HANS CORAY
Born in 1906, Hans Coray was primarily inspired by the 1920s growing up. Key artistic innovations that had been established in the earlier part of the 20th century continued to be developed during the 1920s and 1930s. During this period the careers of many inspiring and pioneering artists began to flourish, yet at the same time there was an atmosphere of reflection and sombreness following the horrors of the First World War. Significant shifts in politics were happening worldwide, and Marxism took a strong hold as an ideology within artist groups and communities. Due to its cultural importance, Surrealism spread as an philosophy on an international scale, and became the leading theme of the pictorial arts in the 1920s. The Bauhaus movement developed during this time and concentrated on a unification of all modes of art, working towards the idea of the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’. The liberal politics of the Weimar Republic in Germany empowered this movement to blossom and grow and develop further.