Cabaret

Art
“The overthrow of the kaiser, the revolutionary tumult that resulted in the
establishment of a Social-Democratic republic, and the hardships of the
inflation period were the troubled waters in which cabaretists could fish with
spectacular success.Berlin became a maelstrom, sucking in the energies and
talents of the rest of Germany. . . What New York in the 1920s was to jazz
and speakeasies, Berlin was to cabaret.”
-Laurence Senelick, Cabaret Performance,
After World War I, Weimar democracy unleashed freedom in Germany.
In 1929 an umbrella group called the Union for Human Rights claimed
48,000 members. Berlin, the homosexual capital of the Roaring Twenties,
boasted a gay and lesbian bookstore, scores of bars, and more than 25 gay
publications.
Architecture: The Bauhaus School
The Bauhaus School was an academy of art and design founded in 1919 by
Walter Gropius. Bauhaus is a German term that means "house for building."
The Bauhaus school was founded to rebuild the country after the
devastating war and also to form a new social order. As a social program, the
Bauhaus’s ideals were that the artist must recognize his social responsibility
to the community and likewise, the community must accept and support the
artist.
Fine Art: Otto Dix
More than almost any other German painter, Otto Dix (1891-1969) and his
works have profoundly influenced societies impressions of the War and
Weimar society. He paintings depict mechanized warfare and life in postwar
Berlin. Three themes dominate the majority of his work: The First
World War, it’s aftermath, and the lives of femme fatales. His paintings
were among the most grotesque visual representatives of that period,
exposing with unsparing and wicked wit the instability and contradictions of
the time. Refuting the Romantic ideas of beauty, Dix instead painted gritty
portraits that reflected the difficult economic times of Weimar. He chose to
paint the underbelly of Weimar society, famously portraying the likes of
Anita Berber as well as doctors, various women, and several other Cabaret
stars.
Susan Funkenstein, professor of art history, notes, “Otto Dix’s Portrait of
the Dancer Anita Berber captures the complexity of an expressionist
performance artists whom many saw merely as a depraved vamp. In a skintight,
fire-engine-red dress that reveals every curve of her body, she
accentuates her sexuality by caressing her hip with one hand and gesturing
toward her genitalia with the other; her modified Venus pose is anything but
modest. Intense, vibrant reds pervade the composition—her dyed hair,
bright lips, tinged hands and the monochromatic background further
emphasize a red-hot, exaggerated sexuality”.
Portrait of Cabaret Artist,
Anita Berber 1925
Reclining Woman
on a Leopard Skin,
1927
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