Hilla from Rebay

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Coordinates: 48 ° 7 ′ 42.2 ″  N , 7 ° 48 ′ 42.5 ″  E

Hilla von Rebay (1924). Photo by László Moholy-Nagy

Hilla von Rebay (born May 31, 1890 in Strasbourg as Hildegard Anna Augusta Elisabeth Baroness Rebay von Ehrenwiesen ; † September 27, 1967 in Westport , Connecticut , USA) was a German- American painter , art collector and patron . She was the founding director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York and was involved in the planning of the Guggenheim Museum . As a painter of abstract pictures at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as later as a promoter of non-representational art, she helped abstract painting to achieve an international breakthrough.

life and work

Studies and first contacts in the Berlin art scene

From 1907 to 1913 von Rebay studied painting in Paris at the Académie Julian and Munich, where she orientated herself on the painters of the Scholle ( Fritz Erler , Leo Putz and others) and the Secession . She also became acquainted with Georges Braque . During this time there were exhibitions at the Kölner Kunstverein (1912) and in Munich.

In 1916 she met Hans Arp in Zurich , who introduced her to the art of collage . She often used this form of expression in the 1920s, but also later - in the USA as “plastic paintings” (she called “glued constructions”).

Then she moved to Berlin in the vicinity of the artist group around Herwarth Walden's gallery and magazine “ Der Sturm ” and made friends with Rudolf Bauer , Otto Nebel and Wassily Kandinsky . She became a member of the November Group in Berlin. In 1923 she founded the artist group Der Krater together with Otto Nebel and Rudolf Bauer .

In 1925 she traveled to Italy for a long time. Like Kandinsky, she was interested in topics such as theosophy and spirituality and attended courses on the subject with Rudolf Steiner in Berlin around 1904 .

new York

In 1927 she went to New York, where she met Solomon R. Guggenheim in 1928 and introduced him to non-representational art. She gained his trust, while his relationship with his family, particularly Peggy Guggenheim , was rather tense.

Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright

In 1929 Rudolf Bauer founded the Museum for Non-Objective Painting in Berlin : “Das Geistreich” - which, on the advice of Hilla von Rebays, was strongly supported by Solomon R. Guggenheim. Hilla von Rebay was close friends with Rudolf Bauer until the break came. In doing so, she overestimated his artistic achievements. This can hardly be explained, because at the beginning of the building up of the collection of Irene and Solomon R. Guggenheim, for which she was responsible, she purposefully bought all of the (initially exclusively abstract) images of modernity , in addition to Bauer's pictures , which later made the Guggenheim famous worldwide. Museum established.

In 1936 she organized the traveling exhibition of non-objective art ( non-objective art ). A year later, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established. In 1939 the first Museum of Non-Objective Painting / Art of Tomorrow opened in Manhattan, New York City (24 East 54th Street). She supported experimental film and synaesthetic art. During the Second World War , Hilla von Rebay supported numerous artists who had remained in Europe with her own funds and through purchases of paintings.

In 1943 Hilla von Rebay began planning the current Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York City, together with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright she had chosen , following Wassily Kandinsky's and Gertrud Grunow's projects. Her influence was also decisive here. The famous snail shape seems to go back to her. She also insisted on painting the Guggenheim Museum white, not red, as Frank Lloyd Wright planned.

In 1947 Rebay was granted US citizenship. Solomon R. Guggenheim died in 1949. Hilla von Rebay lost all support in the Guggenheim family and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. In 1952 she had to give up her management position. In 1959, when the Guggenheim Museum opened, she wasn't even invited again. She withdrew from the public bitterly and never set foot in the museum. She spent the rest of her life at her estate in Greens Farms, a neighborhood in Westport , Connecticut . She died there in 1967.

souvenir

  • The Hilla von Rebay house in Teningen

  • Grave in Teningen

At her request, she was buried in the family grave in Teningen , where the family had moved in 1919. Hilla von Rebay donated the house to the community in 1938. Since 2000 it has housed a museum with works by the artist and documentation about her life.

The support association Hilla von Rebay Teningen organizes lectures and exhibitions in the Rebay house. The basic biography of Joan Lukach has been available since 1983: Hilla Rebay: In Search of the Spirit in Art . The title is a clear reference to Kandinsky's book On the Spiritual in Art , by which it was heavily influenced.

In 2005 a memorial exhibition followed at the Guggenheim Museum; this was shown in 2006 in the Villa Stuck in Munich together with the biographical film Die Baroness und das Guggenheim by Sigrid Faltin .

literature

Own writings
Secondary literature
  • Katja von der Bey: Hilla von Rebay. The inventor of the Guggenheim Museum . Edition Braus Berlin 2013, ISBN 9783862280513
  • Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, Brigitte Salmen, Karole Vail (eds.): Art of Tomorrow. Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim , New York 2005
  • Sigrid Faltin : The Baroness and the Guggenheim , Libelle Verlag, Lengwil 2005, ISBN 3-909081-45-2
  • Joan Lukach: Hilla Rebay: In Search of the Spirit in Art , published by George Braziller, New York 1983
  • Ingrid Pfeiffer, Max Hollein (eds.): Sturm-Frauen: Artists of the Avant-Garde in Berlin 1910-1932 . Wienand, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-86832-277-4 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt , October 30, 2015 to February 7, 2016)
  • Rebay, Hilla from . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 6 , supplements H-Z . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1962, p. 371 .

Web links

Commons : Hilla von Rebay  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hilla Rebay. Biography. In: hilla-rebay.de
  2. ^ Guggenheim. The collection . Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2006, p. 147
  3. ^ Museum Hilla von Rebay House . In: bz-ticket.de
personal data
SURNAME Rebay, Hilla from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, Hildegard Anna Augusta Elisabeth Baronin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Alsatian painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 31, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1967
Place of death Westport , Connecticut , USA