Lecture 18- The Neo-Classical as Fascist and Nazi Architecture
A. Mussolini and Italian Fascism
1. Benito Mussolini and his rise to power
2. The 2000th Birthday of Augustus in 1937
3. The quest to liberate ancient Rome
4. Via del Foro Imperiale, Via della Concilazione
5. The Ara Pacis
6. The Flavian Palace
7. Rationalist Fascist Architecture
B. EUR and the Esposizione Universale di Roma of 1942
C. German Fascist Architecture
1. German architecture in the 1920s- the Bauhaus
2. Hermann Muthesius and the doctrine of Typisierung
3. Walter Gropius and the Deutsche Werkbund
4. Ernest May and the rebirth of Frankfurt
5. Fritz Lang and the dangers of "Bolshevik Social Housing" and the suppression of freedom
D. Adolph Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers party
1. Tastes parallel America and Napoleon and Mussolini!
2. Hitler as frustrated architect
3. German vernacular- search for ethnic roots, ethnic cleansing
4. Anti-Gropius-- closing of the Bauhaus
5. Hitler says Greeks are a pure Aryan race-- Doric and Ionic may be used
6. Rationalist architecture can suggest power of Aryans
7. Celebrate rise of peasants, soldiers, munitions workers and masons with photographic realism and classical influences
8. Resembles Gustave Courbet's Heroic Materialism
E. Albert Speer- Hitler's personal architect
1. Roman symbols- the eagle, giant geometric austere frightening forms, power and control
2. National symbol the Swastika
3. Zeppelinfield, Munich 1937
4. The Thingplatz
5. The Matyrion
6. The Concentration Camp
F. Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler and the Triumph of the Will 1934
1. The filming of the Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg
2. Dr. Joseph Goebbels on the art of filmmaking
3. Riefenstahl and Hitler [view an image of Hitler and Leni Riefenstahl]
Lecture 19: Symbolists, Decadents, Dadaists and Surrealists
A. The Symbolist Movement of the later I9th Century
1. "The artist is a priest who administers beauty and his sense of beauty can show itself in a bizarre sense"
2. Escape from harsh reality- drugged and languid stupor
3. Dream-like high, sensitivity to textures, color and light
4. Les Vingt- The 20- Belgium 1884-1893
5. Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
B. Josephin Peladin and the Rosecrucians
1. Key Terms: Dandy, occult, aesthetics, Magi, Orpheus, Salome, Templar Knights
2. Magician Eliphas Levi- triumph of mysticism over science
3. Praise for legend, myth, allegory, dream, superior essences
4. Androgyny
C. Blood of a Poet (1930, French)- creator, Jean Cocteau
1. Attempt to document the private intellectual world of a poet for an instant of time
2. Exteriorize interior thoughts and give them form
3. The Influence of Dada and Marcel Duchamp
L. H. O. O. Q. 1919-
(this means she has the hots in her tail-- elle ha chaud au cul!)
4. Freedom of imagery--film a dream without sleep with no boundaries of time or need to depict reality
5. Approach cinema with the innocence of a child
6. Homosexuality
7. Psychedelic quality- consumption of sugar, opium and absenthe
8. Where does the creative spark come from-- poet has his Muse who merges with the artist
a. Who are the Muses
b. Melpomene, Terpsichore, etc.
9. The creation can kill you-- it wounds and drains you
D. Is everything in Blood of a Poet a symbol or just the free associations of a poet?
1. Random imagery or careful pre-planning or both?
2. How original is this film? Theft of ideas from Bunuel and Dali?
3. The Power of the Creation You Seek- drives you to suffering, wisdom
4. Reflection- through the looking glass to the other side of reality
E. Artist consumed by his art
Fernand Khnopff: Art or Caresses or The Sphinx 1896
1. Strobing the sphinx, shooting self in the head
2. Artist inhabits his creation
3. Dreamy and gliding quality to the film
4. Life Path- abandon childhood, play card game of life and chance
5. Ace of hearts= career ambition, obtained by drawing on childhood
6. Death and cremation by black angel-- consumed by creation
7. Fragile life of a symbolist
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