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Henry de Groux (1867-1930, born St-Josse-ten-Noode, Belgium; died Marseille, France), La Comète de la Guerre (The Comet of War), 1914-1916, working proof for the portfolio Le Visage de la Victoire (The Face of Victory), 1914-15, etchings, graphite, ink wash, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Museum purchase: Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund, 2005.0110. |
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976, born Rottluff, Germany; died West Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany [present-day Berlin, Germany], Trauernde am Strand (Mourners on a Beach), 1914, woodcut, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund, 2004.0010.
Otto Dix (1891-1969, born Untermhaus, Germany (present-day Gera, Germany); died Singen, Federal Republic of Germany (present-day Germany), Explosion, 1918, ink, wash, graphite on paper, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Museum purchase: Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund, 2006.0100.
Maurice Neumont (1868-1930, born Paris, France; died Paris, France), On Ne Passe Pas!, 1914-1918 (They Shall Not Pass! 1914-1918), 1918, color lithograph, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Gift of Eric G. Carlson in honor of Kate Meyer, 2009.0114. |
Spencer Museum of Art Machine in a Void: World War I & the Graphic Arts, presents approximately 200 works of graphic art made during the years of the First World War (1914-1918), with a post-script on the art of the decade following the war. Five years in the making, the exhibition invokes the perspective of primarily European artists, focusing attention on the substantial roles played by the graphic arts during WWI (1914-1918) as a tool for official propaganda and as means of voicing individual responses to the war ranging from documentation to dissent. Machine in a Void is made possible by the generous support of the Breidenthal-Snyder Foundation. Research toward the exhibition was supported by the Franklin D. Murphy Travel Fund, KU International Programs / International Travel, and a Wolfsonian-Florida International University Fellowship. The exhibition’s genesis stems from the Spencer’s 2005 acquisition of a rare and extensive treatment of the war by Belgian artist Henri de Groux in the form of nearly 50 etchings. These proofs and trial prints were preparatory to a portfolio, Le Visage de la Victoire (The Face of Victory). In his introduction to the printed series, de Groux wrote of the war as an “undeniable and colossal absurdity, like a machine functioning in a void,” an “opulent excess of perfect horror.” The Spencer’s exhibition derives its title from de Groux’s evocative expression. The central goal of the exhibition is to identify and give voice to those artists who, through their work during and shortly after WWI, renounced specific national concerns to articulate a more transcendent vision. These uncommon voices will be exhibited along with mainstream nationalistic and propagandistic works. Machine in a Void draws principally from the permanent collection of the Spencer Museum of Art, and includes material that may provoke discussions of the rise of ironic and ambivalent attitudes toward war, the defenselessness of innocents in the face of modern war machines, the use of the graphic arts to promote official government attitudes, and the role of mechanized warfare within the dystopian idea of the Machine Age. The Spencer’s collections are strong in German, French, and Belgian material concerning the War, but less extensive in British and American works. For this reason, Machine in a Void does not offer a comprehensive overview of art and the War, but does introduce many key themes, which are loosely organized according to five sections: Exhibited artists include: Otto Dix, Kerr Eby, George Grosz, Jules de Bruycker, Henri de Groux, André Devambez, Erich Heckel, Henri Ibels, Jean-Emile Laboureur, Karl Maes, Maxime Maufra, Ludwig Meidner, Robert Michel, Johannes Molzahn, Karl Schmidt-Rotluff, Georg Scholz, Max Slevogt, Edmond van Dooren, and, Jean Veber. Stephen Goddard, senior curator and curator of prints & drawings, organized the exhibition following a sabbatical spent primarily in Germany and a fellowship at the Wolfsonian-Florida International University — one of the world’s great repositories for WWI-era material culture. Goddard was assisted by curatorial interns Rachel Voorhies and Olena Chervonik, with additional help from Lorie Vanchena and Andrea Weis. A catalogue is planned. |
Henry de Groux (1867-1930, born St-Josse-ten-Noode, Belgium; died Marseille, France), Le Guetteur (The Sentry), 1914, working proof for the portfolio Le Visage de la Victoire (The Face of Victory), 1914-15, etchings, graphite, ink wash, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Museum purchase: Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund, 2005.0127. |
