John Heartfield Photomontages and Marxism Essay

John Heartfield Photomontages and Marxism - Essay ExampleTo recognize this relationship between Marx and Heartfield, this paper will provide some background into Heartfields work and the Weimar commonwealth before analyzing three of Heartfields works in light of Karl Marxs The German Ideology.Within the diction of his art, Heartfield created photographic symbols for the various political parties. He included such images as clenched fists, raised weapons system and open hands to show the strong actions and determined nature of the men in the various parties to do what they felt was important. Rather than going out and working to take his own photographs, Heartfield opted to take recognizable photographs from the mainstream constringe and reassemble them in such a way as to change the meaning of the image to what he envisioned. Most of his images appeared in the magazine Die Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung (Workers Illustrated Magazine or AIZ). To make his meanings as surface as po ssible, Heartfield stuck to a minimalist style, restricting himself to only a few telling images in separately piece, thus becoming a father of the modern and postmodern movements.The Weimar Republic, a convenient name positive by scholars to distinguish the political situation in Germany between the two world wars, was characterized by barbaric social upheaval. The country had been led for more than 40 years by the military and was suddenly forced, with the release of World War I, to accept a civilian governance. However, the large numbers of soldiers returning from the war, an unstable theme of how civil government should be constructed as well as a general non-acceptance of this type of government led to chaos within Germany. Several councils were put in place by the soldiers and workers of Germany. These councils led to the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II, the establishment of a socialist nation and the creation of a parliamentary-led governmental system that acted more like a dictatorship. The general