Influence of World War One on Early Modern Art

 Influence of World War One on Early Modern Art

        The first modern war, World War One, left impacts on those from all walks of life, whether it be those left at home and in the factories worrying about their loved ones, or the millions who fight and die on the battlefield. The catastrophic mixture of premodern tactics and modern influenced many things such as weapons, tactics, vehicles, medicine, and most importantly for us, art. 



 The La Mitrailleuse’ by CRW Nevinson, London, 1915

    The La Mitrailleuse’ is a work that I found interesting and shows how the war shifted the view of people on soldiers. The blues and greys accompanied by the angular features and shadowed eyes, show how "they appear almost like machines themselves, losing their individuality, even their humanity, as they seem to fuse with the machine gun which gives this painting its title" ('La mitrailleuse', Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, 1915). This rings especially true due to the modern weapon's enhanced ranges and accuracy, which made killing from a distance easier and much less personal. The plane colors and angular nature of the work also helps portray the serious atmosphere of the trenches, where you don't know when your time will come, whether in the form of bombardment, a hail of gunfire, or the use of a chemical weapon.




We Are Making a New World by Paul Nash, 1918, Britan

    The work We Are Making a New World is a piece of art that I mostly enjoyed for its ironic message. Nash meant for this piece of art the ambitions of the leaders of the war, with the land they crave being bombarded and unnavigable, while the mounds appear to be graves for the dead (We are making a new world). The vertically oriented trees with broken tops can be seen as the ambitions of the leaders crumbling, along with the strength of their nations. The small pallet of colors gives a feeling that war, no matter the reason, is something that will always bring a disastrous and bleak outcome. The last ironic detail I will focus on is the sunrise signaling a new world has been made, with mankind's urges to destroy, focused on the old world, instead of being built by mankind's desire to create a new one like most would naturally think.



The Spirit of Our Time– Mechanical Head by Raoul Hausmann,1919, Berlin

        The sculpture The Spirit of Our Time– Mechanical Head is a good representation of the influence of World War One after the war. The sculpture is meant to mock the German society with how they marched to war, full of determination and creativity, and returned shattered and more mechanical in nature, needing to rely on the tools around them to make their decisions (The Spirit of our time). This change was caused by the casualties of the war along with its dehumanizing nature. The mechanical parts also show that humans are starting to become over-reliant on technology, to the point that it dictates our actions.



Citations 

“The Spirit of Our Time.” Utopia/Dystopia, 2 Jan. 2013, https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/dada/raoul-hausmann/the-spirit-of-our-time/.

Tate. “'La Mitrailleuse', Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, 1915.” Tate, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/nevinson-la-mitrailleuse-n03177.

“We Are Making a New World.” Imperial War Museums, https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/20070. 

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