ART

1. I believe the intention of the artist was to protest against German nationalism and militarism, the causes that fueled World War I. The quality of the work is really good, and John Heartfield is mostly known for his mastering in the art of photomontage. I believe the response of the audience during those times was quite ambivalent. On one side, there are the Germans like John Heartfield who are against the war. They feel the need to find a place in which to express their ideas freely. On the other side, there was the strong sense of German Nationalism. Due to the fact the Treaty of Versailles had been unfair to them, they felt the need to fight for their country.


2. John Heartfield wanted to imitate reality in the sense that he wanted to imitate what he and many other Germans felt towards War. The reality he wants to convey is one of feelings, an ambiguous but at the same time concrete one because many Germans felt oppressed during the war.
Through his artwork he wants to portray the social values and cultural trends of a contemporary world facing a disastrous period of war.
He wants to show the people that there is no purpose in war, the only outcome it has is oppression and lack of freedom of speech. Here the human subject has been reduced to nothingness, just like people during times of war when they lose their identity and sometimes fight for a cause they do not even understand.

http://wwar.com/master/movments/dadaism.html