Week 7: World War 1's Influences on Art as We Know It

 World War 1's Influences on Art as We Know It

This week, we are getting into artworks more at my speed. I love all things morbid and dark, and while I love how dark the artworks from World War 1 are, I also feel a sense of respect and melancholy for those who died and had to endure its hardships. I loved this week's choices for our blogs so much that I couldn't just pick 1 art piece from Felsing, so you will be getting 4 artworks this week. Let us begin with one that jumped out at me when I first researched this topic, C.R.W.'s Tunnellers. 

    

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, Tunnellers, London, 1916, Ink, bodycolor, graphite, and crayon on sheet

    The Tunnellers stirs a feeling of claustrophobia and pure fear in me. The canary in its cage stands exposed, while the man's gas mask conceals his face, making you sympathize with the bird. Both in this scenario are trapped in one way or another. Most of these birds never made it out alive in these tunnels, as they were used to tell if there was gas, and in World War 1, mustard gas was used a lot. This painting relates to World War 1 as the artist himself used his art to depict the war's brutal effects on humans, dehumanization in the process is seen in the gas mask obscuring man’s facial features, making him almost inhuman. 

    The art elements that stand out the most to me are the texture and color of the painting, the placement of the figures in the composition also helps to elicit an emotional response, as you see this man coming from a light area, going into a darkly lit contrasting area. The texture is gritty and feels damp and dark, while the light from behind him shines in to add a little bit of color and paint a contrasting difference from him coming outside and going inside. It is like the light is the humanity a person has, while the dark is their survival instincts. A person is going to do whatever they can to survive in these scenarios, even killing innocent animals to check if a tunnel is safe to breathe in. 

    I personally think this piece of art would fit better in a War Museum than it would in someone’s home, as it's just too dark and depressing for most people to look at, but as a good reminder of what came before.

Louis Weirter, Battle of Courcelette, France, 1918, oil on canvas

    The first thing I feel when I look at this painting is a sense of shock, despair, and helplessness, all encased in a feeling of dread. So many faceless and nameless soldiers all fighting a war against people they will never know. Weirter did a fantastic job of conveying the scale of catastrophe that war brings, as well as how many faceless soldiers really died in war. Many of these young soldiers will never see their next sunrise, which is quite fitting considering the chaotic and fiery battlefield they are fighting on. Weirter also captures the dehumanizing effects of warfare being industrialized with planes and guns, the sky is heavy with smoke, while the environment below is overwhelmed with fire, corpses, and soldiers. Planes are falling out of the sky, cannons are overturned, and gunfire is exchanged. Weirter captures the broader devastation instead of focusing on individual heroics. 

    

    The grim realities of war are seen in Weirter's elements that he placed into the painting, such as the color of red orange and black for danger and destruction, while his brushwork is loose and chaotic, which gives me the feeling of the battlefield being pure chaos as seen as in the painting. Because Weirter didn't focus on a small platoon or a soul hero, the placement of everything in the painting is meant to confuse and disorient viewers, exactly like how all of these soldiers felt on the battlefield. 

    While this painting is beautiful in its own right, I would personally never have this type of artwork placed in my house; this is something that I also think would go well in a war museum. 

Otto Felsing, Disintegrating Trench (Zerfallender Kampfgraben) from The War (Der Krieg), Berlin, 1924, Etching, aquatint, and drypoint from a portfolio of fifty etchings, aquatint, and drypoints

    I couldn't choose just between the Disintegrating Trench and the Shock Troops Advance under Gas by Felsing, so I decided to do both. With Disintegrating Trench, I look, and I'm immediately filled with a sense of dread and abject horror as the scene plays out in front of me. It's a moment captured in time of the death and pain that people experienced when in the trenches. The trenches were not a safe space, even though soldiers spent many days and months in them, almost like a second home. Felsing masterfully captures the feeling of unease and the horrors of war with his distortedly dark imagery.

    The line art and shading immediately jumped out at me, just the lines are quick and jagged, which helps make a sense of decay and instability within the trench. It feels like the trench could crumble just by looking at it wrong. The shading in and of itself is another story, as it's dark and harsh, which contrasts with the lighter areas. This gives a feeling of depth to the painting, which feels eerie when looking at this scene before me. Then there's the texture of the painting, which feels grainy and gritty, which adds to the destructive atmosphere.

    Very faintly on the left, you can notice that one of the cloth pieces resembles a reaper, and on the right, the cloth resembles a vulture, which symbolizes the death and decay that is wrought upon this trench.

    Personally, I would not have this in my house; it definitely belongs in a War Museum alongside as many of Felsing’s portfolio etchings.

Otto Felsing, Shock Troops Advance under Gas (Sturmtruppe geht unter Gas vor) from The War (Der Krieg), Berlin, 1924, Etching, aquatint, and drypoint from a portfolio of fifty etchings, aquatint, and drypoints

    Now we get on to the last etching of the blog, Shock Troops Advance under Gas. I was unable to choose between this etching and the previous etching above the disintegrating trench. My first thought when I viewed this etching was a twinge of fear in the bottom of my stomach. The way the gas mask's eyes just stare blankly at you while the one on the right has a grenade in hand, ready to be hurled at the nearest person, it's haunting. The way the gas masks contrast with the white color against the darker grays and blacks of the soldiers’ outfits really dehumanizes the soldiers, as it doesn't even give them a face. Felsing, with this painting, really shows how chemical warfare dehumanized people and inflicted much suffering upon both sides.

    I feel like this is reflected in some of the art elements at play, such as the jagged, harsh lines and the cross-hatchings that are used to shade. The placement of the soldiers all being clumped together really shows how an individual loses their individuality in war, as well as all of them being so clumped together to give a claustrophobic feeling. The texture of the etching is very gritty and grainy, like the previous etching, which adds to the smoky gas-filled environment that the etching is in.

Like the previous etching, this belongs in a War Museum alongside the other etchings in the set. I cannot imagine this being in my house as it would be very unsettling, not just for me, but anybody visiting.

Citations:

Canadian War Museum. Painting, Battle of Courcelette. Canadian War Museum, www.warmuseum.ca/collections/artifact/1017211. Accessed April 1st, 2025.

Medeiros, Alex. Tour of Early Modern Art: WWI. The Alex Medeiros Blog, 3 Apr. 2015, thealexmedeiros.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/tour-of-early-modern-art-wwi/. Accessed April 1st, 2025.

Museum of Modern Art. Artist: Pablo Picasso. MoMA, www.moma.org/s/ge/collection_ge/artist/artist_id-1559_role-1_sov_page-87.html. Accessed April 1st, 2025.

Museum of Modern Art. Guernica by Pablo Picasso. MoMA, www.moma.org/collection/works/63260. Accessed April 1st, 2025.

The Guardian. Art of the Apocalypse: Otto Dix’s Der Krieg – in Pictures. 14 May 2014, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/may/14/art-apocalypse-otto-dix-first-world-war-der-krieg-in-pictures. Accessed April 1st, 2025.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tunnellers. The Met, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/746147. Accessed April 1st, 2025.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. World War I and the Visual Arts: Introduction. The Met, www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/world-war-i-and-the-visual-arts-introduction. Accessed April 1st, 2025.

Wikimedia Commons. Louis Whirter – Battle of Courcelette. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_Whirter-Battle_of_Courcelette_%28CWM_19710261-0788%29.jpg. Accessed April 1st, 2025.