Hanna Bekker vom Rath

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Self-portrait with hat (around 1948)

Hanna Bekker vom Rath (born September 7, 1893 in Frankfurt am Main ; † August 8, 1983 in Bad Nauheim ) was a German painter , collector and art dealer .

The Blue House , residence of Hanna Bekker vom Rath until 1983, Kapellenstrasse 11 in Hofheim am Taunus

Life

youth

Hanna vom Rath was a daughter of the Frankfurt industrialist Walther vom Rath and his wife Maximiliane born. Master. She was thus a granddaughter of Wilhelm Meister , one of the founders of the Hoechst paint factory , and great-granddaughter of Jakob Becker . Her maiden name was Hanna vom Rath until her marriage to Paul Bekker , from then on she was only correctly called Hanna Bekker and also signed letters with this name. Her maiden name vom Rath was known among her artist friends, and people liked to add it to the real name. With the name of the Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath in 1947, she also took on the double name for her public appearance.

Artistic beginnings

She discovered her love for art early on, taking private painting and drawing lessons with Marie Paquet-Steinhausen in Frankfurt, Ottilie Roederstein in Hofheim am Taunus and Ida Kerkovius in Stuttgart, who belonged to the circle around Adolf Hölzel . She had a lifelong friendship with Ida Kerkovius.

Traveling with Paul Bekker

Back in Frankfurt she went to the places where she could see the artistic avant-garde and meet their representatives or their work. She visited exhibitions at the Ludwig Schames art dealer and met her future husband Paul Bekker , who was the music critic of the Frankfurter Zeitung, who discussed contemporary music. She accompanied him to concerts in Berlin and Munich and familiarized herself with contemporary art in all of these places.

Artist friendships

In the twenties she made friends with Ludwig Meidner , Alexej von Jawlensky , Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , Emy Roeder, among others . Initially, spontaneous support of individual artists was later condensed into an ongoing mission. She bought works, invited the painters to Hofheim in her Blue House and brought them together with collectors there. In 1929 she founded the "Society of Friends of Art by Alexej von Jawlensky" in Wiesbaden. Along with Hedwig Brugmann , Mela Escherich and Lisa Kümmel, she is one of the so-called. "Emergency helpers" of the artist. Jawlensky's catalog raisonné documents a painting dedicated to Bekker vom Rath. She received the painting, the "Variation: Of Spring, Happiness and Sun" , in 1929 as a Christmas present.

Secret exhibitions

The cultural policy of the National Socialists tried to push back from the takeover of power to modern art, prevented exhibitions and banned artists from painting. Works by contemporary visual artists were removed from museums, some were sold, others were shown disparagingly in the traveling exhibition “ Degenerate Art ”, the rest should be and were also destroyed (apart from exceptions). At that time, Hanna Bekker organized secret exhibitions with works by the ostracized in her Berlin studio apartment on Regensburger Straße. She followed the example of courageous art dealers like Günther Franke or the now controversial Ferdinand Möller and continued this until spring 1943.

After the end of the war: founding a gallery and traveling

Frankfurter Kunstkabinett in Braubachstrasse, February 2009

In 1947 she founded the Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath , which initially offered a forum for artist friends who were defamed as degenerate under the National Socialist regime. Her circle of artists and friends now also included Ernst Wilhelm Nay , who settled in Hofheim from 1945 to 1952, the photographer Marta Hoepffner , who opened her private photography school there, and her teacher Willi Baumeister . Also Meidner , returned from exile, lived from 1955 to 1963 in a district Hofheims. She got in touch with the emigrated artists, collectors and art dealers again and found out through their reports and on her first trips to France and Switzerland that many artist emigrants abroad had not been noticed due to the twelve years of dictatorship in their host countries.

"Ambassador of Art"

Since 1952 she has been traveling, on which she presented the once ostracized and young artists in North and South America, South Africa, India, Greece and the Middle East and became known as the “ambassador of art” .

Today, part of her private collection of German Expressionists, with a focus on Alexej von Jawlensky, is in the Wiesbaden Museum . The Hofheim am Taunus City Museum has a collection of Hanna Bekker's own works. In addition, it is dedicated to her life and work in exhibitions and catalogs.

Exhibitions

  • 1993: The painter Hanna Bekker (1893–1983), An exhibition on her 100th birthday , Hofheim am Taunus City Museum.
  • 2013: Picturesque dialogues with Hanna Bekker vom Rath , City Museum Hofheim am Taunus.

Awards

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Jürgen Petersen: Hanna Bekker vom Rath. An “ambassador of the muse” created a unique art gallery in Frankfurt . In: Die Zeit of May 16, 1957.
  2. ↑ Bernd Fäthke : Alexej Jawlensky, heads etched and painted, The Wiesbaden years . Galerie Draheim, Wiesbaden 2012, p. 27.
  3. ↑ Alexander Hildebrand: Alexej Jawlensky in Wiesbaden. Reflexes on Life and Work (1921–1941) . in exh. Cat .: Jawlensky's Japanese woodcut collection. A fairytale discovery . Edition of the Administration of State Palaces and Gardens, Bad Homburg vdH, No. 2, 1992, p. 56 ff.
  4. ↑ "For Hanna Bekker from your grateful friend."; Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, Angelica Jawlensky (eds.): Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings Vol. 2, Munich 1992, No. 943.
  5. ↑ Topics , 30 new acquisitions from the Hanna Bekker vom Rath collection. Museum Wiesbaden, 1988 ISBN 978-3-89258-004-1 , pp. 16ff.
personal data
SURNAME Bekker vom Rath, Hanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, collector and art dealer
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1983
Place of death Bad Nauheim