03/04/2024
Good evening, all. Tomorrow we will be debating “Resolved: We should continue to strive for gesamtkunstwerk.” That’s a big word right there! It is also from the German language. In layman's terms, gesamtkunstwerk refers to “total work of art” or a totalizing oneness of a piece (https://www.theartstory.org/definition/gesamtkunstwerk/ #:~:text=The%20German%20term%20Gesamtkunstwerk%2C%20roughly,create%20a%20single%20cohesive%20whole). People tend to connotate it with maximalism, drama, climactic displays or even mere emotion. But in truth, gesamtkunstwerk is more than that: it is an encompassment of everything that leads up to a piece’s final presentation. We can easily trace this phenomenon through architecture. Have you ever read some horrific tale about the human cost of a great wonder? The Pyramids of Giza, for one, were constructed by slaves, many of whom died in the process whilst toiling under critical conditions (https://historycollection.com/this-is-what-life-was-like-for-an-egyptian-worker-building-the-pyramids/22/). Therefore, the totalization of the pyramids includes these tributary deaths as well as the sardonic fact that they were built to be tombs for Pharaohs. I also think of the Empire State Building or the Bauhaus Arts Center (https://www.thecollector.com/what-is-a-gesamtkunstwerk-examples/). Such buildings represent the eras in which they were built, as well as the cultural significance of their make. They then propagate a larger historical progress toward greatness, i.e. humanity’s innovation. Yet gesamtkunstwerk can also appear through musical pieces, paintings, and other artistic mediums. Some popular examples that come to mind are Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” and the use of ‘chiaroscuro’ in artwork. The latter appears in dramatic paintings by Caravaggio and his disciple, Artemisia. They both aim to totalize vulgar yet oddly catholic scenes in their work through attention to light, anatomy, color theory, composition, and even the painters’ livelihoods (https://www.singulart.com/en/blog/2019/11/26/the-chaotic-life-of-caravaggio-chiaroscuro-and-the-cardsharps/). “Valkyries” pays homage to every element that contributed to its final composition: musical notation, instrumentals, directions, and the very idea of this work (https://fsumul2110.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/piece-review-the-ride-of-the-valkyries/). In fact, gesamtkunstwerk originates from Wagner, a 19th-century German composer who challenged his contemporaries to “exteriorize” their “hidden dream states” through emotional expression (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Debussy ). Wagner particularly demanded this of librettists and dramatists, for their job was to totalize human expression through music, stage design, and bodily movement. You can think of it almost as an extraction of the shadow ego behind artwork; a self-expository experiment. Carl Jung spends some time reflecting on how an artist can utilize signifiers to make an artwork their own (https://www.attentiveequations.com/jung-and-the-role-of-the-artist/). He also thinks that a collaboration between the creator and their society must exist for it to be transformed and renewed cyclically. Here the negation might question whether gesamtkunstwerk in such a way perpetuates a toxic newness that is detrimental to a society rather than innovative. If we need to make expositions out of our shadowy sides, is this necessarily healthy? Also, are grandeur and majesty ideals we should aim for, even if they might encourage human vices such as consumerism, addiction, or competition? Wagner believes gesamtkunstwerk holds the key to national development (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpQg1Yw1lSs). In the post-Romantic period, intellectuals proposed different ‘-isms’ that could bring out great ideals. This includes nationalism, socialism, conservatism, and even liberalism. Nationalism stood out as being transmittable to people of lower classes–it required strict ardor for a nation-state. Through totality, audiences [Germans, in particular] could gather notions of harmony and strong borders. In post-Bismarckian Central Europe, it unified passive cannon and a utopian future through a nationalist present (https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/blhs-109-fall2015/2015/10/16/week-8-richard-wagner-and-the-music-of-nationalism/). What I enjoy about this topic is that, ironically, it gathers different subjects under a single critique of art. That is, gesamtkunstwerk aims to address the purpose of ideology in the creation of a modern nation-state, as well as psychological notions of fraternity or political self-concept. Furthermore, gesamtkunstwerk requires an examination of the ethicality of majesty–can we achieve such totalization without sacrificing other persons’ livelihoods or identities in its wake? For one, the N**i party is a product of Wagner’s original musings. Coupled with critiques from contemporaries like Nietzsche, the negation might say that gesamtkunstwerk is only for the “short-sighted” who believe in infinite horizons like materialism and universality (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/25012/pg25012-images.html). In such a way, perhaps it perpetuates false grandeur that limits critical inquiry or regresses us further into antiquarian thought. Still, the affirmation can impress that gesamtkunstwerk is a mental exercise of attentiveness and discipline. They can attack their opposition by stating that total artwork is the salvation of modernity from its supposed descent into disillusionment and apathy ["The Case Of Wagner"]. Withal, both sides have a plethora of examples to source arguments from! I hope that our speakers tomorrow can touch on all of these ideas whilst still paying the highest homage to art. Quite infrequently do debaters sit down and dissect humanity’s greatest contributions to aesthetics…Alas, let this debate be the antidote. I hope to see many familiar faces and wish all a merry March.
Ad virtutem, libertatem, scientiamque.
Critic Alaoui
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio led a turbulent life, consisting of murder charges, ambushes by knights, and a death that is shrouded in mystery to this day. He poured his passion into his artwork, producing realistic high renaissance pieces that had an incredible amount of detail. His use of ligh...
