Arnold Bode

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Deutsche Post special postage stamp for Arnold Bode's 100th birthday in 2000

Arnold Bode (born December 23, 1900 in Kassel ; † October 3, 1977 there ) was a German painter , draftsman , spatial artist, curator , university teacher and art teacher.

Bode is the founder of the documenta world exhibition of contemporary art in Kassel .

"... but we think you could try something new" (Arnold Bode 1964)

Life

1900-1933

Bode was the eldest of four sons of Johanna and Nikolaus Bode. His parents were originally from the Eichsfeld and operated in Kassel's Nordstadt a carpentry business, which refers to interior had specialized.

Bode attended elementary school from 1907 to 1911 and from 1911 the grammar school (the former Oberrealschule II in Kassel). In 1918, when he was seventeen, he was drafted into the military. With the end of the First World War , Bode's military service also ended.

From 1919 to 1924 Bode studied painting and graphics at the art academy in Kassel. He finished his studies as a “ master student for free wall painting and interior design ” in 1924 with the state examination to become a drawing teacher. His brothers Theo (* 1905) and Paul Bode (1903–1978) became architects and jointly ran an architecture office in Kassel. Bode's youngest brother Egon became a civil engineer and carpenter, he joined his father's company as a partner from 1936.

In 1925 Bode went on a study trip to France and trained his drawing in the museums of Paris , Bandol and in the south of France. In the same year he co-founded the Kassel Secession and the artist group Die five . With this group he organized several international art exhibitions in the years 1922, 1925, 1927 and 1929 in the Kassel Orangery Palace .

In 1926 Bode set up his own studio in his parents' house, worked as a freelance painter and draftsman and gave painting lessons.

In 1929 he joined the SPD . Throughout his life he remained a “ social democrat with body and soul”.

In 1930 Bode married Marie-Louise Kaufmann, who was born in 1908 and comes from Zabern in Alsace . For Bode and all of her friends, she was just called “Marlou”.

In 1930 he was appointed lecturer at the municipal workshop for teachers in Berlin . There he taught the preliminary course area-space-color-black-white . In 1931 Bode became deputy director of the seminar. He and Marlou moved into an apartment in the Berlin Onkel Toms Hütte settlement on Grunewald . In 1932 the daughter Eva Renée Nele was born.

On May 1, 1933, Bode was removed from office by the National Socialist regime because of his political convictions and his progressive teaching methods . He was a full member of the German Association of Artists (DKB) and as such took part in the last DKB annual exhibition in the Hamburger Kunstverein in 1936 , before it was forcibly closed after ten days. After that he was banned from working as an artist because his art was considered " degenerate ".

1934-1945

In 1934 the Bode family moved back to Kassel. From then on, Bode worked in the "dark", as he himself wrote. He anonymously planned a number of projects in his brothers' architecture office, and he also designed furniture under a different name and sold it.

In 1937 his son Peter Matthias was born. Bode visited Paris and looked at Pablo Picasso's picture Guernica in the Barcelona pavilion at the World's Fair . From this work he drew new courage and described it as a "signal for all resistance fighters". During a trip to Geneva the Second World War broke out and the administration drafted him into military service. Due to his training, he was used to build soldiers' quarters.

In 1945, at the end of the war and the collapse of the fascist regime, Bode noted: “The Nazi criminals have been destroyed.” Bode was taken prisoner by the Americans near Tittmoning near Salzburg . After his release he went back to Kassel on foot. His family had meanwhile been evacuated to Grebenstein .

1945-1977

After the Second World War, Bode was elected chairman of the Hessian Secession (1946–1948). In 1948, Bode and his artist friends from Kassel from the 1920s re-founded the Kassel Art Academy, which was closed in 1932.

In the ruins of the almost completely destroyed former royal seat, Bode developed plans for a large international art exhibition to accompany the Federal Garden Show in 1955. "I had to do something with Kassel in order not to go under". Together with friends and artist colleagues, he founded the Society of Occidental Art of the XX. Century and managed to organize enough public money and support for the ambitious project.

Bode's intention was to build on international art and to satisfy Germany's pent-up demand for the "lost years" of National Socialism. The documenta took place from July 15 to September 18, 1955, parallel to the Federal Garden Show in Kassel and was a huge success. “We felt we had to say something about the lost years 1933-1945: Experiences and memories of the twenties, of the art city of Paris, of Rome, of London, of the Bauhaus , of the years of apprenticeship in Kassel, of the years of work in Berlin. "(Arnold Bode 1972)

Bode succeeded in institutionalizing the documenta into the most important international exhibition of contemporary art. From 1959 to 1964 he was the sole exhibition director of documenta II and documenta III . In 1968 he was assigned a 23-member documenta council for the 4th documenta , of which he was (only) an equal member. 1972 and 1977 Bode belonged to the documenta working group ( documenta 5 ) and the documenta committee ( documenta 6 ).

In 1974 Bode received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his life's work .

Bode painted and drew, worked as an art teacher at the Werkkunstschule and designed furniture and exhibition stands, especially in the 1950s. He remained a lifelong visionary and activist. He surprised his surroundings and the politics and administration of Kassel with new ideas, suggestions for improvement and design suggestions of an artistic, architectural and urban planning nature.

"We should start tomorrow ..." (Bode 1977)

Arnold Bode's grave in Kassel's main cemetery

Arnold Bode died on October 3rd, 1977, one day after the end of the sixth documenta in his hometown of Kassel.

Artist and designer

Although Bode is mainly known as a curator, university professor and interior designer, he has worked consistently as a painter and draftsman, if his time allowed. Unfortunately, almost nothing of his early work has survived, as almost his entire artistic archive including his apartment was burned in a bomb attack in 1944.

painting

Bode, who with the documenta helped pave the way for abstract art , himself painted in the style of lyrical realism . In addition to a few still lifes and studies of people and figures, his main subject is the landscape. In the fifties and sixties in particular, he paints - mostly large-format - pictures of landscapes and landscape sections, which, often with a dark tone, have a mysterious aura.

graphic

The graphic work of Bode mainly moves in the area of ​​landscape representation. Using various techniques such as etchings , woodcuts , pencil and ink drawings, gouaches and mixed media, he captured impressions of landscapes from France, Italy and northern Hesse in the picture.

drawings

Drawing was the more important form of expression in Bode's life work. He used the drawings to put his thoughts, ideas and visions on paper and to illustrate them to his surroundings. All projects and suggestions were drawn up on paper in preparation and provided with written comments and instructions. In addition to purely artistic drawings, his graphic legacy also includes his utopian designs, countless project sketches and the countless papers for the graphic preparation of the organization and planning of the documenta exhibitions.

Interior design and furniture design

Bode worked primarily as an interior designer and furniture designer in the 1950s. His origins, against the background of his parents' carpentry business, certainly helped him. His designs of exhibition stands for various companies, including the furniture, are of timeless elegance. His seating furniture, shell armchairs and chairs are initially based on the organic design and show that Bode had a good instinct for what was technically and creatively new and feasible.

Bode designed wallpapers, advised on the design of porcelain décor and supported his brothers during the time he was banned from working under National Socialism with interior designs for restaurants and other buildings.

His particularly pronounced talent was in the area of ​​interior design, which was to culminate with the design of the exhibition rooms for documenta 1 . In 1970 he designed the exhibition about Frans Masereel in the foyer of the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main.

Documenta

Bode is considered to be the inventor of the documenta , although it was never his sole work. However, he was definitely the source of inspiration and ideas, visionary and main engine, without whom documenta would not have existed. From 1955 to 1968 Bode was artistic director of the documenta exhibitions; at documenta 5 1972 there was a generation change to Harald Szeemann .

First documenta

The first documenta in 1955, which Bode staged with the art-historical support of Werner Haftmann , is still described today as a masterpiece of pioneering and innovative room and exhibition design. Bode was not only the exhibition director, but above all staged the rooms in the ruins of the Fridericianum in a glamorous way. With black and white floor -to-ceiling plastic sheeting , Heraklith cladding and whitewashed, unplastered brick walls and the carefully draped and illuminated pictures and sculptures, Bode delivered his masterpiece.

“We'd have to fade in to where we are today with art. Yes where then, said the (note: the mayor of Kassel) , do you just put some in, I said ... "

documenta II

The assumption that Bode had planned from the outset to position the documenta as an exhibition series of international standing is viewed as very likely. After the success of the first, Bode was able to organize documenta II in 1959 . Undisputedly as the exhibition director, he added another ruin to this second large exhibition: the orangery with the sculpture exhibition in front of whitewashed, brick walls half in the outside area was again a great spatial and exhibition staging by Arnold Bode.

"... there was another great ruin, and with it the chance that plastic in the landscape is only bearable if you build the famous white wall behind it."

documenta III

After a dispute over competencies and influence, documenta III started in 1964, a year later than planned. Again Arnold Bode was the exhibition director. He put his own personal stamp in two places in particular. The ceiling staging with three pictures by Ernst Wilhelm Nay (who had to be convinced first) and the Light and Movement department , which Bode organized alone and for a long time without the knowledge of the other responsible persons, and which was considered pioneering. The third documenta was the last with Arnold Bode as the undisputed main responsible.

"I would like to call documenta III the 'Museum of 100 Days' in Kassel."

4. documenta

The fourth documenta 1968 saw Bode only as a member of a 24-member documenta Council . The organizing committee showed him that they did not trust him to understand the current art movements of the time, such as pop art and minimalism . Still - it didn't work without him. His very personal contribution was the continuation of his documenta III department Light and Movement , this time as an ambience . His creative aspiration as a spatial artist was unbroken.

"Your fate, your success determine the others ..."

documenta 5

The documenta 5 was in 1972 largely take place without the influence of Bode. Harald Szeemann staged the important exhibition, Bode was part of the documenta working group , but not entirely without influence: Szeemann could not prevent one work that Bode wanted to see represented, the installation Five Car Stud by Edward & Nancy Kienholz . For this, Bode organized its own financing - against Szeemann's will. Regardless of all the obvious generation conflicts: Bode was and remained the “father” of documenta.

"So. At first I was very skeptical ... "

documenta 6

The last, documenta 6 from 1977, which took place during Bode's lifetime, was carried out entirely without his influence. Bode tried again to place visionary projects like the Oktogon project on the Hercules - but without success. Bode also did not live to see his idea of ​​the documenta urbana - the linking of art with architecture and urban planning; it was only realized in 1982 as part of documenta 7 .

"Documenta 7 - in 1981. Yes, I dream that I can still be there as a spectator!" Bode writes in the foreword to the documenta 6 catalog.

Bode survived this - for him the last - documenta 6 by only one day. His visions and ideas live on and were and are being realized.

Estate and Legacy

Place name sign of Kassel
Arnold Bode stamp pad

Arnold Bode's extensive estate is in the documenta archiv Kassel. Many drawings, graphics and paintings belong to the holdings of the Kassel State Museums, the Kasseler Sparkasse und Sparkassenstiftung and the Arnold Bode Foundation in the documenta archiv Kassel.

With the documenta, Bode contributed to reconnecting Germany's culture to international cultural development. The first documenta in particular was also a social rehabilitation of modernism and its artists, vilified as degenerate art in the Third Reich .

"His" documenta has become synonymous with modern art and the most important world exhibition of contemporary art in the long term.

His hometown Kassel owes him a lot. He helped Kassel to a new cultural identity and a future perspective from the ruins of the war destruction. In 1999 Kassel committed itself to Arnold Bode and his legacy and officially named itself the documenta city of Kassel .

The Arnold Bode Prize of the documenta city of Kassel has been awarded to artists in “recognition of their outstanding achievements for contemporary art” since 1980, initially annually, since 1987 every two years, but always in a documenta year.

In September 2014 the Walter Hecker School in Kassel was renamed the Arnold Bode School .

“Let us hope that art: painting, sculpture, poetry, theater, music - the second reality - becomes a reality of life, because without it we are poor, very poor. Our dream: we hope - hope that we live, survive and that art means happiness to us! "

Awards

  • 1975: Art Prize of the European Art Dealers Association and the IKI eV

Sources and literature

  • Dirk Schwarze: The roots of an exhibition idea - Arnold Bode, Kassel and the documenta , in: Flemming / Dietfrid Krause-Vilmar , Kassel in der Moderne, Schüren-Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3-89472-906-6 , p. 714 ff .
  • Staatliche Museen Kassel (Hrsg.): BODE 100 - Arnold Bode a century figure December 2000. Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-931787-15-X .
  • Marianne Heinz: Arnold Bode (1900-1977) life and work. Wolfratshausen 2000, ISBN 3-932353-48-X .
  • Arnold Bode: Autobiographical Notes. - Special print for the death of Bodes; Kassel 1977.
  • Dieter Westecker u. a. (Ed.): Documenta documents: 1955 - 1968 - four international exhibitions of modern art - texts and photographs. Kassel 1972, ISBN 3-87013-007-5 .
  • Arnold Bode: Foreword to the documenta 6 catalog: Volume 1: Painting, Sculpture / Environment, Performance; Volume 2: photography, film, video; Volume 3: Hand drawings, utopian design, books; Kassel 1977, ISBN 3-920453-00-X .
  • Arnold Bode: There was another great ruin ... In: Kunstforum International. Volume 21: “documenta 6”; Mainz 1977.
  • Arnold Bode: ... an epilogue 72 ; in the catalog: documenta 5. Survey of Reality - Imagery Today. Catalog (as a file folder) Volume 1: (Material); Volume 2: (list of exhibits); Kassel 1972, ISBN 3-570-02856-9 .
  • Arnold Bode: Foreword to the catalog for documenta III. International exhibition. Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Hand Drawings; Industrial design, graphics; Kassel / Cologne 1964.
  • Arnold Bode: Foreword to the catalog for the IV. Documenta. International exhibition. Catalog: Volume 1: (Painting and Sculpture); Volume 2: (Graphics / Objects); Kassel 1968.
  • Manfred Schneckenburger (Ed.): Documenta - Idea and Institution: Tendencies, Concepts, Materials. Munich 1983, ISBN 3-7654-1902-8 .
  • Harald Kimpel : documenta, myth and reality. Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-7701-4182-2 .
  • Schwarze, Dirk; Milestones: 50 years of documenta , Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-9369-6223-5 .
  • Orzechowski, Lothar; Stadtsparkasse Kassel (ed.): Arnold Bode documenta Kassel essays ; Kassel 1986, ISBN 3-925272-10-0 .
  • Georgsdorf, Heiner (ed.): Arnold Bode - writings and conversations. (Series of publications of the Documenta Archive, Vol. 16); Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-934189-75-1 .

Sources and footnotes

  1. ↑ Arnold Bode on the Sam Francis room of documenta III ; From the television report: The staged image - 2nd report from the documenta by Kurt Zimmermann and Reinhard Ruttmann, Hessischer Rundfunk 1964
  2. ↑ Grawe, Gabriela Diana: "It was an honor to be friends with Arnold Bode ..." - from conversations with contemporary witnesses; in: Marianne Heinz: Arnold Bode (1900-1977) life and work ; Wolfratshausen 2000, p. 9; ISBN 3-932353-48-X
  3. ↑ Bode residents' registration file, Kassel city archive, inventory A 3.32 EMK
  4. ↑ 1936 forbidden pictures , exhibition catalog for the 34th annual exhibition of the DKB in Bonn, Deutscher Künstlerbund, Berlin 1986. (p. 98: Ordinary members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund, 1936 )
  5. ^ A b c d Arnold Bode: Autobiographical Notes , Kassel 1977
  6. ↑ s. Bode, Arnold in: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. First volume (AD) , EA Seemann, Leipzig 1999 (study edition). ISBN 3-363-00730-2 (p. 243)
  7. ↑ “I had to do something out of Kassel in order not to go under.”, Interview with Arnold Bode in: Horst Wackerbarth (Ed.): Art and Media - Materials for documenta 6 ; City newspaper and publishing house Kassel 1977, ISBN 3-921768-00-4
  8. ↑ Arnold Bode: ... an epilogue 1972 , in: Exhibition catalog for the documenta 5. Survey of Reality - Imagery Today ; Catalog (as a file folder) Volume 1: (Material); Volume 2: (list of exhibits); Kassel 1972; P. 11
  9. ↑ a b Bode, Arnold: Kassel ... , foreword to the catalog for documenta 6 : Volume 1: Painting, sculpture / environment, performance; Volume 2: photography, film, video; Volume 3: Hand drawings, utopian design, books; Kassel 1977, p. 15 ISBN 3-920453-00-X
  10. ^ Arnold Bode: Was there another great ruin ... ; in: Kunstforum International Volume 21: documenta 6 ; Mainz 1977, p. 212
  11. ^ Arnold Bode: Was there another great ruin ... ; in: Kunstforum International Volume 21: documenta 6 ; Mainz 1977, p. 213
  12. ^ Arnold Bode: Introduction ; in: documenta III. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Hand drawings, industrial design, graphics; Kassel / Cologne 1964, p. XIX
  13. ^ Arnold Bode: documentadocumenta ; in: Exhibition catalog for IV. documenta: IV. documenta. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: (Painting and Sculpture); Kassel 1968, p. XIII
  14. ^ Arnold Bode: Was there another great ruin ... ; in: Kunstforum International Volume 21: documenta 6 ; Mainz 1977, p. 217
  15. ^ Archives in Hessen (Arcinsys) : documenta archive for the art of the 20th and 21st centuries , docA estate holdings 2.1. : Arnold Bode (1900-1977) ; Developed stocks via Navigator
  16. ↑ "I had to do something out of Kassel in order not to go under.", Interview with Arnold Bode in: Horst Wackerbarth (Ed.): Art and Media. Materials on documenta 6. Kassel 1977, ISBN 3-921768-00-4 , p. 142.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bode, Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist, curator and university professor, founder of documenta
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH 3rd October 1977
Place of death kassel