Visual Culture 10 - 1940's and 50's (second world war and cold war)

John Heartfield, photomontage and anti-Nazi propaganda

http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/06/extraordinary-anti-nazi-photomontages.html

During the 1930's the Nazi's were starting to obtain more and more ground in Europe despite this a lot of people were choosing to ignore the threat of war Germany posed, rather actually choosing to take a laid back approach. 

One person who decided not to ignore and pretend it wasn't happening was John Heartfield. He decided to through the pieces of art he produced were photomontages decades before photoshop was invented. 

The image to the left shows John Heartfield (at the top of the image) doing Adolf Hitlers hair. 

Blood and Iron

John Heartfields interpretation of 'Blood and Iron' portrayed through photomontage the image depicts bloody axes that formed the shape or the swastika.

It was stated during this time that the German people would in the end be reformed through a combination of blood and iron.

In the year 1939 John created this piece of artwork shown above.

This photomontage is a perfect representation of 'blood and iron' in reality.

Piece and Fascism

The dove is a symbol of peace and has been shown in art as this symbol of peace dating back to as early as the 1400 and possibly earlier. The dove in the 'peace and fascism' photomontage shown to the left, is impaled on a knife that is attached to the end of a rifle, which was meant to represent the rise of fascism in Europe in the year 1930. In the background behind the dove is the league of nations building and on top of that building you can see a flag flying. The flag depicts the Nazi Swastika.

Other examples of John Heartfield's work is shown below:

In todays day and age John Heartfield is considered to be the master of political photomontage and for good reason not only were his pieces of work amusing but they were insightful and informative even if other people were not ready to take seriously his claims. But as well as being all of the above they were still good pieces of art. 

The aftermath

After the war Adolf Hitler was finally defeated bringing and end to Nazism, John returned to Germany after previously having left and lived out is days in East Germany. His life's work was commemorated on a postage stamp to be enjoyed by millions.