Kestnergesellschaft

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The Kestnergesellschaft (also Kestner Gesellschaft ) is an art association in Hanover that has existed since 1916 and is a member of the German Art Association . The Kestnergesellschaft must be distinguished from the August Kestner cultural history museum, which is also located in Hanover . Both institutions in Hanover are named after August Kestner (1777-1853), who made a contribution to the city's art and cultural life. Christina Végh has been the first woman in the company's history to head the Kestnergesellschaft since 2015 .

Entrance hall of the Kestnergesellschaft in the former Goseriedebad (November 2005)

history

Founded in 1916 and the first years

The company was founded on August 31, 1916 during the economically difficult years of the First World War . One of the founding members was the medical council and art lover Leo Catzenstein . It was founded together with the Hanover Secession to revitalize art life . The reason for the foundation was the cultural climate in the provincial city of Hanover, which was criticized as “stick-free”, in which the city director prevented independent exhibition opportunities, especially for contemporary art. As a result, the director of the Kestner Museum and director of the Brinckmann Municipal Gallery , together with the painter and director of the Kunstgewerbeschule Wilhelm von Debschitz , decided to set up a new association. The aim was to bring internationally important artists to Hanover with their current works. The first director of the rooms in Königstrasse was Paul Erich Küppers (1890–1922). In addition to the manufacturer Hermann Bahlsen and the publisher August Madsack , the founders also included the owner of the Pelikan factory, Fritz Beindorff . In the first exhibition, new pictures by Max Liebermann were shown.

After the First World War, the Schauburg made its stage available to the Kestner Society between December 1919 and April 1920 "for some courageous theater experiments". Under Eckart von Sydow , the second director after Küpper's early death, El Lissitzky received a first exhibition in 1923 and was commissioned to design a portfolio of lithographs as an annual gift for the members. The so-called Proun folder was created. In the same year five more portfolios were published by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , Max Kaus , Martel Schwichtenberg , Willy Robert Huth and László Moholy-Nagy . Under the leadership of Alexander Dorner and Justus Bier, the association flourished as a trailblazer for modern art .

Closure in 1936

In 2016, a memorial plaque installed in honor of the former director Justus Bier on the building of the former Goseriedebad in Hanover, today the headquarters of the Kestnergesellschaft

In 1936, the National Socialists pushed for director Justus Bier to be dismissed because he was of Jewish origin. However, the board of directors of the Kestnergesellschaft declined to collaborate and instead decided to close it in 1936. Justus Bier was able to flee to the USA via Switzerland.

Warmbüchenstrasse re-established in 1948

After the Kestnergesellschaft had ceased operations in 1936, it was re-established in 1948 in Warmbüchenstrasse. Alfred Hentzen took over the management, from 1955 to 1962 Werner Schmalenbach . Supporters were (again) Hermann Bahlsen, Wilhelm Stichweh , Bernhard Sprengel and Günther Beindorff, the director of the Pelikan factory . From 1963 to 1973 Wieland Schmied was the manager of the house, from 1974 Carl Haenlein. Under his management, the Kestnergesellschaft moved into the new house in Goseriede in 1997.

Goseriede 1997

In 1997 the Kestnergesellschaft moved into the former Goseriedebad am Steintor after a renovation . The bathroom was 1902-1905 by city architect and later members of the provincial Landtag Carl Wolff as one in the Art Nouveau -designed indoor swimming pool was built. In 1990 the Madsack publishing company acquired the building and offered parts (the former ladies' bathroom and the entrance hall with all ancillary rooms) to the Kestnergesellschaft for use. The men's swimming pool was taken over by the radio station Radio ffn . After an international architectural competition with the support of NORD / LB and the Lower Saxony Foundation , the house was rebuilt by the Hanoverian architects Kai-Michael Koch, Anna Panse and Andreas Christian Hühn in cooperation with the Kestnergesellschaft until 1997, and in the same year it was awarded the BDA Prize excellent. With five halls on two levels, it has a total of 1500 m² of exhibition space, a library, a bookstore and a bistro-restaurant. In contrast to the previous building, it meets the requirements of a modern exhibition company. The location is in close proximity to the Anzeiger high-rise .

Well-known representatives of the economy belong to the board of directors and the board of trustees. With around 3,500 members (2012), the art association is one of the largest and most renowned in Germany. In 2005, the project Haus im Schlamm by the Spanish artist Santiago Sierra caused a particular sensation , in which a walk-in room with mud was intended to commemorate the construction of the Maschsee . In 2007, the Hanoverian exhibition houses Kestnergesellschaft, Kunstverein Hannover and Sprengel Museum Hannover cooperated for the first time on the Made in Germany exhibition and, parallel to the documenta, presented an overview of young contemporary art by artists living in Germany. Over 60,000 people visited the exhibition, which took place from May to August 2012. The third edition of the cooperation exhibition is themed for the first time in 2017 and focuses on the production of art and the production conditions in Germany.

Veit Görner was appointed director from 2003 to 2014 . He had previously worked as a curator at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg and as director of the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.

Christina Végh has headed the Kestnergesellschaft since May 2015 . The art historian worked as a curator at the Kunstmuseum Basel from 2000 to 2004, and from 2004 to 2014 she was the director of the Bonner Kunstverein. Mairi Kroll has been the managing director since 1981. In 2016 the Kestnergesellschaft celebrated its 100th anniversary. The motto of the anniversary was "take a stand" and was celebrated with two exhibitions and numerous events and an anniversary weekend. Christina Végh left the Kestnergesellschaft at the end of 2019 and took over as director of the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in 2020 .

Exhibited artists (selection)

Detail from For Whom (2012) by Kris Martin in front of the Kestnergesellschaft

The artists who have been exhibited in the Kestnergesellschaft in its more than 100-year history include well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries:

Kestner Chronicle

The history of the Kestner Society is recorded in a three-volume chronicle. Chronicle volumes 1 to 3 document the almost 100 years of Kestner history from 1916 to 2011. As early as 1966, the then director Wieland Schmied provided an overview of the first fifty years of the Kestner Society with the comprehensive documentation Wegbereiter zur Moderne Kunst . The new chronicle series follows on from the tradition of this long out of print standard work. The first book, published in 2006, tells the story of the Kestnergesellschaft from its founding in 1916 in Königstrasse to its closure under pressure from the National Socialists in 1936. Book 2 of the Chronicle from 2009 continues after the Second World War with the reconstruction of the Kestnergesellschaft in Warmbüchenstrasse. The third and, for the time being, last volume documents the time from 1997 in the current domicile of the Kestnergesellschaft at Goseriede 11. Numerous photographs of artists and works of art, images of historical documents and detailed texts on exhibitions and events illustrate the successful work and eventful history of the Kestnergesellschaft. With the chronicle, the reader not only gets a glimpse behind the scenes of one of the most renowned art associations in Germany, but also an overview of the most important key data of international contemporary art.

Kestner editions

The Kestner editions have appeared regularly for every exhibition since 2003. Graphics, photography and other works are offered exclusively for members of the Kestner Society in limited editions and at a reasonable price.

literature

Web links

Commons : Kestnergesellschaft  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ines Katenhusen: Kestner Society, kestner Society (see literature)
  2. ↑ Peter Schulze : Catzenstein, Leo. In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 84; online through google books
  3. ↑ Elke von Radziewsky: Alchemy in the women's bath - In the old new house with Rebecca Horn: The Kestner Society in Hanover in the third stage. In: The time . May 23, 1997, accessed June 21, 2008 .
  4. ^ Klaus Mlynek : Schauburg. In: History of the City of Hanover , Volume 2, From the beginning of the 19th century to the present , with contributions by Dieter Brosius, Klaus Mlynek and Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Schlütersche, Hanover 1994, ISBN 3-87706-364-0 , p 469 f., 571.
  5. ^ Ines Katenhusen: Art and Politics. 1998, p. 266.
  6. ↑ 1923. The portfolios of the Kestner Society. (Kaus, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, Schmidt-Rottluff and Schwichtenberg) April 9, 2008 to June 29, 2008. In: artmap. Sprengel Museum, accessed October 22, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Harald Fricke: In the Palace of Fantasy The Kestner Society in Hanover is celebrating its 75th anniversary [...] The association had refused to accept the Nazis' view of art in the 1930s. In: taz.de , August 24, 2002.
  8. ↑ History: Moving to the Goseriede. In: Website of the Kestner Society. Retrieved October 22, 2019 .
  9. ↑ a b History of the Goseriedebad. (No longer available online.) In: Website of the Kestner Society. Archived from the original on November 4, 2008 ; accessed on October 22, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Martin Chechne, Dieter Leistner: And when does Leonardo come to the ladies' pool? In: art - the art magazine . May 1997, archived from the original on December 14, 2013 ; accessed on June 29, 2008 (booklet archive, issue 5/1997, pp. 36–39).
  11. ↑ Kestnergesellschaft presents third chronicle. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung . July 26, 2012, accessed January 23, 2020 .
  12. ↑ MADE IN GERMANY TWO. Sprengel Museum Hannover , Kestnergesellschaft und Kunstverein Hannover , August 19, 2012, accessed on January 23, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Ingeborg Wiensowski: Art show "Made in Germany Zwei" - And where are the hot goods? In: Der Spiegel . May 15, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2012 .
  14. ^ Joachim Güntner: End of an era. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . June 20, 2002, accessed June 21, 2008 (New Director for Kestner-Gesellschaft).
  15. ↑ Where does the avant-garde go? In: FAZ , August 16, 2016, p. 13.

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 39 ″  N , 9 ° 43 ′ 54 ″  E