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In your group from earlier, look at your assigned primary source from Leicester’s digital German Expressionist Collection. Read the catalog entry and also click "You can browse the entire book here" link to flip through a digital facsimile of the text. Then answer the following questions:

1) How is working with a primary source different than a secondary source? When would you use a primary source in your research?

2) What new research topics or ideas could be inspired by working with a primary source in its period-specific historical form rather than a contemporary scholarly edition?

3) How is a digital facsimile/surrogate different than physically handling a text? What are some advantages? Disadvantages?

You don't have to read the entire thing! Just enjoy exploring the text and being inspired by seeing it in its historical form in digital facsimile. Select someone from your group to take notes responding to the questions and add your notes to this Padlet using the "Add Comment" function under your group's assigned source.

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https://germanexpressionismleicester.org/leicesters-collection/books-and-other-publications/the-blue-rider-1st-edition-star/

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The 1st edition of a book containing articles and artwork by members of the Blue Rider Group of artists, 1912.

Original Title

Der Blaue Reiter

Year of Production

1912

Artist

Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky

Medium

Book

Materials

Paper, ink

Dimensions

height: 29.8 cm; width: 21.6 cm; depth: 1.8 cm

Credit Line

Purchased

Published by Munchen, R. Piper & Co. Verlag, 1912. Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky.

The museum and deluxe editions contained two woodcuts, Kandinsky's Bogenschütze (The archer) and Marc's Fabeltier (Animal from a Fable).

There was a regular 1 st edition (1912) of 1200 without the two woodcuts; plus a 2 nd edition (1914) of 1100 without the two woodcuts.

What was the Blue Rider Almanac?

The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) Almanac was published in 1912, by Reinhard Piper in Munich. The editors were Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, the co-founders of the Blue Rider artists' group.

In publishing the almanac, the two young artists hoped to bring together the newest and most revolutionary achievements in modern art and present them to a supportive and enlightened readership.

The almanac contains reproductions of paintings and illustrations by artists from El Greco to Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, the Brȕcke artists Kirchner and Heckel. The Blaue Reiter artists and others are included, with non-European objects and images from Latin America, Alaska, Japan and Africa.

There are medieval woodcuts, carvings and tapestries, Bavarian glass paintings, Egyptian shadow figures, Benin bronzes and childrens' drawings.

Essays by Marc, Kandinsky and Macke sit alongside music scores by Scriabin and Schoenberg. This wide-ranging selection vividly illustrated an anti-academic, open-minded, international, and tolerant vision. Painters, composers, and critics from different nations all wrote contributions in which they articulated the goals of this new art. Kandinsky's and Marc's statements, in particular, express their shared belief in searching for the "spiritual in art."

Why was the almanac important?

The publication of the almanac was a collective, international and interdisciplinary undertaking. It is viewed as one of the twentieth century's most important artistic documents to investigate the relationship between the arts in the modernist period (c.1890-1939).

The editors had succeeded in presenting an eclectic mix of material from different cultures and eras - and in doing so, demonstrated an important principle - that all authentic manifestations of art could be united by their expressive form, not by their content. In other words, all art, irrespective of culture, that demonstrated a genuine expressive urge could be placed together in a unity, or synthesis, superficial questions about its technical or artistic quality becoming irrelevant.

The first edition of the Blue Rider Almanac ran to 1200 copies, and quickly sold out. The book was an anthology containing fourteen major essays, more than 140 illustrations and a supplement in which a number of musical scores are reproduced. A deluxe edition of 50 copies was specially bound in blue leather, which also contained two woodcuts, (Bogenschütze) Archer, by Kandinsky; and Fabeltier (Fantastic Creature), by Marc.

Kandinsky contributed two articles as well as the text and stage direction [libretto] of his play Der Gelb Klang (The Yellow Sound).

Originally conceived as the first of a series of periodicals, only the first issue was published, but it remains arguably the most important single document of pre-war Expressionism.

It has also been described as one of the first examples of a Gesamtkunstwerk, or 'total work of art', in that the essays, artworks, illustrations and musical scores were designed and placed to work together in a synthesis of unified thought, art, music and modernist vision.

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The 1st edition of a book containing articles and artwork by members of the Blue Rider Group of artists, 1912. Original Title Der Blaue Reiter Year of Production 1912 Artist Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky Medium Book Materials Paper, ink Dimensions height: 29.8 cm; width: 21.6 cm; depth: 1.8 cm Credit Line Purchased Published by Munchen, R.

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https://germanexpressionismleicester.org/leicesters-collection/books-and-other-publications/degenerate-art-exhibition-guide-star/

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The catalogue that accompanied the famous 'Degenerate Art' exhibition held in Munich by the Nazi Party in 1937.

Original Title

Entartete "Kunst" Ausstellungsführer

Year of production

1937

Medium

Catalogue

Materials

Paper, ink

Dimensions

height: 20.7 cm; width 14.7 cm

Credit Line

Gift of Michael Brooks

An original catalogue for the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition, it is described as an 'Ausstellungsführer' ie. an exhibition guide but only contains a selection of the objects exhibited.

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The catalogue that accompanied the famous 'Degenerate Art' exhibition held in Munich by the Nazi Party in 1937. Original Title Entartete "Kunst" Ausstellungsführer Year of production 1937 Medium Catalogue Materials Paper, ink Dimensions height: 20.7 cm; width 14.7 cm Credit Line Gift of Michael Brooks An original catalogue for the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition, it is described as an 'Ausstellungsführer' ie.

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https://germanexpressionismleicester.org/leicesters-collection/books-and-other-publications/the-war-star/

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A book containing 24 prints by Otto Dix, 1924.

Original Title

Der Krieg

Year of Production

1924

Artist

Otto Dix, printed by Karl Nierendorf.

Medium

Book

Materials

Paper, ink

Dimensions

height: 26.2 cm; width: 18.2 cm; depth 0.7cm

Credit Line

Gift of Michael Brooks

Copyright

© DACS 2013

What is The War?

Otto Dix returned from the First World War a changed man. He had originally volunteered, and fought as a machine-gunner on the Western Front. He produced a series of prints in 1923-24, collectively titled 'Der Krieg' (The War), which summed up the horror and disgust he felt about the war he had only recently fought in. Leicester has one of the prints from this series, 'Stormtroopers Advancing under Gas'. There were five portfolios, each with ten original prints.

Seventy sets of these were printed in the main edition. In 1924 a book illustrating the series was published by Karl Nierendorf in Berlin. For many people owning one of the original prints was expensive, but the book enabled the general public to see Otto Dix's images in all their terrible detail. He was both horrified, and fascinated by the experience of war.

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A book containing 24 prints by Otto Dix, 1924. Original Title Der Krieg Year of Production 1924 Artist Otto Dix, printed by Karl Nierendorf. Medium Book Materials Paper, ink Dimensions height: 26.2 cm; width: 18.2 cm; depth 0.7cm Credit Line Gift of Michael Brooks Copyright © DACS 2013 Otto Dix returned from the First World War a changed man.

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https://germanexpressionismleicester.org/leicesters-collection/books-and-other-publications/lady-hamilton-star/

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A book with eight hand coloured illustrations, 1923.

Full Title

Lady Hamilton or the Posturing of Emma or From Housemaid to Nelsons bit of crackling. A fantastic and romantic travesty by Alfred Richard Meyer. Most industriously fleshed out by George Grosz.

Original Title

Lady Hamilton oder Posen Emma oder vom Dienstmadchen zum Beefsteak al la Nelson Eine ebenso romanhalf wie auch Novellenschankelnde durchwachsene Travestie von Alred Richard Meyer. Flesigt and fleischigst bebildert von George Grosz

Year of Production

1923

Artist

George Grosz, printed by Fritz Gurlitt Verlag

Medium

Book

Materials

Paper, ink

Dimensions

height: 30.5 cm; width: 25.4 cm; depth: 1.1 cm

Credit Line

Purchased

Copyright

© Estate of George Grosz, Princeton, N.J. / DACS, 2014

What was the Lady Hamilton Book?

Alfred Meyer's fantasy account of the story of Emma, Lady Hamilton and her changing fortunes was a commission to which Grosz applied his talents enthusiastically. With an eye attuned to the sleaze of the Weimar-era after-dark clubs and speakeasies, his illustrations openly explored a more saucy erotic side to Nelson and Emma's affair, normally respectfully chronicled by British historians.

None of the illustrations is titled, but range from Lady Hamilton in various states of undress, either posing as a smiling classical figure, or for Nelson, who in one scene appears in the guise of an unshaven artist at his easel, Emma as his model. Grosz's hand-colouring variously has Nelson with a red nose or blue stubble, admiring Emma's red hair, or contemplating a decanter of green absinthe-like liquid.

Further details of Leicester's copy

First edition, limited issue. Number thirty one of the first 50 copies, with eight hand-coloured lithographic illustrations by George Grosz, each signed in pencil by the artist. Berlin: Fritz Gurlitt, 1923. Pencil signature in the endpapers by Alfred Richard Meyer [included in first 50 copies only].

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A book with eight hand coloured illustrations, 1923. Full Title Lady Hamilton or the Posturing of Emma or From Housemaid to Nelsons bit of crackling. A fantastic and romantic travesty by Alfred Richard Meyer. Most industriously fleshed out by George Grosz.