Rudolf Probst (art dealer)

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Rudolf Probst (born March 12, 1890 Kaufbeuren ; † November 19, 1968 in Heidelberg ) was a German art dealer and pioneer of classical modernism in Germany.

Life

Rudolf Probst was born in Kaufbeuren in 1890 as the son of a wealthy merchant family. In 1900 the family moved to Munich . Rudolf Probst attended Maximilian High School there until 1910 . After graduating from high school, he first studied law in Munich, but soon switched to art history . In the summer semester of 1911 he studied at the University of Vienna and on this occasion visited the museums in Budapest . This was followed by a three-month stay in Rome in winter . He then resumed his studies in Munich and later in Würzburg .

Rudolf Probst was for military service in World War I convened, which he described as " nurses " in a military hospital made in Würzburg. Due to a break from military service, Probst worked from November 11, 1915 to July 7, 1916 as an intern at the Emil Richter art salon in Dresden . The latest trends in the international art scene were presented here and it was here that Probst met Emil Nolde , with whom he became friends. After Probst was called up again as a nurse for military service, he was dismissed from service in March 1918 for health reasons.

From 1918 to 1923 he was head of the modern department at the Emil Richter art dealership. He published essays on Lyonel Feininger and Emil Nolde in the in-house art publisher's expressionist magazine Neue Blätter für Kunst und Dichtung , whose works were exhibited in September 1919 and January 1920, respectively. Probst was a co-founder of the New Association for Art and he organized series of lectures at the Richter art dealership. In this context he spoke on January 24, 1920 about Emil Nolde. Rudolf Probst saw himself primarily as an art mediator and only then as an art dealer. Guided tours were offered to the exhibitions.

In 1923, together with Rolf von Seydewitz and Eberhard von Haugk, he founded the gallery “ Neue Kunst Fides ” in Dresden as a subsidiary of the “Fides Verwaltungs und Vermittlungsgesellschaft mbH”. In 1928 Rudolf Probst became the sole owner of the “Neue Kunst Fides” gallery. The spectrum of the gallery “Neue Kunst Fides” ranged from expressionism to abstract painting . The focus was on Emil Nolde and the Bauhaus artists Lyonel Feininger , Paul Klee , Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy . Works by Otto Dix , whose Dresden representative Probst took over, Max Beckmann and Oskar Kokoschka , as well as works by Dresden artists such as Pol Cassel , Eugen Hoffmann , Wilhelm Rudolph and Christoph Voll were shown . He helped these young artists gain recognition. Probst also organized readings with Joachim Ringelnatz .

On May 1, 1933, the Sturmabteilung SA ordered him to destroy the holdings of his gallery within 24 hours. Probst did not follow this request, but brought the works of art to safety. But he was forced to close down his gallery in Dresden in autumn 1933. He applied unsuccessfully for a new position as an employee of the Kestner Society in Hanover and as head of the Leopold Hoesch Museum in Düren. Rudolf Probst acquired the Kunsthaus Tannenbaum in Mannheim from Herbert Tannenbaum (1892–1958), but shortly afterwards was confronted with the same problems as in Dresden. Probst's exhibitions in Mannheim were closely watched and the gallery was temporarily closed. After an exhibition of works by Emil Nolde in the summer of 1937, Probst had to forego the presentation and public sale of art that had been ostracized as “ degenerate ”. From 1937 harmless Chinese art or landscape painting were shown. In 1943 the Kunsthaus was destroyed in an air raid on Mannheim .

Rudolf Probst moved to Großeicholzheim and returned to Mannheim in December 1945. From 1946 to 1958 he ran the “Galerie Probst” first in Otto-Beck-Straße and from 1949 in Mannheim Castle . Probst provided a platform for numerous artists after the war. In 1950 he showed an exhibition with works by Fritz Winter after his release from captivity in 1949. He also succeeded in conveying important works of classical modernism to German museums.

literature

  • Karl-Ludwig Hofmann, Christmut Präger: "Trailblazer into new territory". The art dealer Rudolf Probst . In: From Monet to Mondrian. Modern masterpieces from Dresden's private collections from the first half of the 20th century . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-422-06631-1 , p. 61-68 .
  • Karl Ludwig Hofmann, Christmut Präger: Rudolf Probst 1890–1968, gallery owner . Nimbus, Wädenswil 2015, ISBN 978-3-907142-88-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karin Müller-Kelwing: The Dresden Secession 1932 . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-487-14397-2 , pp. 56 .
  2. ↑ http://objekte.jmberlin.de/person/jmb-pers-400280

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Probst, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art dealer
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaufbeuren
DATE OF DEATH 19th November 1968
Place of death Heidelberg