AI Art Styles
This entry documents how a generative image model rendered New Objectivity when the movement was named in a prompt. It forms part of a survey of 60 art movements generated in February 2024.
The images
Two subjects are held constant across the series: Lake Kenogamissi in Northern Ontario, and Times Square in New York City. Each is rendered twice. A thin prompt names the movement and nothing else. A thick prompt supplies a generated description of the movement’s visual characteristics.
The thick descriptor
The following description was generated by GPT-4 and supplied to the image model as the thick prompt.
New Objectivity, a 1920s German art movement, is characterized by realistic, unembellished depiction of life, moving away from the emotional expressiveness of Expressionism. The style exists in two tendencies: Verists, who satirically and provocatively represent the harsh realities of contemporary life, and Classicists, who focus on timeless and universal qualities in a sober, detached way. Emphasis is often laid on particular features or objects, giving a precise, factual, and impartial document of the times. Notable artists include George Grosz and Max Beckmann. To create art in this style, focus on detailing the reality without emotional infusion, emphasize features or motifs, and maintain a sober, practical aesthetics.
About this movement
Background on New Objectivity is available at its Wikipedia entry. The images above are not offered as an account of New Objectivity as art historians understand it. They record what a commercial image model produced when asked for the style by name.
About this series
This entry is part of a survey, described in the series introduction. The full set of 60 movements is browsable in the Art Styles index. The survey used text-to-image generation, in which composition varies alongside the style itself.
