Swiftly I approach the main entrance. Despite the piercing cold of a blustery morn, I find myself eager with anticipation to take in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s feature exhibition, “Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945.”
Photographs adorn the bleach white walls in a linear arrangement, no doubt a sardonic statement. The Elitist Overlords of Artistic Display are at work (EOAD). John Heartfield, Max Ernst, and Umbo (Otto Umbehr) are just a few of the many artists whose works embody this captivating exhibition.
The exhibition represents the boom of photographic enthusiasm that took place in central Europe during this interwar period. Many European artists made enormous contributions to modern photography. This formative period witnessed the emergence of Surrealism, Dadaism, Photomontage and various other experimental processes.
I was particularly enraptured by Marianne Brandt’s “Untitled, ca. 1930,” a photomontage of a German city. The smoke of a man’s cigarette projects the dark image of a city wrought with chaos. Skyscrapers rise abruptly to pierce the cloudless sky. From the cigarette, thick plumes of smoke billow forth, covering the city in a pall of smog, threatening to bury its inhabitants alive. This image suggests a horrifying future for Germany under the Third Reich.
Roman Vishniac’s “Entrance to the Ghetto, Kazinierz, 1937,” captures a Jewish ghetto in Krakow. The rich texture of a rain soaked cobblestone alley and brick tenements towering out of view, beckon me to imagine what lies beyond the heavy fog looming in the distance.
I am struck by the reality of strangers pacing about in this open space absorbing images of rolling landscapes, urban environments and faces devoid of hope. My eyes yearn to uncover their meaning. This position, as an observer of a land both strange and complex, is altogether terrifying, yet thrilling to the core my imagination.
“Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945,” is open until May 4, 2008.
The UWM Union Theatre will be screening a series of films in cooperation with the Milwaukee Art Museum. “Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe,” will play every Wednesday throughout the duration of “Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945.” All films are free with a donation.
