I know little enough about Conrad Felixmüller's life story. That he was born Conrad Felix Müller and chose to combine his middle name and surname into one, yes. And of course that he was German. He was German and lived at just the right time to live under Nazi rule. This was a miserable circumstance, as you might guess. The Party deemed him a degenerate artist, something that no one of any artistic discernment would agree with, but who needs taste when you have power?
"Children's Carnival Bustle"―given the mouthful title of "Kinderfastnachtstreiben" in its original language―is a sprightly bit of nighttime color. There's also a bit of doubleness to it. While we're looking at them, the children are also looking out at us, at the adult world. Perhaps this is why the small boy in the lead is decked out in oversize grownup clothes, accessorized with clown nose.
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Having been born in time to witness the First World War yet too old to be drafted into the next one Conrad Felixmüller lived through a very tempestuous period in Europe, particularly in Germany. I understand he was best known as a printmaker but this one is a fine example of his oil painting technique. I know it's supposed to be joyous but there's something just a bit forboding in what looks like a forced celebration. Maybe I'm seeing that now knowing what happened in the years afterward. The grown-up clothes are especially poignant.
It was Jung who said (essentially) war has a way of projecting its shadow into the future. I wonder if that's what we're seeing again:
The gigantic catastrophes that threaten us today are not elemental happenings of a physical or biological order, but psychic events. To a quite terrifying degree we are threatened by wars and revolutions which are nothing other than psychic epidemics. At any moment several million human beings may be smitten with a new madness, and then we shall have another world war or devastating revolution. Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche.
~ Carl Jung
Apparently he did service as an orderly in World War I. So non-combat, for which I can't say I blame him. But it must have been a quite harrowing time as well. I've seen some of his prints, which are well done and stark. This painting strikes me as operating on a whole other level, though. It boasts an enchanting play of color and light. At the same time, looking at it one is very aware of how defenseless children can be. Is there something they need to be protected from? Maybe.
War has its distinctive markings. When it comes near it makes noises, gives off certain signs. We don't seem very good at avoiding it, of course. Jung understood better than most that man does not live by rationality alone. There are other aspects to humanity, for both better and worse. He was very smart on what was happening around him, and he might well have seen a good deal in the future. In a naturalistic sense, of course.
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