Gibb to lecture on artworks of 1930s
ART historian Barry Gibb will deliver a PowerPoint lecture tonight upstairs at the Ann Bryant Art Gallery in East London on the art work of the 1930s, including works by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí.
Entitled “The 1930s – the Gloom and the Glamour”, the gloom was that it was the decade of the great depression following the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929.
Job losses resulting from the domino effect of banks falling around the world reached a peak in 1933. This was the year in which Franklin D Rooseveld became president of the United States and Adolf Hitler became ruler of Germany.
But it was also the year of Buzby Berkley’s first big Hollywood musical success Broadway Melody of 1933 and the year that Fred Astaire arrived in Hollywood from Broadway and went on to make 10 musical films with Ginger Rogers to become the most famous dancing couple the world has ever seen.
At the same time the rise of Nazism had developed as a dark, threatening undercurrent, exploding into the open in September 1939 with the German/Russian invasion of Poland which set off World War 2.
The 1930s’ stress on glamour appeared as an escape from a depressive reality. Hollywood produced musicals, comedies and adventure films that took audiences away from the present into by-gone ages.
In New York, it was the golden era of musical stage shows. And choreographer Buzby Berkley brought his artistic talents across to California to apply his Broadway magic to musical films.
It was during the 1930s that Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali produced their greatest works, particularly charged up by events in the Spanish Civil War.
Above all, it was the second (post-crash) phase of the universal Art Deco style of the art between the two world wars. It was the first truly modern style (called the skyscraper style).
The lecture starts at 7pm, with an entry fee of R40 per person. Wine and fruit juice are available for a small donation. — DDR