Johannes Wasmuth (gallery owner)

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Johannes Wasmuth (born August 11, 1936 in Warburg ; † September 16, 1997 in Rolandseck ) was a German gallery owner , art collector and promoter of the Rolandseck art station .

Life

Johannes Wasmuth was the youngest of three children. The parents ran a grocery store in Warburg . In 1956 he went to Neuss and initially worked as a window dresser . Then he organized, in cooperation with the Little Brothers of Jesus, for children who lived in homeless settlements in the Ruhr area , recreational trips and sponsorships. In 1959 Wasmuth moved to Düsseldorf and met students at the art academy , including Günther Uecker , who was still unknown at the time . For the construction of a kindergarten planned by Wasmuth , funding should be raised from the proceeds of an art auction . He prompted the art students, but also the sculptors Gerhard Marcks and Ewald Mataré and the painter Georg Meistermann to donate works of art. However, this first auction was not a success.

For the next sales exhibition in Paris in 1960, Johannes Wasmuth was able to acquire donations from world-famous artists: Picasso , Chagall , Braque , Giacometti , Miró , Dali , Kokoschka and Arp . The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Franz Meyers took over the patronage for this campaign, which was a financial success . Wasmuth founded the support group Kinder in Not , in which local politicians , charities, churches and artists participated. The support group built kindergartens in Duisburg , Mönchengladbach , Düsseldorf and Bonn .

Out of these activities Johannes Wasmuth organized the establishment of his gallery Pro in Bad Godesberg , in which, for example, the painter Johannes Grützke had his first solo exhibition in 1964 . Looking for a central location for larger events , Wasmuth discovered the Rolandseck train station in 1964, which was in a ruinous condition and was slated for demolition.

organization

Rolandseck station in 2005

In order to maintain the Rolandseck station as a cultural institution, the shareholders Stefan Askenase , Yaltah Menuhin (1921–2001, sister of Yehudi Menuhin ) and Johannes Wasmuth founded arts and music GmbH in the legal form of a limited liability company . Wasmuth took over the management. The company's advisory board included a. to:
Martha Argerich , Maurice André , Antonio Calderara , Pierre Fournier , Hans Friderichs , Richard Hauser , Gabriele Henkel , Oskar Kokoschka , Gerd Lohmer , Hans Richter , Theo Mayer-Kuckuk , Werner Schmalenbach and Günther Uecker .

From the very beginning, it was part of the company's concept to create a close link between music, literature and the fine arts through concerts, readings and exhibitions. On May 15, 1969, Marcel Marceau published the Rolandseck Manifesto as a call for support:

"We ask for your help so that Rolandseck can survive and take us all in (...) Rolandseck station will be the theater in which all the arts come together to create the wonderful."

At the same time, a guest studio was set up in the Rolandseck train station. Finally arts & music was able to bring this private initiative into a foundation established by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Bahnhof Rolandseck . This should secure the economic existence in the long term. In 1972, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate acquired the station from the Deutsche Bundesbahn by way of an exchange of land.

position

Through his activities, the art mediator Johannes Wasmuth was able to realize his idea in more than thirty years of maintaining and renovating the Rolandseck train station and turning it into an exclusive art center on the southern edge of what was then the federal capital of Bonn.

Wasmuth's achievements also include the initiative to present works by Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp in the basement of the train station. This finally resulted in the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck , which opened in September 2007 and whose new building was built according to the plans of the architect Richard Meier .

Honor

Exhibitions

literature

  • Rolandseck Railway Station Foundation (ed.): Forgetfulness is the end of everything. A trip on the Rhine. Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, Landau 1985, ISBN 3-87629087-2

swell

  • arts and music (Ed.): Bahnhof Rolandseck . 1970
  • Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz (Ed.): Bahnhof Rolandseck . Lively Rhineland-Palatinate, Volume 11, Issue 5, 1974.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harry Lorch: World Station of the Muses ( Memento of 9 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ).
  2. ^ Gallery Steinrötter: Johannes Grützke. ( Memento from July 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Wirtschaftswoche No. 5 of January 27, 1978, p. 26.
  4. ^ Arts and music (ed.): Bahnhof Rolandseck . 1970, no page number.
  5. ↑ cited on arpmuseum.org ( Memento from August 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed September 4, 2011)
personal data
SURNAME Wasmuth, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Warburg
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1997
Place of death Rolandseck