RADIUM AGE ART (1932)

By: Joshua Glenn
November 25, 2024

Salvador Dali’s Birth of Liquid Anxieties (1932)

A series of notes regarding proto sf-adjacent artwork created during the sf genre’s emergent Radium Age (1900–1935). Very much a work-in-progress. Curation and categorization by Josh Glenn, whose notes are rough-and-ready — and in some cases, no doubt, improperly attributed. Also see these series: RADIUM AGE TIMELINE and RADIUM AGE POETRY.

RADIUM AGE ART: 1900 | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935.

1932

First Abstraction-Création Cahier, Abstraction-création: Art non-figuratif, is produced.

Vladimir Tatlin’s “Letatlin” (ornithopter), 1932

Calder exhibits “stabiles” and “mobiles.”

In 1932–33 Dalí wrote “The Tragic Myth of The Angelus of Millet,” in which he quotes the quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger in order to challenge the borders between art and science.

John J. Heartfield’s “Adolf The Superman: Swallows Gold And Spouts Junk” (1932)

“Adolf The Superman” is a famous political poster depicting Adolf Hitler with his chest and belly full of gold from his financial backers. Heartfield, a German artist, combined a photo of Hitler with an x-ray to create this photomontage. (While living in Berlin during WWI, Helmut Herzfeld began styling himself “John Heartfield” to protest against the anti-British fervor sweeping Germany.) He was active in the German Dada movement, and a member of the German Communist Party. His political montages (he’d create nearly 250 anti-Nazi photomontages) regularly appeared on the cover of Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung. Heartfield lived in Berlin until April 1933 when the Nazi Party took power. He fled Germany by walking over the Sudeten Mountains to Czechoslovakia; he was number five on the Gestapo’s most-wanted list.

“The Mad Genius” (1931). Directed by Michael Curtiz. A deranged yet visionary ballet teacher (John Barrymore) will stop at nothing to keep control of his protegé.

Anderson discovers positron (the first evidence of antimatter); Chadwick discovers the neutron; Heisenberg wins Nobel in Physics for the creation of the matrix theory of quantum mechanics.

Hitler refuses Hindenburg’s offer to become Vice Chancellor; Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes US president.

Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Also see: RADIUM AGE: 1932.

COSMIC AWE

Kandinsky’s “Fixed Flight” (1932)

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Calder’s “Space Tunnel” (1932)

DISENCHANTMENT

“Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States” by Frida Kahlo, 1932

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Salvador Dali’s Birth of Liquid Anxieties (1932)

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“The Ascent of Ethiopia” by Lois Mailou Jones (1932)

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“Henry Ford Hospital” (1932) by Frida Kahlo

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Magritte’s “The Universe Unmasked” (1932)

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Herbert Bayer’s “Humanly Impossible” (1932)

FOURTH DIMENSION

Joan Miró, “The Farm” (1921-1922). National Gallery of Art

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“Construction with Belltower” by Joaquin Torres Garcia (1932)

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

“Hoboken Factory” by George Ault (1932)

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Dali’s “Suez” (1932)

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Rolf Nesch’s “Elbe Bridge I” (1932)

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Cyril Power’s “The Tube Station” (c. 1932)

UNKNOWABLE ALIENS

Kurt Seligmann’s La Turque (1932)

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Picasso’s Bather with Beach Ball (1932)

Picasso’s “La Lecture” (1932)

Picasso’s “Femme nue couchée” (1932)

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Braque’s “Lying Nude (The Bather)” (1932)

UNSEEN FORCES

Vasily Kandinsky’s “Decisive Rose” (1932)

Kandinsky’s “Free” (1932)

Kandinsky’s “Layered” (1932)

UTOPIA

Oskar Schlemmer’s “Bauhaus Stairway” (1932)

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Tullio Crali’s “Distruzione e costruzione” (1932)

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MORE RADIUM AGE SCI FI ON HILOBROW: RADIUM AGE SERIES from THE MIT PRESS: In-depth info on each book in the series; a sneak peek at what’s coming in the months ahead; the secret identity of the series’ advisory panel; and more. | RADIUM AGE: TIMELINE: Notes on proto-sf publications and related events from 1900–1935. | RADIUM AGE POETRY: Proto-sf and science-related poetry from 1900–1935. | RADIUM AGE 100: A list (now somewhat outdated) of Josh’s 100 favorite proto-sf novels from the genre’s emergent Radium Age | SISTERS OF THE RADIUM AGE: A resource compiled by Lisa Yaszek.

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Radium Age SF, Sci-Fi

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