An alle Künstler (To All Artists!) was the official publication of the Novembergruppe (November Group), the revolutionary artists’ organization formed in Berlin in December 1918. Adopting the motto of the French Revolution, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” the group’s manifesto declared: “We hold it as our special duty to gather all serious artistic talents and to turn them toward the public good.” Aligning political and artistic revolution, the group endeavored to make art that served the people and expanded opportunities for artists under the new government. Founding member Max Pechstein designed the booklet’s cover. It depicts a man with one hand raised, the other touching the flaming heart in his chest—a reference to the sacred heart of Christ, a Catholic devotion symbolizing God’s love for humankind. The image is thus linked to the spiritual strain of revolutionary Expressionism that made associations between the political and metaphysical rebirth these artists believed was imminent. It also unintentionally signaled the ambivalent status of Expressionist art and artists at this moment: were artists beacons lighting the way, or would they be immolated by the raging fire of revolution?
Pechstein also contributed the essay “Was wir wollen” (What We Want), in which he called for artists to engage with the world and reject an academic “art of illusion.” He imagined an artistic culture that would unite artist and craftsperson, raising the status of the latter and identifying the artist as an essential worker. “Art,” Pechstein argued, “is no game, but a duty to the people.”
Erin Sullivan Maynes
2022 (adapted from Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany, 68)
