Page 46 - Studio International - February 1969

indulging in mystical speculations: 'Macy's', It is no accident that New Objectivity has or magical-ornamental stylistic means in
says Lindner, 'is my Louvre'. McLuhan found disciples principally in North Germany, addition shows, however, that these artists
would call Richard Lindner a 'gadget lover'. which has a cooler and less expressive tempera- have shrugged off traditional metaphysics. A
In 1965 Lindner took up a teaching post in ment than the South or West. Arnold Leissler picture is no longer regarded as a symbolic
Germany's most progressive school of art, the (b. 1939) comes from Hanover: his work model of an external reality, a plan for a new
Hamburg Akademie. An artist who had may also be seen in this context, for he is one world in which the technical and the natural
matured on the American pop scene had of the most decided exponents of the objective should be reconciled. The picture is now con-
returned to the scene of origin of his work. As style. He has a sober nature, and rejects any ceived as autonomous. The unification of
was to be expected, his teaching proved to kind of gesticulation. This is emphasized by mechanical and organic elements serves to
have great influence. A 'Hamburg School' of his subtle trompe l'oeil technique and the constitute the picture but has now no further
New Objectivity grew up among the students static elements of his structures. Leissler function: speculation has been dropped. For
and artists around him. The leading repre- approaches his aim, as it were, from two these artists New Objectivity means a method
sentative of this school today is Wolfgang different directions : on the one hand he takes of transforming natural, association-weighted
Oppermann (b. 1937). Many of Oppermann's inorganic objects—chiefly pieces of furniture— phenomena into absolute, artistically calcu-
formulations are reminiscent of those of and transforms them into living figures: on lated statements. From this viewpoint Konrad
Lindner, but there is little trace of the the other, he makes his landscapes and, in his Klapheck and Lambert Maria Wintersberger,
master's aggressiveness. The geometrical struc- recent work, even his human figures, into who are not expressly concerned with 'man
turing of the figure has lost its offensive effect: oddly stiff and inflexible shapes. Heraldic within space', can also be reckoned as be-
Oppermann induces relaxation in the hard ornament serves as the common denominator longing to the movement.
assembly of the segments by allowing the form of this pictorial world, and the magical ele- Konrad Klapheck (b. 1935) introduces into
in question to play through a number of areas ment this incorporates reveals an affinity to his pictures objects of daily use— typewriters
of reference. The 'ball of the head' evaporates the mystic elements in Oskar Schlemmer's and sewing machines, telephones, shoes,
into a cloud, the 'circle of the abdomen' com- work. 'The ornament which forms between electric irons, etc. His titles—such as The ruler,
prises a vegetable landscape; organically- body and environment, symbolizing the The woman in the right, The blackmail or The
structured elements alternate with geometrical relationship of this body to the outer world ... ' clique—clearly show, however, that the artist's
elements, plastic with non-plastic shapes: 'I —this entry in Schlemmer's diary (12.11.1924) interest is not confined to the aesthetic presen-
prefer suggestive to demonstrative formula- could be complemented by Leissler's com- tation of these objects. The titles rather seem
tions'. However, the surreal richness of this ment : 'I geometrize organic sectional forms to indicate that Klapheck's intention is to con-
formal world never luxuriates uncontrollably : and extend them into the plane of the surface, fer an animistic significance on these mechani-
it is kept firmly in check by the artist's tech- whose laws conform to the laws of space— cal utilitarian objects, in order to demonize
nical precision of presentation. Oppermann's laws to which everything in Nature is subject'. them. The names of the pictures can not be
virtuoso handling of lithographic technique is The common interest which binds Lindner, taken as an indication of their contents—nor
comparable only to that of Paul Wunderlich. Oppermann and Leissler to the New Objec- may the sense of the presentation be sought in
It is worth noting that Oppermann in fact tivity of the twenties clearly consists in the the objects portrayed. The subject is only a
teaches graphic techniques under Wunder- integration of the human figure in a geo- pretext for the actual presentation, and the
lich's direction. metrical structure. The use of pop, surrealist humour of the titles serves to evade any direct