General German Art Exhibition

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The First General German Art Exhibition was an art exhibition in Dresden . It was one of the first exhibitions after the end of National Socialism , at which many artists who were considered "degenerate" were able to present their work to the public again.

history

The First General German Art Exhibition took place from 25. August 1946 to 31. October 1946 in Dresden in the Stadthalle Nordplatz. 250 artists, painters, sculptors and graphic artists showed a total of 594 works. In addition, from 26th to 29th October as a program for the exhibition, the General Saxon Art Congress took place, which included the artistic fields of fine arts , architecture , theater and music . The organizer and director of the exhibition was the sculptor Herbert Volwahsen .

The General Art Exhibition of 1946 is considered the most important of those exhibitions after the Second World War , as it was to be the first and at the same time the last all-German art exhibition until 1990. It was a continuation of the artistic and cultural traditions before 1933. The exhibition documented the euphoria and the creative urge of the artists after the end of the Third Reich.

Members of the jury were prominent artists such as Karl Hofer , the Vice President of the Kulturbund and Max Pechstein , as well as Hans Grundig , Wilhelm Lachnit , and Herbert Volwahsen as well as Herbert Gute (State Administration of Saxony), Eva Blank (Kulturbund) and Will Grohmann (Culture Department in the Dresden Magistrate) , Rector of the Staatliche Hochschule für Werkkunst Dresden ). According to his notes, Herbert Volwahsen received the order from State Secretary Herbert Gute to design the exhibition and to implement it as the responsible director. He developed the concept with Will Grohmann, and other artists such as Hofer, Pechstein, and Josef Hegenbarth were asked for support and invited to the jury. Volwahsen gave the opening speech for the artists, in which he also referred to the beginning of the touring exhibition "Degenerate Art" from 1933:

“Today has a special meaning for us Dresden artists: because we have not forgotten that 12 years ago the Nazis showed the first exhibition 'Degenerate Art' here, which then went all over Germany and a storm of indignation throughout the world about this artful barbarism. "

After this “eyesore” in the history of the Dresden art exhibitions, it was now up to this exhibition to “re-establish the bond between the German states” and to continue “on the path of gathering all creative and forward-looking forces”. He recalled the revolutionary impulses from the expressionist painters of the artists' association Die Brücke , which was founded in Dresden. Volwahsen made an appeal for an open and free conception of art that challenges the viewer with current works of art, but also mentally. According to him, the exhibition was aimed particularly at young people in order to teach them "again the supranational language of art", "whose reconciling power unites the peoples". The aim was to bring visitors back to the “sources of true humanity that were buried for so long” and the artists to contribute to a better, peaceful coexistence with these “works of peace”. The text reflects the pathos of the time, but also humanism and the spirit of optimism.

The German art exhibitions (from 1972 art exhibition of the GDR ) took place in the following years initially every three or four years, from 1962 every five years.

As part of the exhibition In the Network of Modernity of the Dresden State Art Collections from 27. September 2012 to 6. January 2013 a reconstruction of the First General German Art Exhibition was presented. On 42 ″ -Multitouch monitors, a digital model of the exhibition can be experienced virtually and background information on the exhibited works of art is presented. The reconstruction was carried out on the basis of historical photos as a student achievement at the Computer Science Faculty of the Technical University of Dresden .

literature

  • Anke Dietrich: "Your exhibition is a new light coming from Germany [...]" - Will Grohmann and the "General German Art Exhibition" in Dresden in 1946 . In: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Ed.): Dresdener Kunstblätter. Volume 56, Issue 4, Dresden 2012.
  • Kathleen Schröter: General German Art Exhibition 1946 in Dresden in the context of art and cultural policy in the Soviet Zone. 2004 (master's thesis).
  • Stations of Modernism - The major art exhibitions of the 20th century in Germany . Exhibition catalog. Berlinische Galerie, Berlin 1988.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Kurt Winkler: General German Art Exhibition, Dresden 1946. In: Stations of Modernism. The major art exhibitions of the 20th century in Germany. Exhibition catalog. Berlinische Galerie, Berlin 1988, p. 355.
  2. ^ Exhibition catalog for the General Art Exhibition Dresden 1946 . Sachsenverlag Dresden, p. 6.
  3. ↑ Explanations of the reconstruction project "In the Modern Network" , requested on November 7, 2012.
  4. ↑ Konstantin Klamka, Thomas Schmalenberger: Reconstruction of the First General German Art Exhibition Dresden 1946. In: Susanne Boll, Susanne Maaß, Rainer Malaka (eds.): Mensch & Computer 2013 - workshop volume. Oldenbourg, Munich 2013, pp. 519-522.