New Objectivity (exhibition)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poster by Karl Bertsch for the 1925 exhibition in Mannheim

The exhibition The New Objectivity. German painting since Expressionism took place from June 14th to September 18th, 1925 in the Kunsthalle Mannheim under the direction of the then director Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub . The exhibition coined the name for the art movement Neue Sachlichkeit of the 20s and 30s. From October 1925, the exhibition was shown in other cities in a different form: from October 18 to November 22, it was shown at the Sächsischer Kunstverein in Dresden , at the turn of the year 1925/1926 in the Städtisches Museum Kunsthütte in Chemnitz , and in February 1926 in Erfurt Kunstverein and then one last time in the Kunstverein Dessau .

history

In May 1923 Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub wrote to several art historians and gallery owners , asking them to name artists for a planned exhibition in September of the same year, “... which could be called 'Neue Sachlichkeit', for example ten years ago, neither impressionistically dissolved, nor expressionistically abstract, neither purely sensual on the outside nor purely constructively on the inside. Due to organizational difficulties and the onset of hyperinflation of inflation in the years 1914–1923 , Hartlaub had to cancel the preparations for the exhibition planned for 1923.

Two years later, Hartlaub was able to bring together 124 pictures by 32 artists for the exhibition from June 14 to September 18, 1925 in the Kunsthalle in Mannheim. These included works by Max Beckmann , Otto Dix , George Grosz , Heinrich Maria Davringhausen , Adolf Erbslöh , Ernst Fritsch , Nicolas Gluschenko , Ernst Haider , Wilhelm Heise , Karl Hubbuch , Alexander Kanoldt , Walter Schulz-Matan , Carlo Mense , Anton Räderscheidt , Rudolf Schlichter , Georg Scholz , Niklaus Stoecklin and Georg Schrimpf .

With 4,405 visitors, the exhibition had significantly fewer visitors than other exhibitions that were also shown in Mannheim in 1925: the "Modern Small Sculpture" exhibition had 7,000 visitors and the "New Architecture Types" exhibition had almost 10,000 visitors. Hartlaub's pioneering exhibition “Neue Sachlichkeit” received a remarkable response from the press: in addition to newspapers in Frankfurt , Karlsruhe , Heilbronn and Wiesbaden , newspapers in Berlin , Essen , Hamburg , Hanover , Kassel , Munich , Leipzig and Breslau reported on it in detail.

From October 1925, the exhibition was shown in different forms in the cities of Saxony and Thuringia , which made New Objectivity steadily more popular: from October 18 to November 22, it was taken over by the Saxon Art Association in Dresden , and from December 1925 to January In 1926 it was on display at the Städtisches Museum Kunsthütte in Chemnitz , from January 31 to February 1926 at the Kunstverein in Erfurt and finally for three weeks at the Kunstverein in Dessau . Already in Erfurt the exhibition had undergone such major changes in the selection of pictures, especially by Dix and Beckmann, that Hartlaub no longer wanted to use the name of the Städtische Kunsthalle for it. The Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wroclaw and the Art Association in Stettin , which Hartlaub rejected, also expressed interest in taking over the exhibition .

At the beginning of 1933 Hartlaub took up the topic of New Objectivity again with a new exhibition under the modified title “German Province (First Part) - Tranquil Objectivity”. He was removed from office on March 20, 1933.

In 1925 the Munich art historian Franz Roh published his book Post-Expressionism with the subtitle Magical Realism. Problems of the latest European painting . Roh introduced the term magical realism for the post-expressionist painting of the Weimar Republic . But Hartlaub's exhibition title "Neue Sachlichkeit" established itself as a term for this art movement.

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Buderer: The story of an exhibition. 1923, 1925, 1933 . In: Manfred Fath (Ed.): New Objectivity: Images in Search of Reality; figurative painting of the twenties; [on the occasion of the "New Objectivity" exhibition of the Mannheim City Art Gallery and Exhibition GmbH from October 9, 1994 to January 29, 1995] . Prestel, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7913-1379-7 , pp. 15-38 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub: Letter of May 18, 1923 . Archive of the Kunsthalle, Mannheim 1923, p. 15–38 (Quoted from: Hans-Jürgen Buderer: Neue Sachlichkeit - Pictures in search of reality; figurative painting of the twenties. Ed. By Manfred Fath).
  2. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Buderer: The story of an exhibition. 1923, 1925, 1933 . In: Manfred Fath (Ed.): New Objectivity: Images in Search of Reality; figurative painting of the twenties; [on the occasion of the "New Objectivity" exhibition of the Mannheim City Art Gallery and Exhibition GmbH from October 9, 1994 to January 29, 1995] . Prestel, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7913-1379-7 , pp. 18 .
  3. ↑ Uwe Fleckner (Ed.): The Ostracized Masterpiece - Fateful Paths of Modern Art in the “Third Reich” . Akademischer Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-05-004360-9 , pp. 346 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ^ Franz Roh: Post-Expressionism: Magical Realism. Problems of the latest European painting . Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig 1925.

Web links

  • Stefanie Gommel: New Objectivity. In: Art Lexicon, Hatje Cantz Verlag. January 30, 2013, accessed June 2, 2017 .