Berlin, Dresden, Stuttgart, Munich, Vienna, Paris
The B.D.S.M.V.P. Book: An Artist’s Book Responding to German Expressionism
German Expressionism is a subset of the Expressionist movement, an umbrella covering many groups across Northern Europe from 1900 through both world wars. These included The Bridge, The Blue Rider, New Objectivity, Dada, and Surrealism, with major contributing figures including Wassily Kandinsky, Wilhelm Lhembruk, Max Beckmann, and Otto Dix. They were part of a generation of young men who welcomed the First World War and volunteered for it, only to be traumatized by their experiences and left to scramble as the Weimar Republic developed then gave way to the Nazi regime, and of course World War Two.
Following both the first and second world wars there were huge immigrations of refugees who brought their ideas and practices to the US as they fled devastation and persecution in Europe. In the fine arts this cultural enrichment gave birth to the Abstract Expressionist movement, institutions such as Black Mountain College and Hans Hoffman’s school, and the careers of artist’s such as Willem and Elaine de Kooning.
Spending five weeks in six cities chasing works by the German Expressionists gave me up to absorbing the full spectrum of Expressionism that came out of Eastern Europe during that time period. I quickly saw how difficult it was to delineate between countries’ artistic production as many who were born in one area moved to study, moved to fight, and moved again for their families, work, or to flee. I mimicked that movement on a micro scale.
The book itself is a compilation of sketches, watercolors, and collaged bits of paper bound inside a hard cover, the back of which has a pocket with loose pages, cards, and pop-ups that can expand around the book. My materials ranged from proper sketchbook pages, card stock, and cloth paper, to exhibition brochures, train tickets, scraps of postcard bags, the odd piece of a bread bag. All of this and the odd scrap of clothing I carted around in a backpack, packing up glue, pens, sketchbook, and the loose pieces multiple times a day to change locals or catch a train. I developed a pattern as I traveled: visit a museum in the morning, take some notes, collect pamphlets and postcards, then in the afternoon find a park, sit on the ground and figure out how the morning’s materials fit together, or what I’d discard. This was also when I would experiment with writing, what I thought of the work, what I thought of the museums, the park, what I’d eaten or what I wanted to find for dinner.
Keeping with the spontaneous spirit, strict academicism was quickly abandoned during the trip. Artist’s books are often closer to art objects or poetry collections than books of prose, often irreproducible. The Dada movement in particular created masses of these books and pamphlets, most of which have been lost to time. As a methodology however, the artistic process of following the individual’s emotions and tendencies survived in the Abstract Expressionist community in New York City.
