riness and to make visible its meaning,its underlying principle, its relationships
and tensions through the formal laws within the pictorial frame.”¹³In addition to
Demonstration,two other works from theyear 1925 confirm that“stripped of all
sentiment”does not mean without feeling–on the contrary.A1925 linocut print
titledKlassenkampf(Class Struggle)publishedinthe expressionist journalDie
Aktionuses the sameconfrontational composition to at once show the workers’
anger and determination, celebrate their unity and strength, and promotesolid-
arity with, and understandingfor,their cause. Heremedieval artistic techniques
are combined with modern strategies of abstractionto present the classstruggle
as part ofalongerfight for justice and demand forrecognition (see figure11.3).
The inscription inDieArbeitsmänner(1925,The Working Men) clearlyidentifies
the strategies of emotional and political interpellation thatmake“workers”
and“class struggle”synonymousterms and equate both withaparticular hab-
itus of standing: resolute, united, confident,and empowered (see figure 11.4).
The Cologne Progressivesturned to abstraction preciselyinorderto reaffirm
the utopian qualities of aesthetic experience and to harness its powers of pre-
figuration, i.e., the modeling of emergent identifications in, and for,the present.
FranzWilhelm Seiwert,quoted in AnnedoreScherf,FranzWilhelm Seiwert und dierheinische
Tradition. SeiwertsBildsprachezwischen Tradition undModerne(Norderstedt:Books on Demand,
2013), 53.
Fig..FranzWilhelmSeiwert,Die Arbeitsmänner/
The WorkingMen(), oil on canvas, Museum
Kunstpalast Düsseldorf.
Fig..Franz Wilhelm Seiwert,
“Klassenkampf/ClassStruggle,”lino-
cut,Die Aktion./(), front
page. Withpermission of MerrillC.
BermanCollection.Franz Wilhelm Seiwert’sCriticalEmpathy 213