During the years following the First World War, and until the consolidation of the Nazi party, paintings and drawings of nude murdered and butchered women proliferated in the German art galleries and avant-garde publications of the Weimar Republic. Lustmord, a term derived from criminology and psychology, was the label assigned to such works, and the representation of the lust-murder of women by men became curiously ubiquitous in Weimar culture. Although previous scholarship has tended to treat Lustmord art homogonously, in this thesis I argue that these works must be considered individually to grasp the varying meaning of Lustmord to Weimar artists and audiences. My study surveys the transformation of Lustmord from a crime to an artistic genre, then looks specifically at two paintings: Der Kleine Frauenmörder by George Grosz (1893-1959) and Der Lustmörder (Selbstporträt) by Otto Dix (1891-1969). I argue that despite the shared subject matter, and compositional and temporal parallels of Der Kleine Frauenmörder and Der Lustmörder (Selbstporträt), the two paintings have meaning beyond that generically attributed to Lustmord art. The separate meanings that can be culled from these works speak specifically to the circumstances and intentions of the artists who created them, and offer insight to the multivalence of Lustmord in Weimar society. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Arts. / Spring Semester, 2010. / April 1, 2010. / Dada, New Woman, Berlin, Neue Sachlichkeit, Erich Wulffen, Otto Dix, George Grosz / Includes bibliographical references. / Adam Jolles, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael D. Carrasco, Committee Member; Lauren S. Weingarden, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253951 |
| Contributors | Bender, Stephanie D. (authoraut), Jolles, Adam (professor directing thesis), Carrasco, Michael D. (committee member), Weingarden, Lauren S. (committee member), Department of Art History (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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