Neue Sachlichkeit
- New Objectivity
- Weimar realism
Cold hard-edged realism, an unflattering portrait, and a flat airless light.
Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
New Objectivity looks at people without kindness. The subject is rendered exactly, including what they would rather you did not see, and the effect is uncomfortable in a way that is hard to look away from.
For a poster that is useful when the subject is serious: a documentary season, a play about a real life, a talk about a hard topic.
How it works
Render hard. Every edge sharp, every surface described, no brushwork visible.
Light it flat and evenly, with no atmosphere, no glow and no shadow doing anything dramatic.
The palette is sour: ochre, grey-green, mauve, dull red. Put the subject frontal and slightly too close, staring out. Type is plain heavy sans in a flat band, deliberately unstylish.
When to use it
Use it for a documentary season, a serious play, a history talk, a photography show, a social campaign.
Leave it alone for anything celebratory. The style refuses to flatter and the audience will feel it.
Told apart from its neighbours
Expressionism distorts to show feeling. New Objectivity was a reaction against that and renders exactly instead.
Socialist realism also renders exactly but flatters the subject into a hero. New Objectivity does the opposite.
Pre-Raphaelite work is equally sharp but warm and romantic.
Where it was used
Otto Dix and George Grosz defined the German version through the 1920s, with Dix's portraits of Weimar Berlin the most reproduced. Christian Schad's cold, precise portraits are the quieter end. The name comes from a 1925 exhibition in Mannheim.
- Otto Dix
- George Grosz
- Christian Schad
The prompt
Replace the blanks with your own event, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.
poster for <event>, Neue Sachlichkeit New Objectivity style, cold hard-edged realism with every surface rendered sharply, one unflattering frontal portrait staring out, flat airless even light with no atmosphere, sour palette of ochre grey-green mauve and dull red, a bleak modern city interior behind, plain heavy sans capitals in a flat band, <date, time and place> in a small unadorned block
What goes wrong
The model returns a flattering painterly portrait. Ask for cold hard-edged realism, an unflattering frontal stare and no visible brushwork.
The second failure is warm cinematic light. Say flat airless even light with no atmosphere and no dramatic shadow.
Leave out
flattery, soft light, warmth, painterly brushwork, romanticism
Watch for
The light has to be flat and airless. Any mood lighting turns it into ordinary portraiture.
Questions
Print it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
Next to it in between the wars
