Abstract

This essay attempts to understand to what extent, and how, the term “Nouvelle Objectivité” (New Objectivity) is used in France to describe and understand the works of a number of German artists of the 1920s, to what extent it is considered to designate a movement, a trend, or even a category, and what artistic, cultural and political issues are at stake in its use. Although the works were not visible in France until the 1970s for collective exhibitions, the notions were used in France as early as the 1920s, although they were not firmly associated with specific artists. Invisibilised during the 1950s under the more general category of expressionism, “Nouvelle Objectivité” found a more specific use in France from the 1970s onwards. Even then, however, its use was fraught with questions about the range of artists falling under this term, its geographical extension, and its categorical specificity.

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