Grotesque Visions: The Science of Berlin Dada

Grotesque Visions explores the radical avant-garde interventions of Salomo Friedländer, Til Brugman, and Hannah Höch, who used the artistic grotesque to criticize, satirize, and subvert scientific objectivity. The volume concludes by examining the exhibition "Grotesk!: 130 Jahre Kunst der Frechheit / Comic Grotesque: Wit and Mockery in German Arts, 1870-1940," which reveals a unique deployment of the artistic grotesque that targeted specific established and emerging scientific discourses at the turn of the last fin-de-siècle.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 03 June 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Grotesque Visions delves into the daring avant-garde interventions of Salomo Friedländer (aka Mynona), Til Brugman, and Hannah Höch, who boldly challenged the dubious practices and evidentiary claims of late-19th- and early-20th-century science. This captivating volume showcases the often excessive measures taken by pathologists, anthropologists, sexologists, and medical professionals to present their research in a seemingly unambiguous manner. Through the lens of Friedländer/Mynona, Brugman, Höch, and other Berlin-based artists, the book reveals how they employed the artistic grotesque as a powerful tool to critique, satirize, and subvert various forms of purported scientific objectivity. The volume concludes by examining the exhibition Grotesk!: 130 Jahre Kunst der Frechheit / Comic Grotesque: Wit and Mockery in German Arts, 1870-1940. In contrast to the ahistorical and amorphous concept informing the exhibition, Thomas O. Haakenson unveils a distinctive deployment of the artistic grotesque that specifically targeted established and emerging scientific discourses at the turn of the last fin-de-siècle.

Weight: 460g
Dimension: 146 x 224 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501369902