Different Influences-Lab 3

During this lab I was looking at The Little Review & The German little magazine, Omnibus. Something that has been standing out to me is the focus or lack thereof on visual art forms, where and when it shows up, and how it is represented. For example, this edition of “The Little Review” didn’t have much artwork, although what was there was a few small sections just placed throughout the magazine of black & white prints of paintings by Juan Gris. He worked almost exclusively in cubist form during the same time that Picasso was. Something surprising is many of his more famous works were not included, but what was included were very simple paintings that almost looked like sketches and were of just a single subject. We can obviously see this cubist modern art showing up in many American little magazines at the time, Yet I was wondering why some of the more specific choices were made. For example, there was one painting of a woman that was placed right in the middle of the magazine twice in a row. I wondered why it was there twice, why these more simple works by Gris were chosen, and why he was the only artist featured in this edition. Although we only have access to one German little magazine, the focus on visual art in this magazine seems much more important than in The Little Review. I think part of this is because the Omnibus magazine seems to be mor focused on all aspects of art whereas the little review was focused more on writing. For example, Omnibus has many pages dedicated to many different forms of art, like architecture, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and more. Something that surprised me is the mix of art in this magazine. Thy were following the modernism movement in their own way, including some things that coincided with America such as impressionist artists, yet they veered off the path in other ways, partly by doing a sort of “return to tradition” and highlighting some works that call back to ancient Greece, medieval art forms and more.