Postulating the impossible? The ideal of Gesamtkunstwerk in interwar avant-garde periodicals and their manifestos

The nineteenth-century principle of Gesamtkunstwerk was inseparably linked to the interwar avant-garde, as indicated in a plethora of manifestos and programmatic writings published in periodicals such as De Stijl, 7 Arts and Blok. The widely postulated interrelation of the arts in the service of social and cultural regeneration, however, did not always prove easy to implement. The social renewal of the Total Work of Art prophesied by avant-garde writers, painters and architects could hardly be achieved. This contribution seeks to answer the question whether the very synthesis of arts too was just an unachievable dream. Based on selected programmatic writings from avant-garde periodicals of Polish, Dutch and Belgian provenance I will analyse the recurring similarities and divergences that characterised various approaches to achieving the Total Work of Art voiced by particular artists. Subsequently I will scrutinise the chronicles of the actual cooperation between artists and architects in order to shed light on the actual application of the Gesamtkunstwerk ideal and the (im)possibility of its implementation.

Automated summary

The principle of Gesamtkunstwerk in the 19th century was closely linked to the interwar avant-garde and represented in manifestos and programmatic writings of various periodicals. However, the idea of using the interrelation of arts for social and cultural renewal proved difficult to implement. This article aims to explore whether the synthesis of arts was an unachievable dream by analyzing programmatic writings and examining the actual cooperation between artists and architects.