Hans Wilhelm Hupp

Hans Wilhelm Hupp (* 1896 ; † 1943 ) was a German art historian , author and curator . From 1933 to 1943 he headed the art museum of the city of Düsseldorf .

Life

In 1919, Hupp received his doctorate in Bonn with the thesis Development History of the Art of Karl Friedrich Lessing as Dr. phil. In 1922 he published it under the title Karl Friedrich Lessing, a transition master of the Düsseldorf School from Romanticism to Realism . As early as 1916 he appeared in the cultural magazine Die Rheinlande through his contribution to the problem of modern church building, especially the Catholic one . In it he spoke out in favor of overcoming the "sacred style" and a contemporary renewal of church architecture.

In 1925 he joined the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne as a volunteer and then as a research assistant . When the position of director of the 17th to 20th Century Gallery there was vacant in 1928, he held it on an interim basis. On March 1, 1934, Hupp took over the full-time directorate of the Düsseldorf Art Museum as the successor to Karl Koetschau , and had been acting provisionally since 1933.

On July 17, 1935, as director of the Düsseldorf museum, he opened the exhibition “Galerie der Neuzeit”, a summary of images and sculptures from the 20th century, the concept of which he had been working on since 1934. Under pressure from the National Socialists , this exhibition, the location of which they defamed as the "Chamber of Horrors of Art", had to be closed one day after its opening. In the summer of 1935, the Mayor of Düsseldorf, Hans Wagenführ , decided to focus the collection entirely on regional art. The “Gallery of the Modern Era” was thus de facto at an end, from 1937 it was officially called the “Rheinisch-Westphalian Gallery”. In 1935 the first modern works were handed in: in September a painting by Paul Klee was exchanged for a drawing by Wilhelm Leibl . Works by artists such as Emil Nolde , Max Pechstein and Otto Dix were also sold. The “ Degenerate Art ” confiscation campaign followed . The “Gallery of the Modern Era” was practically dissolved in 1937. 112 paintings, eleven sculptures and 929 works on paper were lost as a result of these actions.

Fonts

• To the problem of modern church building, especially the Catholic one . In: Die Rheinlande , year 1916, issue 9, p. 312 ff. ( Digitized version ).
• History of the development of the art of Karl Friedrich Lessing . Dissertation (typescript), Bonn 1919.
• Great art exhibition Düsseldorf 1920 . In: Die Kunst , issue 23/24, 1920, p. 431 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Karl Friedrich Lessing, a transition master of the Düsseldorf School from Romanticism to Realism . Bonn 1922.
• The siege of CF Lessing . In: Pempelfort. Collection of small Düsseldorf art writings , issue 3, Schwann, Düsseldorf 1925.
• Flemish and Dutch landscape painting in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum . Kölner Verlagsanstalt, Cologne 1927.
• with Otto H. Förster : Forgotten Pictures of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum . Kölner Verlagsanstalt, Cologne 1928.
• The Argus picture by Peter Paul Rubens in the Cologne gallery . In: Paul Clemen (ed.), Walter Cohen , Kurt Karl Eberlein , Gustav Lomnitz (editor): Karl Koetschau - from his friends and admirers on his 60th birthday on March 27, 1928 . Düsseldorf 1928, p. 118 ff.
• Düsseldorf: Exhibition of old art from private property in the Rhine-Westphalia region . In: Pantheon , Heft 1/2, 1928, p. 106 f.
• Anniversary exhibition of the art association for the Rhineland and Westphalia . Old painting from private ownership . In: Pantheon , volume 3/4, 1929, p. 339 f.
• Exhibition of the Wolff-Ebenrod Collection at the Barmer Kunstverein . In: Pantheon , issue 3/4, 1929, p. 382 ff.
• Museum reports. Art collections of the city of Düsseldorf . In: Wallraf-Richartz Yearbook , 1936, pp 245 et seq.
• with Horst Ebel (Head of Culture of the City of Düsseldorf): Three years of museum work in Düsseldorf. 1934-1936 . Bagel, Düsseldorf 1937.
• An unknown early work by Cornelius . In: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch , 1938, pp. 254 ff.
• Museum reports from April 1, 1938 to March 31, 1939. Art collections of the city of Düsseldorf . In: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch , 1939, pp. 304 ff.
• Dutch landscape painting in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum . Prestel, Cologne 1940.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sylvia Neysters, Helmut Ricke, Johannes on the Lake: Looking back ahead. 75 years of museum work. Art Museum Düsseldorf . Düsseldorf 1988, p. 123
2. ^ Administrative report of the city of Düsseldorf for the period from April 1, 1933 to March 31, 1936 . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1937, p. 45 ( digitized version )
3. ↑ Kathrin DuBois: Contemporary art in the Düsseldorf Art Museum and the failure of the modern gallery . In: 1937. The “Degenerate Art” campaign in Düsseldorf . Düsseldorf 2017, p. 14-25 .
4. ↑ Kurt Düwell , Wolfgang Köllmann (ed.): On the history of science, art and education on the Rhine and Ruhr along with summaries of the historians and art historians conference in Essen of June 1982 . Rhineland-Westphalia in the Industrial Age, Volume 4, Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1985, ISBN 978-3-87294-229-6 , p. 304
5. ^ Wolfgang Horn: Cultural Policy in Düsseldorf. Situation and new beginning after 1945 . Leske Verlag and Budrich GmbH, Opladen 1981, ISBN 978-3-8100-0396-6 , p. 89
6. ↑ Kathrin DuBois: Contemporary art in the Düsseldorf Art Museum and the failure of the modern gallery . In: Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (ed.): 1937. The “Degenerate Art” campaign in Düsseldorf . Düsseldorf 1937, p. 20th ff .
7. ^ Christoph surcharge: "Voluntary" donations of modern art by German museums after 1933 . In: Tanja Baensch, Kristina Kratz-Kessemeier, Dorothee Wimmer (eds.): Museums in National Socialism. Actors - Places - Politics . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-412-22408-0 , p. 226 ( Google Books )
8. ↑ Kathrin DuBois, Katja Terlau : 1937. The “Degenerate Art” campaign in Düsseldorf . Ed .: Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf 2017.
9. ↑ 1937. The “Degenerate Art” campaign in Düsseldorf . Published by Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf 2017, pp. 30, 43