, the oldest known figurative work of art (true height {{convert|6|cm|in|abbr=on}})]]

~~{{Main|Celtic art}}~~

▲The area of modern [[Germany]] is rich in finds of [[prehistoric art]], including the [[Venus of Hohle Fels]], found in the [[Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura|Swabian Alps]]. This appears to be the oldest undisputed example of [[Art of the Upper Paleolithic|Upper Paleolithic art]] and [[figurative art|figurative]] sculpture of the human form in general, from over 3542,000 years BP, which was only discovered in 2008;<ref>[~~http~~https://~~articles~~www.latimes.com/~~2009~~archives/la-xpm-2009-may/-14~~/science/~~-sci-venus14-story.html Venus figurine sheds light on origins of art by early humans] [[Los Angeles Times]], May 14, 2009, accessed December 11, 2009</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEVKY8v3yuw&t=281s | title=Archäologie erleben - Mission Eiszeit | SWR Geschichte & Entdeckungen | website=[[YouTube]] | access-date=2023-12-16 | archive-date=2023-12-16 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216224639/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEVKY8v3yuw&t=281s | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.uni-tuebingen.de/en/news/press-releases/newsfullview-pressemitteilungen/article/es-muss-eigentlich-eine-frau-sein.html | title="It must be a woman" - The female depictions from Hohle Fels date to 40,000 years ago... | publisher=Universität Tübingen | date=July 22, 2016 | access-date=July 26, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011145105/https://www.uni-tuebingen.de/en/news/press-releases/newsfullview-pressemitteilungen/article/es-muss-eigentlich-eine-frau-sein.html | archive-date=October 11, 2016 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }}</ref> the better-known [[Venus of Willendorf]] (24–22,000 BP) comes from a little way over the Austrian border. The spectacular finds of [[Bronze Age Europe|Bronze Age]] [[golden hat]]s are centred on Germany, as was the "central" form of [[Urnfield culture]], and [[Hallstatt culture]].

[[File:Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave reconstruction.jpg|250px|thumb|Reconstruction of the [[Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave]], [[Stuttgart]]]]

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After lengthy wars, the [[Roman Empire]] settled its frontiers in [[Germania]] with the [[Limes Germanicus]] to include much of the south and west of modern Germany. The German provinces produced art in provincial versions of Roman styles, but centres there, as over the Rhine in France, were large-scale producers of fine [[Ancient Roman pottery]], exported all over the Empire. {{Citation needed|date=August 2015}} [[Rheinzabern]] was one of the largest, which has been well-excavated and has a dedicated museum.<ref>[http://www.terra-sigillata-museum.de/ Terra Sigillata Museum Rheinzabern] (in German)</ref>

~~{{Main|Migration Period art}}~~

Non-Romanized areas of the later Roman period fall under [[Migration Period art]], notable for metalwork, especially jewellery (the largest pieces apparently mainly worn by men). {{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

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==Renaissance painting and prints==

[[File:HMF Duerer Gruenewald Harrich Heller-Altar DSC 6312.jpg|thumb|The [[Heller altar]] by [[Albrecht Dürer]]]]

The concept of the [[Northern Renaissance]] or [[German Renaissance]] is somewhat confused by the continuation of the use of elaborate Gothic ornament until well into the 16th century, even in works that are undoubtedly Renaissance in their treatment of the human figure and other respects. Classical ornament had little historical resonance in much of Germany, but in other respects Germany was very quick to follow developments, especially in adopting [[printing]] with [[movable type]], a German invention that remained almost a German monopoly for some decades, and was [[Global spread of the printing press|first brought to most of Europe]], including France and Italy, by Germans.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

=== Printmaking and Dürer ===

[[File:Dürer Melancholia I.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Melencolia I]]'', 1514, engraving by [[Albrecht Dürer]]]]

[[Printmaking]] by [[woodcut]], [[etching]], invented by [[Daniel Hopfer]], and [[engraving]] (perhaps another German invention) was already more developed in Germany and the [[Low Countries]] than anywhere else, and the Germans took the lead in developing book illustrations, typically of a relatively low artistic standard, but seen all over Europe, with the woodblocks often being lent to printers of editions in other cities or languages. The greatest artist of the German Renaissance, [[Albrecht Dürer]], began his career as an apprentice to a leading workshop in Nuremberg, that of [[Michael Wolgemut]], who had largely abandoned his painting to exploit the new medium. Dürer worked on the most extravagantly illustrated book of the period, the [[Nuremberg Chronicle]], published by his godfather [[Anton Koberger]], Europe's largest printer-publisher at the time.<ref name=Bartrum2002>Bartrum (2002)</ref>

After completing his apprenticeship in 1490, Dürer travelled in Germany for four years, and Italy for a few months, before establishing his own workshop in Nuremberg. He rapidly became famous all over Europe for his energetic and balanced woodcuts and engravings, while also painting. Though retaining a distinctively German style, his work shows strong Italian influence, and is often taken to represent the start of the German Renaissance in visual art, which for the next forty years replaced the Netherlands and France as the area producing the greatest innovation in Northern European art. Dürer supported [[Martin Luther]] but continued to create [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]]s and other Catholic imagery, and paint portraits of leaders on both sides of the emerging split of the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref name=Bartrum2002/>

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[[File:Albrecht Altdorfer 007.jpg|thumb|220px|left|[[Albrecht Altdorfer]] (c. 1480–1538), ''Danube landscape near Regensburg'' c. 1528, one of the earliest Western pure landscapes, from the [[Danube School]] in southern [[Germany]]]]

=== Danube School and Northern Mannerism ===

The [[Danube School]] is the name of a circle of artists of the first third of the 16th century in [[Bavaria]] and Austria, including [[Albrecht Altdorfer]], [[Wolf Huber]] and [[Augustin Hirschvogel]]. With Altdorfer in the lead, the school produced the first examples of independent [[landscape art]] in the West (nearly 1,000 years after China), in both paintings and prints.<ref>Wood, 9 – this is the main subject of the whole book</ref> Their religious paintings had an [[expressionist]] style somewhat similar to Grünewald's. Dürer's pupils [[Hans Burgkmair]] and [[Hans Baldung Grien]] worked largely in prints, with Baldung developing the topical subject matter of [[witch]]es in a number of enigmatic prints.<ref>Snyder, Ch. XVII, Bartrum, 1995</ref>

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==Gothic and Renaissance sculpture==

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===Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassicism===

{{Main|Baroque#German Baroque|Rococo#Southern Germany|Neoclassicism#Germany}}

[[File:Johann Liss 006.jpg|thumb|left|''The Fall of [[Phaethon|Phaeton]]'' by [[Johann Liss]]]]

[[File:Christian Gottlieb Schick 003.jpg|thumb|left|[[Gottlieb Schick]], ''Frau von Cotta'', 1802]]

~~{{Main|Johann Liss|Ludolf Bakhuisen|Heinrich Füger}}~~

[[Baroque painting]] was slow to arrive in Germany, with very little before about 1650, but once established seems to have suited German taste well. [[Baroque]] and [[Rococo]] periods saw German art producing mostly works derivative of developments elsewhere, though numbers of skilled artists in various genres were active. The period remains little-known outside Germany, and though it "never made any claim to be among the great schools of painting", its neglect by non-German art history remains striking.<ref>Griffiths & Carey, 24 (quotation), and Scheyer, 9 (from 1960, but the point remains valid)</ref> Many distinguished foreign painters spent periods working in Germany for princes, among them [[Bernardo Bellotto]] in [[Dresden]] and elsewhere, and [[Gianbattista Tiepolo]], who spent three years painting the [[Würzburg Residence]] with [[Domenico Tiepolo|his son]]. Many German painters worked abroad, including [[Johann Liss]] who worked mainly in [[Venice]], [[Joachim von Sandrart]] and [[Ludolf Bakhuisen]], the leading marine artist of the final years of [[Dutch Golden Age painting]]. In the late 18th century the portraitist [[Heinrich Füger]] and his pupil [[Johann Peter Krafft]], whose best known works are three large murals in the [[Hofburg Imperial Palace|Hofburg]], had both moved to Vienna as students and stayed there.<ref>Novotny, 62–65</ref>

~~{{Main|Anton Raphael Mengs|Gottfried Schadow|Gottlieb Schick}}~~

[[Neoclassicism]], which was born largely thanks to the writings of [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]], appears rather earlier in Germany than in France, with [[Anton Raphael Mengs]] (1728–79), the Danish painter [[Asmus Jacob Carstens]] (1754–98), and the sculptor [[Gottfried Schadow]] (1764–1850). Mengs was one of the most highly regarded artists of his day, working in Rome, Madrid and elsewhere, and finding an early [[Neoclassicism|Neo-Classical]] style that now seems rather effete, although his portraits are more effective. Carstens' shorter career was turbulent and troubled, leaving a trail of unfinished works, but through pupils and friends such as [[Gottlieb Schick]], [[Joseph Anton Koch]] and [[Bonaventura Genelli]], more influential.<ref>Novotny, 49–59</ref> Koch was born in the mountains of the Austrian [[Tyrol (state)|Tyrol]] and became the leading Continental painter of [[landscape art|landscapes]], concentrating on mountain views, despite spending much of his career in Rome. {{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

~~{{Main|Daniel Chodowiecki|Johann Baptist Zimmermann}}~~

[[Daniel Chodowiecki]] was born in [[Danzig]], and at least partly identified as Polish, although he only spoke German and French. His paintings and hundreds of prints, book illustrations and political cartoons are an invaluable visual record of the everyday life and the increasingly complex mentality of [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] Germany, and its emerging [[Nationalism]].<ref>Griffiths & Carey, 50–68, Novotny, 60–62</ref> The Swiss-born [[Anton Graff]] was a prolific portraitist in Dresden, who painted literary figures as well as the court. The [[Tischbein family]] dynasty were solid all-rounders who covered most of the 18th century between them, as did the [[Zick]] family, initially mainly painters of grand Baroque ceilings, who were still active in the 20th century in the person of the illustrator [[Alexander Zick]].<ref>Novotny, 60</ref> Both the [[Asam brothers]], and [[Johann Baptist Zimmermann]] and [[Dominikus Zimmermann|his brother]], were able between them to provide a complete service for commissions for churches and palaces, designing the building and executing the stucco and wall-paintings. The combined effect of all the elements of these buildings in South Germany, Austria and [[Bohemia]], especially their interiors, represent some of the most complete and extreme realizations of the Baroque aspiration to overwhelm the viewer with the "radiant fairy world of the nobleman's dwelling", or the "foretaste of the glories of Paradise" in the case of churches.<ref>Gombrich, 352–357; quotes from pp. 355 & 357</ref>

The earliest German [[academy]] was the [[Akademie der Künste]] founded in [[Berlin]] in 1696, and through the next two centuries a number of other cities established their own institutions, in parallel with developments in other European nations. In Germany the uncertain market for art in a country divided into a multitude of small states meant that significant German artists have been to the present day more likely to accept teaching posts in the academies and their successor institutions than their equivalents in England or France have been. In general German academies imposed a particular style less rigidly than was for long the case in Paris, London, Moscow or elsewhere. {{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

===Writing about art===

[[File:Johann Joachim Winckelmann (Anton von Maron 1768).jpg|thumb|[[Anton von Maron]], ''Portrait of [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]]'', 1768]]

The Enlightenment period saw German writers becoming leading theorists and critics of art, led by [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]], who exalted [[Ancient Greek art]] and, despite never visiting Greece or actually seeing many Ancient Greek statues, set out an analysis distinguishing between the main periods of Ancient Greek art, and relating them to wider historical movements. Winckelmann's work marked the entry of art history into the high-philosophical discourse of German culture; he was read avidly by [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe|Goethe]] and [[Friedrich Schiller]], both of whom began to write on the history of art, and his account of the [[Laocoön Group]] occasioned a response by [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]]. Goethe had tried to train as an artist, and his landscape sketches show "occasional flashes of emotion in the presence of nature which are quite isolated in the period".<ref>Novotny, 78 (quotation); and see index for Winckelmann etc.</ref> The emergence of art as a major subject of philosophical speculation was solidified by the appearance of [[Immanuel Kant]]'s ''[[Critique of Judgment]]'' in 1790, and was furthered by [[Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel|Hegel]]'s ''Lectures on Aesthetics''. In the following century, German universities were the first to teach art history as an academic subject, beginning the leading position that Germany (and Austria) was to occupy in the study of [[art history]] until the dispersal of scholars abroad in the Nazi period. [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] championed what he identified in the Gothic and Dürer as specifically Germanic styles, beginning an argument over the proper models for a German artist against the so-called "Tyranny of Greece over Germany" that would last nearly two centuries.<ref>The rhetorical phrase was coined, or popularized, by: [[E. M. Butler|Butler, Eliza M.]], "The Tyranny of Greece over Germany: a study of the influence exercised by Greek art and poetry over the great German writers of the▼

~~{{Main|Art history|Johann Joachim Winckelmann|Johann Gottfried Herder}}~~

▲The Enlightenment period saw German writers becoming leading theorists and critics of art, led by [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]], who exalted [[Ancient Greek art]] and, despite never visiting Greece or actually seeing many Ancient Greek statues, set out an analysis distinguishing between the main periods of Ancient Greek art, and relating them to wider historical movements. Winckelmann's work marked the entry of art history into the high-philosophical discourse of German culture; he was read avidly by [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe|Goethe]] and [[Friedrich Schiller]], both of whom began to write on the history of art, and his account of the [[Laocoön Group]] occasioned a response by [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]]. Goethe had tried to train as an artist, and his landscape sketches show "occasional flashes of emotion in the presence of nature which are quite isolated in the period".<ref>Novotny, 78 (quotation); and see index for Winckelmann etc.</ref> The emergence of art as a major subject of philosophical speculation was solidified by the appearance of [[Immanuel Kant]]'s ''[[Critique of Judgment]]'' in 1790, and was furthered by [[Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel|Hegel]]'s ''Lectures on Aesthetics''. In the following century, German universities were the first to teach art history as an academic subject, beginning the leading position that Germany (and Austria) was to occupy in the study of [[art history]] until the dispersal of scholars abroad in the Nazi period. [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] championed what he identified in the Gothic and Dürer as specifically Germanic styles, beginning an argument over the proper models for a German artist against the so-called "Tyranny of Greece over Germany" that would last nearly two centuries.<ref>The rhetorical phrase was coined, or popularized, by: [[E. M. Butler|Butler, Eliza M.]], "The Tyranny of Greece over Germany: a study of the influence exercised by Greek art and poetry over the great German writers of the

The emergence of art as a major subject of philosophical speculation was solidified by the appearance of [[Immanuel Kant]]'s ''[[Critique of Judgment]]'' in 1790, and was furthered by [[Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel|Hegel]]'s ''Lectures on Aesthetics''. In the following century, German universities were the first to teach art history as an academic subject, beginning the leading position that Germany (and Austria) was to occupy in the study of [[art history]] until the dispersal of scholars abroad in the Nazi period. [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] championed what he identified in the Gothic and Dürer as specifically Germanic styles, beginning an argument over the proper models for a German artist against the so-called "Tyranny of Greece over Germany" that would last nearly two centuries.<ref>The rhetorical phrase was coined, or popularized, by: [[E. M. Butler|Butler, Eliza M.]], "The Tyranny of Greece over Germany: a study of the influence exercised by Greek art and poetry over the great German writers of the

eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries" (Cambridge Univ. Press, London, 1935)</ref>

===Romanticism and the Nazarenes===

[[File:Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the sea of fog.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Caspar David Friedrich]], ''[[Wanderer above the Sea of Fog]]'' (1818)]]▼

▲[[File:Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the sea of fog.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Caspar David Friedrich]], ''[[Wanderer above the Sea of Fog]]'' (1818)]]

[[German Romanticism]] saw a revival of innovation and distinctiveness in German art. Outside Germany only [[Caspar David Friedrich]] is well-known, but there were a number of artists with very individual styles, notably [[Philipp Otto Runge]], who like Friedrich had trained at the [[Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts|Copenhagen Academy]] and was forgotten after his death until a revival in the 20th century. Friedrich painted almost entirely landscapes, with a distinctive Northern feel, and always a feeling of quasi-religious stillness. Often his figures are seen from behind – they like the viewer are lost in contemplation of the landscape.<ref>Novotny, 95–101</ref> Runge's portraits, mostly of his own circle, are naturalistic except for his huge-faced children, but the other works in his brief career increasingly reflected a visionary [[pantheism]].<ref>Novotny, 106–112</ref> [[Adrian Ludwig Richter]] is mainly remembered for his portraits, and [[Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder|Carl Wilhelm Kolbe]] was purely an [[etcher]] (as well as a [[philologist]]), whose later prints show figures almost swallowed up by gigantic vegetation.<ref>Griffiths and Carey, 112–122</ref>

[[File:Friedrich Overbeck 008.jpg|thumb|left|[[Johann Friedrich Overbeck]] of the [[Nazarene movement]], ''Italia und Germania'']]

~~{{Main|Johann Friedrich Overbeck|Franz Pforr|Philipp Veit}}~~

The [[Nazarene movement]], the coinage of a mocking critic, denotes a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art. The principal motivation of the Nazarenes was a reaction against Neoclassicism and the routine art education of the academy system. They hoped to return to art which embodied spiritual values, and sought inspiration in artists of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, rejecting what they saw as the superficial virtuosity of later art. Their programme was not dissimilar to that of the English [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood]] in the 1850s, although the core group took it as far as wearing special pseudo-medieval clothing. In 1810 [[Johann Friedrich Overbeck]], [[Franz Pforr]], [[Ludwig Vogel]] and the Swiss Johann Konrad Hottinger moved to [[Rome]], where they occupied the abandoned monastery of San Isidoro. They were joined by [[Philipp Veit]], [[Peter von Cornelius]], [[Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld]], [[Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow]] and a loose grouping of other German artists. They met up with the Austrian romantic landscape artist Joseph Anton Koch, (1768–1839) who became an unofficial tutor to the group. In 1827 they were joined by [[Joseph von Führich]], and [[Eberhard Wächter (painter)|Eberhard Wächter]] was later associated with the group. Unlike the strong support given to the Pre-Raphaelites by the dominant art critic of the day, [[John Ruskin]], Goethe was dismissive of the Nazarenes: "This is the first case in the history of art when real talents have taken the fancy to form themselves backwards by retreating into their mother's womb, and thus found a new epoch in art."<ref>Griffiths & Carey, 24–25 and ''passim'', quotation from p. 24</ref>

~~{{Main|Düsseldorf school}}~~

Led by the Nazarene Schadow, son of the sculptor, the [[Düsseldorf school]] was a group of artists who painted mostly landscapes, and who studied at, or were influenced by the [[Kunstakademie Düsseldorf|Düsseldorf Academy]], founded in 1767. The academy's influence grew in the 1830s and 1840s, and it had many American students, several of whom became associated with the [[Hudson River School]].<ref>John K. Howat: American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School, S. 311</ref>

[[File:Ritratto della famiglia Begas.jpg|thumb|The family of the painter [[Carl Begas]], 1808, celebrating domesticity in [[Biedermeier]] style]]

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===Naturalism and beyond===

[[Biedermeier]] refers to a style in literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] in 1815 and the revolutions of 1848. Biedermeier art appealed to the prosperous middle classes by detailed but polished [[realism (arts)|realism]], often celebrating domestic virtues, and came to dominate over French-leaning aristocratic tastes, as well as the yearnings of Romanticism. [[Carl Spitzweg]] was a leading German artist in the style.<ref>Doyle, Margaret, in ''Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850, Volume 1'',

ed. Christopher John Murray, p. 89, Taylor & Francis, 2004 {{ISBN|1-57958-361-X}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=bXnMs-YDEF4C&dq=Biedermeier+painting&pg=PA89 Google books]</ref> The ''[[Zimmerbild]]'' or "portrait" of an empty room, became a popular form.

~~[https://books.google.com/books?id=bXnMs-YDEF4C&dq=Biedermeier+painting&pg=PA89 Google books]</ref>~~

[[File:Suende Franz Stuck ohne Rahmen.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Franz Stuck]] (1873) ''Sünde'' (''Sin'')]]

In the second half of the 19th century a number of styles developed, paralleling trends in other European counties, though the lack of a dominant capital city probably contributed to even more diversity of styles than in other countries.<ref>Hamilton, 180</ref>

~~{{Main|Munich School}}~~

[[Adolph Menzel]] enjoyed enormous popularity both among the German public and officialdom; at his funeral [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor]] walked behind his coffin. He dramaticised past and contemporary [[Prussia]]n military successes both in paintings and brilliant [[wood engraving]]s illustrating books, yet his domestic subjects are intimate and touching. He followed the development of early [[Impressionism]] to create a style that he used for depicting grand public occasions, among other subjects like his ''[[Studio Wall]]''. [[Karl von Piloty]] was a leading [[academic art|academic]] painter of history subjects in the latter part of the century who taught [[Academy of Fine Arts Munich|in Munich]]; among his more famous pupils were [[Hans Makart]], [[Franz von Lenbach]], [[Franz Defregger]], [[Gabriel von Max]] and [[Eduard von Grützner]]. The term "Munich school" is used both of German [[Munich School|and of Greek painting]], after Greeks like [[Georgios Jakobides]] studied under him.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}} Piloty's most influential pupil was Wilhelm Leibl. Being the head of the so called Leibl-Circle, an informal group of artists with a non-academic approach to art, he had a great impact on Realism in Germany.<ref>Wilhelm Leibl. The art of seeing, Kunsthaus Zürich, 2019</ref>

~~{{Main|Jugendstil|Berlin Secession|Munich Secession|Beuron Art School}}~~

The [[Berlin Secession]] was a group founded in 1898 by painters including [[Max Liebermann]], who broadly shared the artistic approach of [[Manet]] and the French [[Impressionist]]s, and [[Lovis Corinth]] then still painting in a naturalistic style. The group survived until the 1930s, despite splits, and its regular exhibitions helped launch the next two generations of Berlin artists, without imposing a particular style.<ref>Hamilton, 181–184, and see index for later mentions</ref> Near the end of the century, the [[Benedictine]] [[Beuron Art School]] developed a style, mostly for religious murals, in rather muted colours, with a [[medievalist]] interest in pattern that drew from [[Les Nabis]] and in some ways looked forward to [[Art Nouveau]] or the [[Jugendstil]] ("Youth Style") as it is known in German.<ref>Hamilton, 113</ref> [[Franz von Stuck]] and [[Max Klinger]] are the leading German [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist]] painters.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

==20th century==

=== Expressionism and the Bauhaus ===

[[File:Franz Marc 020.jpg|thumb|''Rehe im Walde'' ("[[Roe deer]] in the forest") by [[Franz Marc]], 1914]]

Even more than in other countries, German art in the early 20th century developed through a number of loose groups and movements, many covering other artistic media as well, and often with a specific political element, as with the [[Arbeitsrat für Kunst]] and [[November Group (German)|November Group]], both formed in 1918. In 1922 The November Group, the Dresden Secession, Das Junge Rheinland, and several other progressive groups formed a "Cartel of advanced artistic groups in Germany" (Kartell fortschrittlicher Künstlergruppen in Deutschland) in an effort to gain exposure.<ref>Crockett, Dennis (1999). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=EQzdp1zN--oC&pg=PA76 German Post-Expressionism : The Art of the Great Disorder 1918–1924]''. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 76. {{ISBN|0271043164}}.</ref>

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''Die Brücke'' and ''Der Blaue Reiter'' were both examples of tendency of early 20th-century German art to be "honest, direct, and spiritually engaged"<ref>Hunter, Jacobus, and Wheeler (2000) p. 113</ref> The difference in how the two groups attempted this were telling, however. The artists of Der Blaue Reiter were less oriented towards intense expression of emotion and more towards theory- a tendency which would lead Kandinsky to pure abstraction. Still, it was the spiritual and symbolic properties of abstract form that were important. There were therefore Utopian tones to Kandinsky's abstractions: "We have before us an age of conscious creation, and this new spirit in painting is going hand in hand with thoughts toward an epoch of greater spirituality."<ref>qtd. Hunter et al p. 118</ref> ''Die Brücke'' also had Utopian tendencies, but took the medieval craft guild as a model of cooperative work that could better society- "Everyone who with directness and authenticity conveys that which drives him to creation belongs to us".<ref>From the Manifesto of Die Brücke, qtd Hunter et al p. 113</ref> The [[Bauhaus]] also shared these Utopian leanings, seeking to combine fine and applied arts ([[Gesamtkunstwerk]]) with a view towards creating a better society. {{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

===Weimar period; Dada and beyond===

[[File:Made in Germany by George Grosz 1920.jpg|thumb|''Made in Germany'' ({{lang-de|Den macht uns keiner nach}}), by [[George Grosz]], drawn in pen 1919, photo-lithograph 1920]]▼

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▲~~[[File:Made in Germany by George Grosz 1920.jpg|thumb~~|caption1=''Made in Germany'' ({{lang-de|Den macht uns keiner nach}}), by [[George Grosz]], drawn in pen 1919, photo-lithograph 1920]]

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|image2=Hoch-Cut With the Kitchen Knife.jpg

|caption2=[[Hannah Höch]], ''Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Epoch of Weimar Beer-Belly Culture in Germany'', 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90×144 cm, [[Berlin State Museums|Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin]]

}}

A major feature of German art in the early 20th century until 1933 was a boom in the production of works of art of a [[grotesque]] style.<ref>[[Esti Sheinberg]] (2000) ''Irony, Satire, Parody and the Grotesque in the Music of Dmitrii Shostakovich'', pp.248–9, {{ISBN|978-0-7546-0226-2}}</ref><ref>[[Pamela Kort]] (2004) ''Comic Grotesque'', Prestel Publishing {{ISBN|978-3-7913-3195-9}}</ref> Artists using the [[Satirical]]-[[Grotesque]] genre included [[George Grosz]], [[Otto Dix]] and [[Max Beckmann]], at least in their works of the 1920s. [[Dada]] in Germany, the leading practitioners of which were [[Kurt Schwitters]] and [[Hannah Höch]], was centered in Berlin, where it tended to be more politically oriented than Dada groups elsewhere.<ref name="Hunter et all on Dada">Hunter, Jacobus, and Wheeler (2000) pp. 173–77</ref> They made important contributions to the development of collage as a medium for political commentary- Schwitters later developed his ''Merzbau'', a forerunner of installation art.<ref name="Hunter et all on Dada" /> Dix and Grosz were also associated with the Berlin Dada group. [[Max Ernst]] led a [[Dada]] group in Cologne, where he also practiced collage, but with a greater interest in Gothic fantasy than in overt political content—this hastened his transition into [[surrealism]], of which he became the leading German practitioner.<ref>Hamilton, 473–478</ref> The Swiss-born [[Paul Klee]], [[Lyonel Feininger]] and others experimented with [[cubism]]. {{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

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==Post-World War II art==

=== Neo-expressionism, Richter and Socialist realism ===

[[File:Mosaik Alexanderstr 9 (Mitte) Unser Leben&Walter Womacka&19642.jpg|thumb|[[Walter Womacka]], ''Our Life'', [[socialist realist]] mosaic from [[East Berlin]], 1964]]

[[File:Berlin - Frankfurter Tor.jpg|thumb|[[Karl-Marx-Allee]]]]

[[File:BeuysAchberg78.jpg|thumb|Joseph Beuys, wearing his ubiquitous fedora, delivers a lecture on his theory of [[social sculpture]], 1978.]]▼

Post-war art trends in Germany can broadly be divided into [[Socialist realism]] in the DDR (communist [[East Germany]]), and in [[West Germany]] a variety of largely international movements including [[Neo-expressionism]] and [[Conceptual art|Conceptualism]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

▲[[File:BeuysAchberg78.jpg|thumb|[[Joseph Beuys]], wearing his ubiquitous fedora, delivers a lecture on his theory of [[social sculpture]], 1978.]]

~~[[File:Berlín, Friedrichshein, Café Moskau.jpg|thumb]]~~

Notable socialist realism include or included [[Walter Womacka]], [[Willi Sitte]], [[Werner Tübke]] and [[Bernhard Heiliger|Bernhard Heisig]].

[[File:Gerhard Richter by Lothar Wolleh.jpg|thumb|left|[[Gerhard Richter]] c. 1970, photograph by [[Lothar Wolleh]]]]

Especially notable neo-expressionists include or included [[Georg Baselitz]], [[Anselm Kiefer]], [[Jörg Immendorff]], [[A. R. Penck]], [[Markus Lüpertz]], [[Peter Robert Keil]] and [[Rainer Fetting]]. Other notable artists who work with traditional media or figurative imagery include [[Martin Kippenberger]], [[Gerhard Richter]], [[Sigmar Polke]], and [[Neo Rauch]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

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[[File:Trash People at Cologne.jpg|thumb|upright|left|HA Schult, ''Trash People'', shown in Cologne]]

=== Performance art, happenings, video art and Joseph Beuys ===

The [[Performance art]]ist, sculptor, and theorist [[Joseph Beuys]] was perhaps the most influential German artist of the late 20th century.<ref>[http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/306 Moma Focus], retrieved 16 December 2009</ref> His main contribution to theory was the expansion of the [[Gesamtkunstwerk]] to include the whole of society, as expressed by his famous expression "Everyone is an artist". This expanded concept of art, known as [[social sculpture]], defines everything that contributes creatively to society as artistic in nature. The form this took in his oeuvre varied from richly metaphoric, almost shamanistic performances based on his personal mythology (''[[How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare]]'', ''[[I Like America and America Likes Me]]'') to more direct and utilitarian expressions, such as [[7000 Oaks]] and his activities in the [[Alliance '90/The Greens|Green party]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}