Novembergruppe

   Aroused by the November Revolution* and con-cerned with publicizing their ideas, several architects, artists, writers, critics, and musicians formed the Novembergruppe on 3 December 1918. Led initially by Max Pechstein and Cesar Klein (both painters), the group invited "Expression-ists, Cubists, Futurists ' ' to produce a new art for a new time. Many members were also associated with the Arbeitsrat fur Kunst.* In all, more than forty artists and architects exhibited under the auspices of the Novembergruppe in its first year; Ludwig Mies,* head of its architectural section, arranged several exhibits of advanced architectural concepts. As with other groups of socially conscious intellectuals—for example, the Bauhaus*—the Novembergruppe initially clam-ored for the production of art with a social and political message.

   The Novembergruppe s political commitment soon eroded, and dissension formed within its ranks. Early members such as the artists Georg Scholz, George Grosz,* and Rudolf Schlichter (all diffident Communists), judging the Novem-bergruppe vague and moderate, attacked its leadership as bourgeois and overly committed to exhibitions. When it endorsed the Prussian government s 1921 decision to ban the work of Otto Dix* and Schlichter from a Berlin* exhibition, several Communists migrated to the loosely organized Rote Gruppe. By 1925 the Novembergruppe, although it continued to exhibit until 1932, was little more than a body devoted to exhibitions and marketing.

   REFERENCES:Kliemann, Novembergruppe; Long, German Expressionism; Selz, "Artist as Social Critic ; Willett, Art and Politics.