Jean-Pierre Wilhelm

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Jean-Pierre Wilhelm (born September 9, 1912 in Düsseldorf ; † July 1968 there ; real name: Kurt Wilhelm ) was a German gallery owner , art mediator, art critic, translator and editor of French literature and one of the first supporters of the Rhenish avant-garde. In 1957, together with Manfred de la Motte , he founded Galerie 22 , which existed until 1960, in Düsseldorf , with the focus on the presentation of Art Informel painting and the cultural exchange between Germany and France - especially in musical and literary terms.

Life

In France

Wilhelm, who came from a wealthy Jewish merchant family from Dusseldorf, emigrated before the seizure of power of the Nazis to Paris . In 1940 he went underground with his friend, the Berlin-born composer Louis Saguer, in southern France, where he was hidden by the Resistance . Wilhelm changed his identity several times, never giving up the first name Jean-Pierre later, and survived five internment camps of the Vichy regime . In 1949 he took French citizenship and returned from exile to his hometown Düsseldorf in the early 1950s. After the Second World War , Wilhelm met Winfred Gaul in Paris in 1953 , whom he introduced to informal painting.

Gallery 22

On May 2, 1957, three weeks before the Schmela Gallery opened, Jean-Pierre Wilhelm, originally an art mediator and translator of French - he translated Paul Celan into French and André Malraux into German - Spanish and Portuguese poetry and prose, opened one on the third floor Residential and commercial building on Kaiserstraße 22 in Düsseldorf- Pempelfort together with Manfred de la Motte and the support of Gerhard Hoehme the gallery 22. Wilhelm showed in the opening exhibition Der Aufstand gegen die Form / L'insurrection contre la forme works by Karl Fred Dahmen , Winfred Gaul , Karl Otto Götz , Gerhard Hoehme, Paul Jenkins , Heinz Kreutz , Bernard Schultze and Emil Schumacher .

The catalogs, which appeared parallel to the exhibition programs, were accompanied by renowned authors such as Lawrence Alloway , Will Grohmann , André Malraux, Jean Paulhan , Francis Ponge , Herbert Read , Pierre Restany , Franz Roh , Albert Schulze-Vellinghausen and Eduard Trier . Under the title 30 Years of Informal Painting 1928–1958 , Jean-Pierre Wilhelm presented the French Jean Fautrier for the first time in Germany in February 1958 in a solo exhibition. In April of the same year an exhibition of works by Otto Herbert Hajek followed and in October Peter Brüning showed some of his works.

The musical events that took place from 1958 onwards with concerts and actions by John Cage , Sylvano Bussotti and Nam June Paik in Galerie 22 had the effect of explosive devices in the Düsseldorf art scene. Cage appeared on October 14, 1958 with David Tudor and Cornelius Cardew with the latest piano pieces - pieces by Karlheinz Stockhausen , Christian Wolff , Franco Evangelisti , Earle Brown and Morton Feldman as well as with the world premiere of Cage's Music Walk .

The young Informel artists represented by the gallery all took part in documenta II in Kassel in 1959 . Following this documenta, Galerie 22 presented the exhibition Artists of documenta II , which placed the artists in an international context, with Roberto Matta and Henri Michaux , among others .

Fluxus

In November 1959, the first public performance of the concert Hommage à John Cage by Nam June Paik, dedicated to the composer John Cage , took place in Jean-Pierre Wilhelms Galerie 22 as part of the exhibition Bildreine von Horst Egon Kalinowski , at the Paik, after he played the piano and various noises, such as the roar of electronic tape recorders, clapping eggs, jingling of music boxes and radio music, had knocked the piano over without further ado. Such activities resulted in Wilhelm's advocacy of Fluxus , a movement that began in 1960 as a continuation of the activities in Mary Bauermeister's studio , where Nam June Paik cut off John Cage's tie and shampooed him in 1960 as part of the performance of Étude for Pianoforte lathered. On June 1, 1960, Wilhelm closed his gallery 22 with an exhibition by Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg .

In 1962 the international Fluxus movement, initiated by George Maciunas , went public with its first concerts and actions, initially in the Rhineland. Jean-Pierre Wilhelm was the one who made the contacts and helped organize the venues. As at many pre-Fluxus and Fluxus events, Wilhelm gave the introductory speeches. This is what happened with NEO-DADA in Musik on June 16, 1962 at the Düsseldorfer Kammerspiele, where Maciunas, after the small summer party - Après John Cage in the Galerie Jahresling , appeared in public for the second time in Germany or at that of Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik, in consultation with George Maciunas, organized the Festum Fluxorum Fluxus in the auditorium of the Düsseldorf Art Academy .

farewell

Jean-Pierre Wilhelm, whose health was already severely affected - he suffered from a hereditary heart disease - read out a statement on July 28, 1966 in Eva and Joseph Beuys' studio at Drakeplatz in Düsseldorf- Oberkassel , in which he announced that he was leaving the Art business affirmed. Even Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik were present, the concert had started in the auditorium of the Academy of Arts Wilhelm on the same day with a speech. On this date, Joseph Beuys unexpectedly and unannouncedly switched on his campaign Infiltration Homogen for concert grand pianos, the greatest contemporary composer is the Contergankind .

Jean-Pierre Wilhelm was last present on July 30, 1966 at Aktion Frisches in the apartment of Jörg Immendorff and Chris Reinecke on Bankstrasse in Düsseldorf, where each participating artist was represented with a work. Participants in this campaign were - in addition to Reinecke and Immendorff - Beuys, Christof Kohlhöfer , Moorman, Paik, Verena Pfisterer , Reiner Ruthenbeck , Franz Erhard Walther and René Block .

Jean-Pierre Wilhelm died in Düsseldorf in July 1968.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Susanne Rennert: “Everything is in flux. Rien n'est figé «. The gallery 22 and Düsseldorf's departure to new art. In: Renate Buschmann, Stephan von Wiese (ed.): Photos write art history . DuMont, Cologne 2007 (exhibition catalog for the exhibition Photos Write Art History , December 8, 2007 to March 2, 2008, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf), p. 20.
  2. ↑ a b Martin Schieder, Karl Otto Götz: In the view of the other: the Franco-German art relations, 1945–1959 , google.books, accessed on August 10, 2011.
  3. ↑ Winfred Gaul , www.nrw-museum.de, accessed on April 24, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b Gerhard Hoehme , www.gerhard-hoehme.de, accessed on July 26, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b c Susanne Rennert, in: Renate Buschmann, Stephan von Wiese (ed.), Cologne 2007, p. 22.
  6. ↑ Susanne Rennert: »Everything is in flux. Rien n'est figé «. The gallery 22 and Düsseldorf's departure to new art. In: Renate Buschmann, Stephan von Wiese (eds.): Photos write art history , Cologne 2007, p. 21.
  7. ^ Karl Ruhrberg (ed.): Zeitzeichen. Stations in fine arts in North Rhine-Westphalia. DuMont, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7701-2314-X , p. 468.
  8. ^ Susanne Rennert: Chronology (1958–1968). In: sediment. Notes on the history of the art trade: Nam June Paik's early years in the Rhineland. Central archive of the international art trade eV ZADIK, issue 9, 2005, Verlag für Moderne Kunst Nürnberg, Cologne 2005, p. 31.
  9. ^ Yvonne Ziegler: John Cage's references to performance art. In: Wulf Herzogenrath, Barbara Nierhoff-Wielk (eds.): "John Cage and ..." Visual Artists - Influences, Suggestions , Cologne 2012, p. 146.
  10. ^ Karl Ruhrberg (ed.): Zeitzeichen. Stations in fine arts in North Rhine-Westphalia . Cologne 1989, p. 477.
  11. ↑ a b Susanne Rennert, in: Renate Buschmann, Stephan von Wiese (ed.), P. 24.
  12. ^ Susanne Renner: "We have time". Music, Fluxus, video: Paik's time in Düsseldorf, in the Rhineland. In: Susanne Rennert, Sook-Kyung Lee (ed.): Nam June Paik. museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf and Tate Liverpool. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7757-2664-1 , p. 61.
  13. ↑ Nam June Paik: Beuys Vox. 1961-86. Won Gallery / Hyundai Gallery Seoul, Korea, Korea n.d., p. 41.
  14. ↑ Susanne Rennert, in: Renate Buschmann, Stephan von Wiese (ed.), P. 25 f.
  15. ↑ a b Susanne Rennert: Chronology (1958–1968). In: sediment. Notes on the history of the art trade: Nam June Paik's early years in the Rhineland. Central archive of the international art trade eV ZADIK, issue 9, 2005, Cologne 2005, p. 37.
personal data
SURNAME Wilhelm, Jean-Pierre
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilhelm, Kurt (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH July 1968
Place of death Dusseldorf