Grotesque Visions

About this book

"Grotesque Visions examines the Berlin Dada artists-such as Salomo Friedlñder (aka Mynona), Til Brugman, and Hannah Höch-who criticized, satirized, and subverted, through their use of the artistic grotesque, the scientific practices and evidentiary claims of late-19th- and early-20th-century scientists. Demonstrating how pathologists, anthropologists, sexologists, and medical scientists who went to excessive measures to create professional and public environments in which they could present their research in a seemingly unambiguous way, this volume shows how the practices and responses of Dada artists challenged these forms of supposed scientific objectivity. The volume concludes by examining a recent exhibition: Grotesk!: 130 Jahre Kunst der Frechheit / Comic Grotesque: Wit and Mockery in German Arts, 1870-1940 , which traveled through Europe and the United States between 2003 and 2005. In contrast to the exhibition, Thomas O. Haakenson reveals a unique deployment of the artistic grotesque at the turn of the last fin-de-sic̈le ."--