German art always seems to have such a hardness to it. These bookcovers are no exception. Germany IS the birthplace of Expressionism. It's like all the softness was drained out of every German paintbrush after 1905.
So many of these covers seem hyper-masculine to me, and I don't even think the phallic references are intentional. The spaceship on the last one looks like, well, you know. They don't call it the Fatherland for nothing.
1884
1905
1920
1920
1926
1930
1932
1932
1933
1941
1952
1957
Some of these covers are beautiful. The silhouette of the plane on the 1932 cover has a wonderful birdlike quality to it.
ReplyDeleteGerman art always seems to have such a hardness to it. These bookcovers are no exception. Germany IS the birthplace of Expressionism. It's like all the softness was drained out of every German paintbrush after 1905.
ReplyDeleteSo many of these covers seem hyper-masculine to me, and I don't even think the phallic references are intentional. The spaceship on the last one looks like, well, you know. They don't call it the Fatherland for nothing.
All good phallic references are unintentional. Lot more fun to poke (is poking a phallic reference?) fun of.
ReplyDeleteEven when that Germanic influence is feminised it can be a bit scary: see Tamara de Lempicka, for example.
ReplyDeletewho was actually polish...
ReplyDeleteGood point!
ReplyDelete