Artist group Ghat

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The Ghat group was an artists' association that probably came into being in Frankfurt am Main in the summer of 1920 and disbanded just under a year later. It consisted of the expressionist artists Emil Betzler , Gottfried Diehl and Hanns Ludwig Katz as well as the art dealer Herbert Cramer and was founded more for economic reasons than for artistic ones. The aim of the group was to share all losses and profits equally.

Betzler, in the role of group spokesman, describes it as follows: “The group founded some time ago represents an expressionist artists' association, a working group of artists and art dealers on an artistic and economic basis. Dealers participate equally and with an equal share of the group's profits and losses. This makes it possible that the economic inequality of the artists is balanced and each member is granted a subsistence level. "

The supraregional art magazine “ Der Cicerone ” reported in its September issue: “In Frankfurt, under the name“ Ghat ”, a new working group of artists and art dealers has come together on an economic-artistic basis, in which dealers and artists have an equal share in all sales , but also share expenses and risk. Members of the new group are initially the artists Emil Betzler, Gottfried Diehl and Hanns L. Katz and the art dealer Cramer. "

The envisaged enlargement to include the artist Ewald Dülberg did not take place because he moved to Weimar . Emil Betzler created a painting for the group in 1920 that depicts the three artists without the gallery owner Cramer, of whom no portrait exists.

There are various explanations of the origin of the group name Ghat in the sources: In his article on the opening of the exhibition, Fritz Rupp traces the name back to the Ghat oasis in the Western Sahara. The Diehl biographer Dana Schmidt-Fürnberg later stated that the name was a simple twist of the word TAG and to make the whole thing appear more interesting, the letter H was inserted. In 1992, in the Katz monograph by Karl-Ludwig Hoffmann, there was an explanation that this was a loan word from Sanskrit . All three versions appear possible, but none is actually occupied.

The short one-year existence can be attributed to the possibly non-functioning business model and / or the poor sales of their works. Other more homogeneous artists' associations that were active at the same time and in the same places, such as the November group from Berlin or the Üecht group in Stuttgart, were granted a longer existence due to their socio-political convictions.

After the group has broken up, the three artists continue to work with different goals and successes:

Born in Kamen in Westphalia, Betzler was academically educated and continued his career as an art teacher and university lecturer, which he began in 1917 and received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1967.

In the following years, Diehl exhibited together with many well-known representatives of Expressionism without great success and became a member of the Darmstadt Secession at the end of the 20th years . After the end of the war he was promoted to director of the Offenbach master school for creative craft .

Katz, originally from Karlsruhe , who, like Hans Feibusch, was excluded from the Frankfurter Künstlerbund in 1933 because of his Jewish descent , left Germany and died in 1940 in South African exile.

Exhibitions and portfolios on behalf of the Ghat group

  • Herbert Cramer Gallery: Presentation of oil paintings, watercolors and graphics. (September 15 - October 3, 1920)
  • Offenbach House: Presentation of some works as part of the Frankfurt artists' association. (November 14 - December 31, 1920)
  • Frankfurter Kunstverein: (March 20 - April 7, 1921)
  • Karlsruher Kunstverein: (April / May 1921)
  • Collection of 11 etchings, woodcuts and stone drawings,
  • Big city with 14 lithographs by Betzler
  • White nights with 12 lithographs by Gottfried Diehl
  • The “Dance of Death from 1919” with 8 color lithographs by HL Katz was never published.
  • The art hiker from April 1921 reports on a woodcut portfolio by Emil Betzler and calls it a "strange document"

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ Exhibition catalog Expressionism in the Rhein Main area . Frankfurt 2011.
  2. ↑ Frankfurter Zeitung No. 668, September 9, 1920.
  3. ↑ http://www.kunsthandel-der-moderne.eu/content/view/29/47/ ( Memento from May 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Exhibition catalog Expressionism in the Rhein Main area . Frankfurt 2011.
  5. ^ Fritz Rupp: The Ghat group of artists (Emil Betzler estate). Without specification.
  6. ↑ Dana Schmidt-Fürnberg, Gottfried Diehl: The power of colors - virtuosity and claim of an artist of the lost generation . Weimar 2000.
  7. ^ Exhibition catalog Kunsthalle Emden / Foundation Henri Nannen . Emden 1992.
  8. ^ Exhibition catalog Expressionism in the Rhein Main area . Frankfurt 2011.
  9. ↑ http://www.emilbetzler.de/
  10. ↑ http://www.redworks.info/artistsnet/start_sezession/index.php?tid=79  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.redworks.info  
  11. ↑ http://www.kunstmarkt.com/pagesmag/kunst/_id54622-/news_detail.html?_q=
  12. ↑ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_10840.html
  13. ^ Exhibition catalog Expressionism in the Rhein Main area . Frankfurt 2011.
  14. ↑ Fritz Rupp: The portfolios of the Ghat group , Generalanzeiger der Stadt Frankfurt am Main No. 23, January 28, 1921
  15. ↑ http://www.kunsthandel-der-moderne.eu/content/view/29/47/ ( Memento from May 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive )