Friedrich Deneken

Friedrich Deneken (born March 15, 1857 in Hadersleben , † 1927 ) was a German art historian .

Friedrich Deneken, delegate of the International Art Exhibition in the Kunstpalast - International Art Exhibition and Large Horticultural Exhibition, Düsseldorf 1904

Friedrich Deneken studied classical archeology and philology in Berlin and Bonn from 1876 and received his doctorate in Berlin in 1881 under Ernst Curtius with a thesis on theoxenias . He then turned to art history, worked at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg and was the first director of the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld from 1897 to September 30, 1922 . Here he built up a collection of what was then modern art, Art Nouveau , Art Nouveau and Impressionism .

He was also involved in the reform movement for cooperation between local industry and craft.

In 1898 Deneken suggested to Henry van de Velde that he draw up a collection of new designs for 'his' Krefeld manufacturers for the first demonstration in favor of reforming women's clothing. On the occasion of an exhibition, the collection of van de Velde's designs was shown to the public together with the clothes he had drawn for his wife.

Other artists and designers such as Peter Behrens , Otto Eckmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich worked for Deneke .

Deneken is one of the co-founders of the Deutscher Werkbund. In Krefeld he headed the local branch of the DWB and campaigned for the establishment of the crafts and arts and crafts school in Krefeld, to which Johan Thorn Prikker was appointed as a teacher in 1904 .

Publications (selection)

• De Theoxeniis . Berlin 1881 (= dissertation, digitized version ).
• Line and shape . Krefeld 1904.
• Guide through the Dutch-Indian art exhibition in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, 1906 . Krefeld 1906.
• The Lower Rhine Clay Works Collection . Krefeld 1914.
• The acquisitions from the posthumous collection of Adolf von Beckerath . Krefeld 1916.
• The collection of Japanese colored woodblock prints . Krefeld 1922.

literature

• Christiane Lange: The Krefelder Teppichfabrik AG, formerly Joh. Kneusels & Co. and the reform efforts of the Krefeld museum director Friedrich Deneken (1897–1914) . In: Dieter Breuer (ed.): The modern age in the Rhineland . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1994, pp. 343-349.
• Rainer Stamm: Departure into the modern age. The Kaiser Wilhelm Museum under its first director Friedrich Deneken (1897–1922). In the S. (Ed.): Color worlds. From Monet to Yves Klein. Works of classical modernism from the Krefeld art museums, Bremen 2009, pp. 9–19.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Henry van de Velde: Henry van de Velde, pp. 152-153. Retrieved April 19, 2020 . 

Web links

• A pioneer for the modern