Carl Einstein. German art historian and critic , one of the most important figures in the history of the avant-garde movement . One of the most peculiar art historians of the first half of the 20th century .
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Artistic career
- 2 Political activities
- 3 Death
- 2 Works
- 3 Related topics
- 4 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He was born on 26 April as as 1885 in Neuwied , Germany . He is probably the least classic of 20th century art historians . He was one of the most relevant and multifaceted personalities of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century.
His books, articles and essays were fundamental pieces for the critical study of the avant-gardes and the impulse for the study of art history in the last century. Einstein served as a novelist, poet , playwright , essayist, art and literature critic , and author of a film script . However, it is in the field of art history where he is among the most interesting innovators agreeing with “Apollinaire! When he called him” one of the most clairvoyant spirits “.
Artistic career
Linked from a young age to the most advanced artistic circles and to Dadaism, a movement with which he is most commonly associated; among other things, he introduced African art to the West , an event of fundamental importance in the development of artistic avant-gardes.
He participated in the German expressionist movement and collaborated on “die Aktion”, where he also discovered Picasso and was also the first to understand cubism as a movement by itself. He participated in Alfred Flechtheim’s “Querschnitt” and Paul Westheim’s “Kunstblatt”, and he himself founded the Dadaist magazines “Die Pleite” and “Der Blutige Ernst” with George Grosz . He is known for his novel “Bebuquin oder die Dilettanten des Wunders” (Bebuquin or the miracle dilettantes), published in 1911 .
His role as an art critic was quite influential in his time. A man of broad outlook and culture, his interests were not limited to the plastic arts, but extended to literature, poetry , theater , cinema , journalism, the social sciences, and political action .
Essay work “Negerplastik”
His essays include publications such as the “Negerplastik”. “The black sculpture “, 1914 , a monograph on African art that forms the basis of modern aesthetics according to Einstein , and Die Kunst des XX Jahrhunderts. “The art of the twentieth century “, 1926 , a history of the art modern from impressionism to surrealism in which Einstein addresses issues such as the perception of space, the representation of imagination and hallucination or “transvisualidad”.
His books, articles and essays were fundamental pieces for the critical study of the avant-gardes and the impulse for the study of art history in the last century. Einstein served as a novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, art and literature critic, and author of a film script. However it is in the field of art history where he is among the most interesting innovators agreeing with Apollinaire when he called him “one of the most clairvoyant spirits”. In his numerous texts he captured the introduction of African art in the West, or the approval of Cubism as a full movement.
Political activities
Einstein joins the KPD German Communist Party after the failed Revolution of 1919 in which Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg die . During the 1920s, his anti-bourgeois character and his radical considerations on Wilhelmina society were accentuated, which appear in his dabbling with Berlin Dadaism with George Grosz, among others.
Militant anarchist, when the military uprising against the Second Republic in Spain took place , Carl Einstein, more than 50 years old and an intellectual, did not hesitate to go to Spain and join the Durruti International Column Group, a group of the who was a spokesperson. He was wounded in combat. In November 1936 , he made the posthumous tribute in Barcelona at the funeral of Buenaventura Durruti .
After the victory of the Francoist military, Einstein continued his ideal of the struggle in Spain, trying to help the anarchist refugees .
Death
While in France , the US government’s “Vichy France” he interned in the camp of refugees coming exiled from Spain and originally Jewish , and before the harassment of the troops Nazis escape from the field, committing suicide before prisoner fall in the hands of the fascists in 1940 . He died 3 as July as 1940 in Lestelle-Betharram , France.
Plays
- “Black sculpture and other writings” Barcelona. 2002 .
- “The Durruti column and other articles and interviews from the Spanish Civil War2006 .
- “Art as revolt ”. Writings on avant- garde art Madrid . 2008 .
- “Correspondence” ‘Carl Einstein / Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler Barcelona. 2008.
- “Bebuquin or the dilettantes of the miracle” Translation by Juan AnLestelle-Betharram, Fdrés García, Madrid. 2011
