THE NEW OBJECTIVITY

This return to figurative painting had many causes. When the First World War ended, the world had changed, along with attitudes to class, identity, gender roles, work and urbanity, and artists sought new ways to portray this new society.

Stylistically, new objectivity is close to neoclassical realism. The attention to detail and the occasional skewed elements that make their way into the imagery can veer towards the naive or even slightly caricatured. The pictures have the same sharpness throughout, giving a certain heightened superreal presence.

German Neue Sachlichkeit artists include Otto Dix and George Grosz. In Sweden, Arvid Fougstedt and Otte Sköld are the most influential painters in this style. Their documentary portraits and ordinary still-lifes and interiors, often in muted tones, offered a counterweight to the colour explosions of expressionism. Italy became a vital source of inspiration, and Fougstedt went on a study trip to Florence after the war. Otte Sköld developed his objective painting as a student in Copenhagen and Paris. Two of his portraits are shown here, one of the anarchist Silva, and the other of his colleague Bror Hjorth. Sköld became a key figure on the Swedish art scene; he was appointed to create a new museum for modern art, and he spoke at the inauguration of Moderna Museet in 1958.

The term nysaklighet/new objectivity is used not only in painting, but also in photography, film, literature and architecture, where the style is characterized by a similar realistic and terse approach. Photographers who worked in this style include August Sander and Karl Blossfeldt.