Ingo Caraway

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"Kümmels Spirit and Art Shop" 1969

Ingo Kümmel (born September 24, 1937 in Fulda ; † May 1, 1990 in Cologne ) was a German art mediator and gallery owner .

Life

1959 to 1974

"Art + Vegetables" at the Braunsfeld weekly market

In 1959, Kümmel came to Cologne after dropping out of business administration studies in Frankfurt, which he began in 1955. In the basement of the Olshausen dormitory he organized a jazz club of the same name, in which, among others, Jaki Liebezeit , the Bläck Fööss (as “Stoaways”) and the later Federal Minister of Economics Manfred Lahnstein (as a trombonist) performed. Kümmel himself was active as a painter until 1967 , then he burned his pictures. In 1987 there was an exhibition of his works from private collections in Cologne's old waiting room .

In 1967 he opened his first gallery "Kümmels Spirit and Art Shop" (later: "K 235") in a branch of a liquor store chain in Braunsfeld, in which, in addition to selling alcohol, works of not yet established artists were shown and poetry readings were held, for example with Rolf Dieter Brinkmann , Heinrich Böll , Helmut Heißenbüttel and Max Bense . “Art events were also held there, in the course of which canvases were immersed in bathtubs filled with caraway schnapps.” The result was works such as “Kümmels Schnapsgraphik” by Stefan Wewerka and Diter Rot , a copy of which is now hanging in the Museum of Modern Art . Further galleries follow: The "Galerie Kümmel" in Cologne, Dinslaken and Antwerp , "Kümmel + Beilhartz" with the artist and glass painter Rudolf Beilhartz and "Baedeker-Kümmel".

Kümmel specifically promoted young artists from the Fluxus and performance scene. One of his most spectacular art events in 1968 was “Art + Vegetables”. In order to demonstrate the “unity of art and life”, he and the artist Dieter Reick sold heads of cabbage as works of art on the Braunsfeld market. In addition, Kümmel offered “a bunch of smaller objects” at prices between 1 pfennig and 99 marks, including works by Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell .

After the creation of the Cologne art market, Kümmel organized various counter-events: From 1968 the “ Neumarkt der Künste” with Beuys, Buthe , Dressler , Klauke , Kriwet as well as Salentin and concerts with bands like Amon Düül . In 1969 HA Schult , Reinhold Koehler and Kümmel blocked the entrance to the art market with a truckload of tin cans, some of which were filled with perfume or schnapps bottles, true to his motto: Action art goes beyond “the framework assigned to art”. The “International Art and Information Fair” (IKI) followed in 1970. Instead of two competing markets in Cologne, the IKI took place in Düsseldorf from 1972. In 1975 the forerunner of today's Art Cologne was created through the merger of both markets . For many years, Kümmel also organized actions and performances at the Basel Art Fair .

1974 to 1990

At the beginning of the 1970s, Kümmel ended his gallery work. In 1974 he resigned from the board of directors of the IKI and was a lecturer for art theory and practice at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences for Art and Design ( Kölner Werkschulen ) for two years . Later, only a mobile gold-colored table display with the inscription "Büro Kümmel" marked his place of work in the pub. He has now organized theater and music events and reads poetry himself. “Kümmel organized an event in Bonn as part of the Bonn summer - that must have been 1978 - namely the so-called John Cage music circus. He invited a lot of different people who should all be making music at the same time. There was a carnival band, a fire brigade band, a classical orchestra and a sailors' choir. Each of these ensembles was playing its own thing at the same time. That was recorded with 30 microphones. The result sounded very spherical. ”In 1982, during the final phase of the international arms race, he was co-organizer of Joseph Beuys' political song“ Sun instead of Reagan ”. In 1987, the eternal provocateur and some Cologne artists ensured a wet and happy opening of Documenta 8 with their performance Adam Noidlt Intermission . "The first Crash Prize went ... undisputedly to Ingo Kümmel, who staged a loud, media-effective 'documenta' prelude with his Cologne friends."

From the occupation of the former Stollwerck chocolate factory in 1980 to its evacuation and demolition in 1987, he was one of the key figures in the establishment and operation of the Stollwerck culture factory . Kümmel organized theater, literature, art and music events there, for example with Al Hansen , Sigmar Polke , the Einstürzende Neubauten , Holger Czukay and Nico .

Kümmel embodied the "Fluxus ideal of a unity of art and life." He did not like the quiet tones when it came to promoting the art he found to be good in the art market. “Anyone who wants to get in is more likely to come through the wall than the door. Ingo Kümmel always got through the wall. “When the man who was badly drawn from drinking died of a brain tumor in 1990, the official Cologne took no notice of his end. The young art scene, on the other hand, reacted with concern. Even the words of Jean Arp , with which Kümmel had started his funeral speech for the glass artist Fritz Hans Lauten just a few months earlier, applied to Kümmel : "Woe, woe, our poor Kaspar is dead ..."

Afterlife

On the one hand, we will remember the chaotic Kümmel, "who was famous in the 1970s and 1980s for his symbiosis of art and slapstick and for his ability to drink," says journalist, art critic and performance artist Jürgen Raap, and on the other hand the moralist and visionary. In his obituary, the art historian Peter Gerlach emphasized Kümmel's idea of ​​art as a “moral authority”: “I think he dreamed of an autonomous free space for this experiment 'art' ...: with consistent oddity for the common good.” And Friedemann Walsch summed up in the Kunstforum international : “In a human way, he was the 'conscience' of the art market. The price for it was high ... With him an era comes to an end ”.

A large collection of money and the establishment of an escrow account served to ensure the education of his son Cain, who was born in 1983. The "Ingo-Kümmel-Gesellschaft" tries to continue his idea of ​​a unity of art and life.

In 2011 a square in the southern part of Cologne was named after Kümmel. Old friends and acquaintances such as Peter Gerlach, Frank Köllges , Horst Tress , Wolfgang Niedecken , Dana Cebulla, Angie Hiesl and Joachim Król were present at the inauguration by District Mayor Andreas Hupke . Caraway's grave has since been leveled.

literature

  • Peter Gerlach: Caraway for Cologne - Cologne for Caraway? In: Apex. Journal for Art, Culture, Photography 3/1988, pp. 100–110.
  • Wulf Herzogenrath / Gabriele Lueg (eds.): The 60s - Cologne's way to the art metropolis: From happening to art market . Cologne: Cologne Art Association 1986.
  • Ingo Kümmel: The international art and information fair . In: The artwork 6/1972.
  • Ingo Kümmel: Playful opportunities . In: The artwork 5–6 / 1974.
  • Friedemann Malsch: In memoriam Ingo Kümmel . In: Kunstforum international 108 (1990).
  • Hans-G. Meisenberg / Jochen Arlt: Kölner - mead and without delay. Cologne: Verlag der Mayersche Buchhandlung 1989.

Film / video

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Gerlach: Caraway for Cologne - Cologne for caraway? In: Apex. Journal for Art, Culture, Photography 3/1988, pp. 100–110; according to Friedemann Malsch: In memoriam Ingo Kümmel . In: Kunstforum international 108 (1990) the Franconian Brückenau is the birthplace
  2. ↑ Peter Gerlach: Caraway for Cologne - Cologne for caraway? In: Apex. Journal for Art, Culture, Photography 3/1988, p. 100
  3. ↑ a b Interview with Jürgen Raap . In: Cologne inside , p. 6
  4. ↑ Wulf Herzogenrath / Gabriele Lueg (eds.): The 60s - Cologne's way to the art metropolis: From happening to art market . Cologne 1986, p. 441; Peter Gerlach: Caraway for Cologne - Cologne for Caraway? In: Apex. Journal for Art, Culture, Photography 3/1988, p. 102
  5. ^ Jürgen Raap: Art and capital: metaphorical symbiosis and political criticism. In: Kunstforum international 149 (2000); Wulf Herzogenrath / Gabriele Lueg (eds.): The 60s - Cologne's way to the art metropolis: From happening to art market . Cologne 1986, p. 441; Ingo Kümmel (1937-1990) (Weblink)
  6. ↑ Caraway, cit. n. market as a big festival for everyone . In: Art 6/1994
  7. ↑ Jürgen Ulrich: Page no longer available , search in web archives: competition for the Cologne art market. In: DIE ZEIT 38/1972; Wulf Herzogenrath / Gabriele Lueg (eds.): The 60s - Cologne's way to the art metropolis: From happening to art market . Cologne 1986, p. 443f .; Ingo Kümmel / Michael Siebrasse / Thomas Huber / Heinz Weber (eds.): International art and information fair . Cologne 1971; Ingo Kümmel / Michael Siebrasse / Heinz Weber (eds.): International market for current art . Düsseldorf 1972@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zeit.de
  8. ↑ documenta 8 catalog: Volume 1: Essays; Volume 2: Catalog page 290; Volume 3: artist book; Kassel 1987, ISBN 3-925272-13-5 .
  9. ^ Karlheinz Schmidt: Staeck, Starck or Steak - 'Documenta 8' - From the inside . In: Kunstforum international 90 (1987)
  10. ↑ s. Friedemann Malsch: Autonomous Cultural Center Stollwerck, Cologne . In: Kunstforum international 117 (1992); Peter Gerlach: Caraway for Cologne - Cologne for Caraway? In: Apex. Journal for Art, Culture, Photography 3/1988, pp. 106–110
  11. ↑ Ingo Kümmel (1937-1990) (Weblink)
  12. ↑ a b Friedemann Malsch: In memoriam Ingo Kümmel . In: Kunstforum international 108 (1990)
  13. ^ Kunstforum international 181 (2006), p. 426
  14. ↑ Michael Zepter: Letter to a dead friend - memory of Fritz Hans Lauten v. August 12, 1989
  15. ↑ Jürgen Raap in: Kunstforum international 164 (2003)
  16. ↑ Ingo Kümmel is dead , p. 5
  17. ↑ Ingo-Kümmel-Platz on bilderbuch-koeln.de ; Video souvenir of art mediator Ingo Kümmel on youtube.
personal data
SURNAME Caraway, Ingo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art mediator and gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Fulda
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1990
Place of death Cologne