Periodic Reporting for period 4 - METROMOD (Relocating Modernism: Global Metropolises, Modern Art and Exile)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-12-01 bis 2023-05-31
“Relocating Modernism: Global Metropolises, Modern Art and Exile (METROMOD)” researched six global cities as destinations for émigrés artists in the first half of the 20th century. The project investigated the interaction between exiled visual artists, architects, photographers and the urban matrix. METROMOD followed the hypothesis that the migratory movements of artists in the first half of the 20th century had a profound and long-term impact on art history by establishing new transnational places of artistic encounter in global metropolises. Urban locations were of particular importance for exiled artists, not only for communicating, cooperating and exhibiting, forming networks and formulating theories; they were also stations on the diverse paths of exile. METROMOD’s focus on six metropolitan destinations – New York, Buenos Aires, London, Istanbul, Bombay (now Mumbai) and Shanghai – allowed a comparative perspective.
METROMOD challenged the concept of Modernism as fixed, stable and Western by overcoming established and still dominant narratives of Western European Modernism with centres in Paris, Vienna or Berlin. The project’s methods combined urban studies with art history and exile studies to investigate how modern art changed in interrelation with local metropolitan cultures and artists. Through its three key objectives the project marked out a unique and unconventional map of artistic life and work in exile metropolises: It explored transformations in urban topographies and institutions; focused on actors and their artistic networks, artworks and exhibitions as contact zones; and examined media as discursive platforms between locals and migrants.
METROMOD contributes to a paradigm shift in writing modernist art history as a history of global interconnections, spurred by migratory movements. Furthermore, the project provides a historical perspective from which contemporary migration movements can be better understood.
METROMOD challenged the concept of Modernism as fixed, stable and Western by overcoming established and still dominant narratives of Western European Modernism with centres in Paris, Vienna or Berlin. The project’s methods combined urban studies with art history and exile studies to investigate how modern art changed in interrelation with local metropolitan cultures and artists. Through its three key objectives the project marked out a unique and unconventional map of artistic life and work in exile metropolises: It explored transformations in urban topographies and institutions; focused on actors and their artistic networks, artworks and exhibitions as contact zones; and examined media as discursive platforms between locals and migrants.
METROMOD contributes to a paradigm shift in writing modernist art history as a history of global interconnections, spurred by migratory movements. Furthermore, the project provides a historical perspective from which contemporary migration movements can be better understood.
METROMOD’s team members were able to identify important results during research and archival trips and build strong networks with local researchers. We researched numerous addresses of artists in exile that led to new results on the accumulation and artistic practice of emigrants. The team analysed collaborations between local and émigré artists and located publishers and photo agencies. The first international conference of METROMOD “Arrival Cities: Migrating Artists and New Metropolitan Topographies”, organized in 2018 in Munich; the conference proceedings were released with Leuven University Press in 2020 (https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/41641).
Two international conferences were held in 2019: “Bombay’s Spaces of Sociability: Exile, Migration and Contact Zones” in Mumbai in cooperation with Sir JJ College for Architecture, Mumbai, and “Crossing French Metropolises: Exiled Artists and Intellectuals during the 20th century” at DFK – Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art in Paris. We convened the lecture series “Modern Times. New Perspectives on Modern Art and the Canon of Art History” (2019) with the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich and published the special issue “Nomadic Camera” of the journal “Fotogeschichte” (2019).
METROMOD’S second edited book “Urban Exile. Theories, Methods, Research Practices” was prepared by public online panels in 2020/2021. The resulting volume was released with Intellect (https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61621) in 2023. “Urban Exile” discusses a variety of methods and sources for exile and urban studies. We presented our book and the METROMOD research in March 2023 at the Technical University Istanbul.
The project’s outputs were manifold. The team has published ca. 40 articles in journals and books, released 2 conference proceedings and communicated results through 7 organized conferences and workshops and ca. 30 presentations at international academic venues. Two monographs – on London as an exile metropolis (PI) and on Émigré photographers in New York (PhD) – will follow. For wider public outreach METROMOD disseminated research, activities, publications continually on a blog on the project’s website, making our work visible to the scientific community. (https://metromod.net)
We were able to publish our research results in six digital walks, which lead through the six METROMOD cities, combining historical and contemporary images, identify neighbourhoods that attracted many emigrant artists, institutions founded by them, focus on contact zones and the traces of artistic emigration in contemporary cities. (https://walks.metromod.net)
Furthermore, we released an archive on METROMOD’S metropolises New York, Buenos Aires, London, Istanbul, Bombay (now Mumbai) and Shanghai (https://archive.metromod.net). This curated archive provides the users/audience with an interactive map of artists and intellectuals living and working in urban exile between the 1900s and 1950s.
Two international conferences were held in 2019: “Bombay’s Spaces of Sociability: Exile, Migration and Contact Zones” in Mumbai in cooperation with Sir JJ College for Architecture, Mumbai, and “Crossing French Metropolises: Exiled Artists and Intellectuals during the 20th century” at DFK – Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art in Paris. We convened the lecture series “Modern Times. New Perspectives on Modern Art and the Canon of Art History” (2019) with the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich and published the special issue “Nomadic Camera” of the journal “Fotogeschichte” (2019).
METROMOD’S second edited book “Urban Exile. Theories, Methods, Research Practices” was prepared by public online panels in 2020/2021. The resulting volume was released with Intellect (https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61621) in 2023. “Urban Exile” discusses a variety of methods and sources for exile and urban studies. We presented our book and the METROMOD research in March 2023 at the Technical University Istanbul.
The project’s outputs were manifold. The team has published ca. 40 articles in journals and books, released 2 conference proceedings and communicated results through 7 organized conferences and workshops and ca. 30 presentations at international academic venues. Two monographs – on London as an exile metropolis (PI) and on Émigré photographers in New York (PhD) – will follow. For wider public outreach METROMOD disseminated research, activities, publications continually on a blog on the project’s website, making our work visible to the scientific community. (https://metromod.net)
We were able to publish our research results in six digital walks, which lead through the six METROMOD cities, combining historical and contemporary images, identify neighbourhoods that attracted many emigrant artists, institutions founded by them, focus on contact zones and the traces of artistic emigration in contemporary cities. (https://walks.metromod.net)
Furthermore, we released an archive on METROMOD’S metropolises New York, Buenos Aires, London, Istanbul, Bombay (now Mumbai) and Shanghai (https://archive.metromod.net). This curated archive provides the users/audience with an interactive map of artists and intellectuals living and working in urban exile between the 1900s and 1950s.
METROMOD explored innovative approaches and methods through a conceptual triangle of modernism, migration and the metropolis, which are understood as interrelated and mutually constitutive. Explorations in the six metropolises have shed light on exiled actors, objects, exhibitions and flight routes. Through this recuperative work, the project contributes to a new understanding of modern art and architecture as “on the move” and “dispersed”, revealed by the comparative approach. The results of our research went far beyond the state of the art.
Until today, infrastructures and institutions have played a subordinate role in art history. METROMOD contributed to a new infrastructural research perspective: The team examined galleries, publishing houses, photo agencies – all of them founded by emigrants, which shed new light on the interactions between local and émigré actors. One example is given by the New School for Social Research in New York, where numerous emigrants gave courses in photo theory, art history and art practice. For Bombay, hotels where exiled artists met were analysed. For Shanghai, street exhibitions of the 1930s were in view. Networks between artists were also in focus; the Union of Russian Painters in Istanbul is one of these networks of Russian-speaking émigrés. In Buenos Aires we were able to investigate the important network around the artists Horacio Coppola and Grete Stern. We researched the medias of migration, especially journals such as “MARG” in Bombay, “Sur” in Buenos Aires and books such as “A Hundred Years of Photography 1839–1939” by the London exile Lucia Moholy, which shaped the writing of photographic history. We were able to explore articles written by exiles such as architects Wilhelm Schütte and Gustav Oelsner, contributing to local debates in the Istanbul architecture magazine “Arkitekt”.
The METROMOD digital archive led to new research conclusion. Distances and proximities between exiled artists and artistic and émigré communities could be evaluated as well as cumulation of studios, agencies and galleries in specific neighbourhoods. Ambitious digital visualisations contributed to a better understanding of artistic placemaking in and beyond the metropolises. The project was able to prove that exile and global dispersion of numerous European artists in the first half of the 20th century led to the decentralisation of modern art and stimulated exchange processes.
Until today, infrastructures and institutions have played a subordinate role in art history. METROMOD contributed to a new infrastructural research perspective: The team examined galleries, publishing houses, photo agencies – all of them founded by emigrants, which shed new light on the interactions between local and émigré actors. One example is given by the New School for Social Research in New York, where numerous emigrants gave courses in photo theory, art history and art practice. For Bombay, hotels where exiled artists met were analysed. For Shanghai, street exhibitions of the 1930s were in view. Networks between artists were also in focus; the Union of Russian Painters in Istanbul is one of these networks of Russian-speaking émigrés. In Buenos Aires we were able to investigate the important network around the artists Horacio Coppola and Grete Stern. We researched the medias of migration, especially journals such as “MARG” in Bombay, “Sur” in Buenos Aires and books such as “A Hundred Years of Photography 1839–1939” by the London exile Lucia Moholy, which shaped the writing of photographic history. We were able to explore articles written by exiles such as architects Wilhelm Schütte and Gustav Oelsner, contributing to local debates in the Istanbul architecture magazine “Arkitekt”.
The METROMOD digital archive led to new research conclusion. Distances and proximities between exiled artists and artistic and émigré communities could be evaluated as well as cumulation of studios, agencies and galleries in specific neighbourhoods. Ambitious digital visualisations contributed to a better understanding of artistic placemaking in and beyond the metropolises. The project was able to prove that exile and global dispersion of numerous European artists in the first half of the 20th century led to the decentralisation of modern art and stimulated exchange processes.