Progressive Cologne. 1920–33. Seiwert – Hoerle – Arntz. Painting as a Weapon

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An examination of the Cologne Progressives broadens our understanding
of art during the Weimar period in Germany. Critical of other contemporaneous
movements such as the Neue Sachlichkeit, the group offered a new
definition of the relationship between art and politics between the World
Wars. Although well-known at the time far beyond Germany, the loosely
organized collaboration ended in 1933. Their artwork was defamed during
the Third Reich as “degenerate.”
By focusing on three core members, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Heinrich Hoerle
and Gerd Arntz, American art historian Lynette Roth reveals the intensity
with which the Cologne Progressives developed a new and unique formal
language shaped by their socially critical stance. With an eye to the leftist
political aims of the group, this book examines the artistic practice of the
Progressives in a new light.
The book includes illustrations of over fifty paintings and eighty works on
paper from a wide array of international museums and private collections—
some published for the very first time. An extensive chronology supplements
the clear, concise text. A new and definitive book on the Cologne Progressives.