Expressionism multiplied: early twentieth-century German posters between art, commerce, and politics

Unrestricted Although German Expressionism is a term that circulates widely, it is notoriously challenging to define. This dissertation constitutes an attempt to take up this challenge, proposing a new understanding of Expressionism that results from an investigation of the relationship between Expressionist painting and prints, and the most common form of imagery in early twentieth-century German public space—the color lithographic poster.; To reveal implications of this dynamic, I examine representative examples of commercial posters and Expressionist art alongside early twentieth-century German art criticism, art historical writings, and discussions of advertising, all of which explore the specificity and inter-relatedness, or unrelatedness, of these types of pictures. Expressionism and posters emerge as occupying similar discursive positions within broader discussions about the status of the image in modernity, serving as flash points around which uneasiness about and hopes for the image and the status of art in modernity were articulated.; My investigation spans the "Expressionist era" (1905-1921), beginning with its “birth,” the formation of Künstlergruppe Brücke in Dresden, and concluding with the year following its “death” in 1920, announced by its former advocate Wilhelm Worringer. I trace transformations in “Expressionism” as it shifted from naming early manifestations of German experimental art, to declaring an aesthetically driven socialist stance, to designating a repeatable style that could be used as readily for political posters as it could be for nightclub interiors, advertising, or feature films.; Exceeding notions of "style" or "movement," Expressionism registered contemporary shifts in the field of the visual. It has operated, then and now, as a generative concept, producing ways of configuring and understanding the pictures that circulated in the public sphere. To do this, Expressionism required an extensive critical apparatus supported by sophisticated print media in order to stake its claim to specificity. Expressionism is thus a composite form in which diverse concepts of representation, art, kitsch, commercialism, consumerism, national identity, and social and cultural progressiveness and conservatism converged and collided. It is an interconnected web of picture and criticism, an adaptive yet distinct discursive apparatus that served as a resilient strategy for making sense of the visual world of modernity.

无限制使用：尽管“德国表现主义”（German Expressionism）是一个被广泛传播的术语，但众所周知，对其进行定义极具挑战性。本论文正是为应对这一挑战而作，通过探究表现主义绘画与版画，以及20世纪初德国公共空间中最常见的图像形式——彩色石印海报之间的关联，提出了一种对表现主义的全新认知。为揭示这一互动关系的深层意涵，本文将商业海报与表现主义艺术的代表性案例，与20世纪初德国艺术批评、艺术史著作以及广告相关讨论结合起来进行考察。上述所有文本均探讨了此类图像的特殊性及其相互关联或互不相关之处。研究发现，表现主义与海报在关于现代性中图像地位的广泛讨论中占据着相似的话语位置，成为了围绕现代性中图像与艺术地位所产生的焦虑与期许得以表达的焦点。本研究的时间跨度覆盖“表现主义时代”（1905-1921年）：始于其“诞生”——德累斯顿桥社艺术家团体（Künstlergruppe Brücke）的成立，终于1920年其“消亡”的次年，而1920年的“消亡”论断由表现主义昔日的支持者威廉·沃林格提出。本文追溯了“表现主义”概念的演变：从最初指代德国实验艺术的早期形态，到被标榜为受美学驱动的社会主义立场，再到被定义为一种可复制的风格，既可用于政治海报，也可适配夜总会内饰、广告或故事片。超越“风格”或“运动”的传统认知，表现主义映射了视觉领域的当代变革。无论在当时还是当下，它都作为一种生成性概念发挥作用，为梳理和理解公共领域中流通的图像提供了路径。要实现这一点，表现主义需要依托成熟印刷媒介支撑的完备批评体系，以确立其自身的特殊性主张。因此，表现主义是一种复合形态，汇集并碰撞了关于再现、艺术、媚俗、商业主义、消费主义、民族身份以及社会文化进步与保守的多元观念。它是图像与批评交织而成的互联网络，是一种兼具适应性与独特性的话语机制，成为解读现代性视觉世界的韧性策略。