The artists who redesigned a war-shattered Europe
Max Burchartz (German, 18871961). Untitled (red square). c. 1928. Cut-and-pasted printed and painted paper on board. 19 11/16 × 13 9/16′′ (50 × 34.5 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Merrill C. Berman Collection.
by Jason Farago
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- Hostile times dont automatically engender great art. Lets put to rest that chestnut, which resurfaced during and after the 2016 election and which, as the presidency of Donald Trump draws to a close, is looking pretty deflated. A crisis can inspire your vision, but just as easily it can wash you out. And rising to the challenges of an anxious age takes ambition, stamina and not a little bravery.
John Heartfield s The Hand Has Five Fingers (1928), a campaign poster for German Communist Party The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Merrill C. Berman Collection
In moments of turmoil, what does it mean to be an artist? A quiet show of small works on ageing paper might not, at first glance, be the resounding answer that this kind of big question seemingly calls for. Then again, in a year that cannot stop shouting, the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) capsule show,
Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: the Artist Reinvented, might well be the small, still voice to heed.
The New York exhibition opening this weekend heralds the addition to MoMA’s drawings and prints holdings of a core set of works from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, considered one of the greatest to focus on political art. From John Heartfield’s communist poster designs to Kurt Schwitters’s lesser-known page layouts and Liubov Popova’s splendid linocuts and collages, the show highl