Page 51 - Studio International - July August 1975

complete expression in photography of 1929 were introduced from the viewpoint of 1928-9 shows listless tendrils trailing
this functionalist modernism was Eugen of their affective qualities as 'too far aloof through a harsh geometry and the epic
Diesel's Das Land der Deutschen of 1931, to lend themselves to our needs or to expression of this consciousness is in
an overview of the geography and yield to the pressure of our desires'.14 The Soul Visiting the Mansions of the
resources of Germany, illustrated with This was a brief and uncommitted Dead of 1932, which literally shows the
481 photographs mainly by Robert involvement with Modernism' replaced spiritualization of pylon, hangar and
Petschow: these were aerial views in a very short period by a return to a `modern' construction methods and their
showing the country in terms of its more enduring tradition of sentimental inhabitation by twittering bird-spirits —
geography and resources, purposeful and and anecdotal imagery. The return to like Ernst's ruined cities, but more
clear where those of Hielscher in 1924 pictorial photography was welcomed with poignant because the lithograph and
had been evocative and melancholic. relief as an antidote to the severities of painting point to the contradiction of
Petschow's aerial photographs the new style, and in 1931 the progressive, vanguardist art, at once
represent a new way of seeing, a new introduction to a large portfolio 'The romantic and constructivist, in
perspective on the world; they embody Art of the Camera' referred to 'this antagonistic conjunction.
a new myth of organization and realism, the interest of subject and The problem of modernism in
Functionalism. In the contemporary actuality, supported but not obscured by painting was relatively discrete, of long
photographs of Blossfeldt and Renger- a remarkable range of means, which is standing and shared by a wide range of
Patzsch the organized modular systems especially refreshing today when we artists. In Nash's case the tension between
which Petschow discovered in the are suffering from an overdose of renovation and tradition is a constant:
landscape were recognized as being "design" pure and simple'." he dealt with it from a modernist
characteristic of plant life; organic forms The very rapid shift from a modernist standpoint where a painter like Algernon
were mechanized, made consistent with infatuation to an older if less exciting Newton dealt with the same tension from
the design idioms of the period. In love is symptomatic of the general a place in traditional painting.
Britain, by contrast, Modernism condition of the British artist caught in Conventionally described as a modern
functioned as style, as a pictorial overlay the play of progressive and reactionary Canaletto, he represented a long
and as a means of symbolizing reformist forces. Certainly by 1933 the broad tradition in urban topography: at the
tendencies rather than as the outcome movement was back towards traditional same time his paintings of London vistas
of any change of thought. When forms, towards an unstructured response were depopulated and melancholy,
The Studio began to feature photographic to Nature; this is admitted by Paul Nash Canaletto without conviction. He
work in 1929-30 it was from abroad' in his statement on the setting up of re-interpreted the city as an idyll in
principally from the United States, Unit One: 'It may be observed that we which the modern forms of factory
showing the city as futuristic in the are now heading for a new revival 14 14 . the chimneys and warehouses were ordered
pictures of Ira Wright Martin and Nature cult in some form or other. and diminished in remote perspectives,
kaleidoscopic and mysterious in those Against this are opposed a few artists softened by evening light. This fragile
of Walker Evans. The photographs of anxious to go forward from the point they remaking of Canaletto resembles John
Paul Strand which appeared in October have reached, instead of turning with the Armstrong's versions of the Greek myths
tide'.' This is modernist organization from the late 'twenties in which the
as a defensive tactic and it is characteristic complex human resonance of the subject
that it should occur only in a beleaguered matter is denied through a sort of thin
position, for even at the height of the decorative painting, studiedly artificial.
modern movement in the late 'twenties The common direction of most British
it had been received and used only very painting between the wars was towards
ambiguously by such a major artist as disengagement, towards a sort of
Nash. meta-critical painting acting principally
Despite the various movements in his with sign and style-systems. The
position, Nash was fundamentally modernist rhetoric of around 193o was
concerned with the objectified, distant, only one among many of these systems
de-natured aspect of modernism, with which painters worked, and given
critically aware of the alienation of the the privileged position of painting was of
world and of the ensuing pathos of Man's little more importance than any other
position in that world. His position was style.
anti-sentimental, even anti-humanist, in Photographic practice, by contrast,
comparison to that of the Camden Town mutated to a much greater degree than
painters' for instance. In his art painting and to a different time-scale.
modernist space-frames function as Photography had been the special medium
deadening constraints against the of the modern style and as that fell into
organic forms of Nature. Dead Spring disfavour so photography switched back

(Top) From Eugen Diesel's
Das Land der Deutschen, Berlin 1931
Photograph by Robert Petschow
(Above) Paul Nash
Soul Visiting the Mansions of the Dead 1932
Lithograph
(Right) Algernon Newton
Regents Canal, Paddington c. 1930
Painting
31