Often in our lives we find ourselves thrust into journeys of self discovery. This is due to an aching throb within us all to be aware and affirmative in who you are. A sense of Identity is crucially important for sheer contentment and confidence with one’s self. There is no more beautiful way to communicate ones identity than through the medium of art. Art from the heart can only be honest. It causes our most subconscious feelings to be unearthed through mere brushstrokes of passion.
Therefore it is can be damaging when a sense of Identity is ripped from an artist; such was the case for Felix Nussbaum. He was a Jewish painter born in 1904 and studied at Berlin Academy of Arts. However his career took off in conjunction with the Second World War which hindered him significantly. Like most Jews he was in hiding. During these perilous years of living in fear Nussbaum still managed to paint. A painting he executed in hiding in 1943 was ‘Self Portrait with Jewish Pass’ which can be seen below.
‘Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Pass’
Image 1 (Felix Nussbaum Haus, no date)
The painting echoes the turmoil that Nussbaum endured regarding his identity; the uncertainty within as he was being punished for his religious identity yet still proud to show it.
There was no firm sense of belonging during these perilous years of wars and the communist rule. There was no clear knowledge of one’s identity and so the minds of the people dulled dangerously. However with the final fall of communism in 1989 there came an inspirational new lease on life. A new freedom gripped the people and there was now room for a person to express themselves and fully explore and unearth their individuality.
This freedom ignited sparks within conceptual artists such as Jackson Pollock. Pollock in particular pushed and tested the boundaries of this seemily boundless revival of art. In an anti-conventional method he dribbled and dripped, slashed and stained paint over canvases affixed to the ground. He abandoned rule allowing his individuality to run and hence Pollock released his innermost expressions. As Nicholous Pioch so beautifully puts it;
‘He danced in semi-ecstasy over canvases spread across the floor, lost in his patternings, dripping and dribbling with total control.’ (Pioch, 2002)
Despite rejoicing about the end of the morbid years there came another problem due to the thriving economy that was making up for the preceding years of conserving. Society in a bid to earn a firm establishment of identity fell into a false identity of Materialism. The post modern artist Barbara Kruger explores and questions this existence of materialism and modernity through a technique of layering photographs and using striking slogans (see figure three below). She caused us to question the falseness of our culture.
‘I Shop Therefore I Am’
Image four (Barbara Kruger, 2003)
Throughout the different times, catastrophic or prosperous, there was always a pursuit of an identity. Even with reference to Nussbaum, despite all the consequences of being a Jew he explored the turmoil in his head and expressed it through his work. Emma Mullin has come to the conclusion that art has not just aesthetic uses but, as all three artists have used it for, is the boundless medium where one’s true self can be sincerely expressed.
Bibliography
Page from Website
Barbara Kruger. (2003). ‘Biography – Barbara Kruger - Photography Collage – Advertising – Slogan Arts’. [Internet]. Available from http://www.barbarakruger.com/biography.shtml
Website
Osnabrück City of Peace. (no date). ‘Felix-Nussbaum-Haus/Museum of Cultural History’. [Internet]. City of Osnabrück, The Lord Mayor Boris Pistorius. Available from http://www.osnabrueck.de/fnh/english/default.asp
Page on Website
Pioch, N. (2002)a. ‘Webmuseum: Pollock, Jackson’. [Internet]. Available from http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/
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