However, the Berlin Avant-garde were fighting the Nazi take over in fact, by there open existence.
by Jack Bowman - 2007
BERLIN-
The still artists (painters) of the era in pre-Nazi Germany were ironically depicting the decline of their personal morals. The top one that comes to mind is George Grosz. There also was the First International Dada Fair at Dr. Otto Burchard's art gallery in Berlin in 1920. These artists were mentioned frequently, and still are, but actually seemed to have very little influence on the rise and/or fall of the Nazi State. I should note that this essay is about performance, or people in motion, interacting with time, and still art does not fit the criteria of this essay. I am aware that specifically the Futurist and Cubist mentioned in Mein Kampf were reacting to the world of motion that was upon them. They were also reacting to the world of realistic portrayal brought on by the camera. I will add that Picasso cubism is not the same as Cézannes. Picasso was not that interested in breaking the world down into blocks, cylinders and cubes. He was interested in showing multiple views all at the same time. Therefore, he did attempt to put 'people in motion, interacting with time'. But he failed. I know that this is difficult to accept in the still/flat art world but both he and the Futurist failed to put this motion in non moving art. I do need to emphasize that it was their personal morals that the still artist were concerned with. Adolf Hitler and the early Nazi's were also concerned with their own personal morals. It seems that there is a moral norm in a culture. This moral norm is conditioned by the Church, State and family. But as things begin to go awry in the environment with these three moral staples then creativity kicks in and new morals are experimented with.
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A major difference
between the Scene in Dayton at the turn of the Millennium and the Pre-Nazi
Berlin is that in Dayton the Avant-garde performances were a Warning of
danger to come and the Pre-Nazi Berlin Avant-garde seemed only bent on a
goal of reaching the end. This could have been caused by Dayton having
the Nazi's as a reference whereas Berlin had no reference and therefore no
ability to see what was to come. However, the Berlin Avant-garde were fighting the Nazi take over in fact, by there open existence. |
DAYTON -
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Izan Knarf (Frank Nazi spelled backward) was originally designed to be black because of contradictions of a "Black Nazi". He could either be performed by an African American or Caucasian, or any other race with make-up. The make-up was later dropped because of the time required to apply it and the venues available did not give adequate time to apply it. In any case he was a Nazi Clown Magician from Hell that died sixty years ago. He was required to come back to the living and perform as part of his punishment. He was the embodiment of the "Warning". Rob Avery was the first performer of Izan Knarf. Here is a video clip from "Polly's Performance Art Show" that was performed in Dayton. VIDEO CLIP one minute Izan Knarf appears to be modeled after Erik Jan Hanussen (the German Spiritualist and Magician in pre-Nazi Berlin) but he was not. He was modeled after Chung Ling Soo who was killed in 1918 while performing the Bullet Catch. Izan performed the Bullet Catch at the Pearl in 2006. Chung Ling Soo was actually William-Ellsworth Robinson and pretended to be Chinese. There is also some modeling after The Black Wizard of the West that was killed by the Bullet Catch in 1922. |
Rob Avery as Izan Knarf in "Last Picture on the Roll" |
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At left is a photograph in its original
mat board. It was found in a Piqua Flea Market in the early 1990's.
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