State art gallery Baden-Baden
As an internationally renowned exhibition institute, the State Art Gallery Baden-Baden in Baden-Baden is one of the oldest cultural institutions in the city and region. Since it opened in 1909 as an exhibition hall for the Freie Künstlervereinigung Baden eV , it has been a showcase for classical, modern and contemporary art. Today the Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg is responsible for this . Johan Holten has been director of the Kunsthalle since April 2011, succeeding Karola Kraus .
Four exhibitions per year are dedicated to individual artistic personalities and current and historical issues of art and culture. As a house without its own collection, the Staatliche Kunsthalle has great freedom in designing the program and can react very flexibly to new trends.
The Frieder Burda Museum, built by the American architect Richard Meier , has been adjacent to the building, architecturally connected by a glazed bridge .
architecture
The art gallery was built by the Karlsruhe architect Hermann Billing and inaugurated in 1909. The building, which appears asymmetrical to the outside, was planned in the late Art Nouveau style and implemented at the entrance to Lichtentaler Allee . Architecture and architectural ornamentation cite classical Greco-Roman antiquity. This is supported by the triangular gable , the pillars with Ionic capitals, the encircling and cranked cornice with an egg stick, which appears next to the volutes and the year 1908 in Roman numerals above the prominently vaulted portal. The high rectangular portal in the central projection with triangular gable cites the type of Greek treasure houses in Delphi . In addition, the portal at the Ionic Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens varies in the design of the entrance . Billing was also inspired by Vitruvius when designing the art gallery.
The architecture also refers to the classical Baden-Baden spa and conversation house with casino and concert halls built by Friedrich Weinbrenner between 1821 and 1825 .
The outside staircase leads to the basement of the Kunsthalle, which today houses a café, the cash desk and administration rooms. The open- plan office designed by Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig and realized by architect Michael Wallraff opens to the side . On the main floor, two large halls and a series of rectangular and octagonal cabinets are available for exhibitions and events. Alternating between different spatial impressions and views, they offer a multitude of staging options. The exhibition rooms with their vaulted, gridded light ceilings are free of any ornamental decoration except for the high-floating frieze in the large hall. The special light, the room proportions and the sequence of rooms with changing perspectives have proven to be ideal for the presentation of art over the decades since the exhibition began in 1909. To this day, these rooms provide the framework that an exhibition hall like a museum needs in order to serve art and its viewers in an exemplary manner.
The building itself encountered a lack of understanding when it was founded:
Some visitors disparagingly interpreted the lack of decorative ornamentation as poor, while others mockingly remarked that in view of the austere facade they felt more like a crematorium than a place of art.
Today, however, the strict architecture is considered an early example of tendencies towards the simplification of Art Nouveau, as can also be observed in the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Wiener Werkstätten around Josef Hoffmann.
architectural art
- The outside staircase is programmatically flanked by the female personifications of painting and sculpture, two sculptures by the Karlsruhe sculptor Hermann Binz (1876–1946)
- The steel sculpture by the American sculptor Richard Serra , consisting of two transverse rectangles and sunk into the slope in front of the Kunsthalle, was realized on the occasion of the 1978 exhibition. It is one of the few public works by this artist that includes the landscape.
- In 1989, a light installation by the American light artist Dan Flavin , To the People of Baden-Baden , was attached to the facade in red and yellow fluorescent tubes. As a thank you for hosting the large solo exhibition, the artist dedicated another work of blue fluorescent tubes installed on the side to the employees of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden.
History of the Kunsthalle
As the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, the house emerged from a private foundation of the painter and son of the co-founder of the Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik (BASF), Robert Engelhorn , who in 1906 presented the project of a permanent art exhibition for Baden-Baden. The Karlsruhe architect Herrmann Billing (1867–1946), one of the leading and yet controversial Baden architects, was responsible for the architecture. After the completion of the Mannheimer Kunsthalle (1905), the town hall in Kiel, the college building of the Freiburg University and numerous art and exhibition halls, Billing was considered an experienced museum architect. He received the direct commission for the Kunsthalle through his close contact with the Karlsruhe artists' community, the city government and the city officials.
Herrmann Billing planned the art gallery from 1906 to 1907 together with his partner Wilhelm Vittali (1859–1920). In April 1909 it was opened with a first exhibition in the presence of Grand Duke Friedrich II , and in 1912 the outdoor terrace was built. Herrmann Billing's design initially envisaged a two-wing system with a central projection above the entrance for Baden-Baden. The building was reduced for cost reasons, with the option of realizing the eastern wing at a later date. The client was the Grand Duke's Ministry of the Interior , as a sponsoring organization acted founded by Engelhorn and supported outdoor artists' association Baden eV transferred to state custody was the Kunsthalle in 1927, caused by the financial losses that the founder Robert Engelhorn by the inflation suffered.
Under the title Permanent Art Exhibition Baden-Baden there were mostly two exhibitions per year up to the 1930s, partly criticized because of the often above-average participation of members of the Free Artists' Association from neighboring Karlsruhe.
In the course of its history, the art gallery has undergone numerous renovations and constant improvements to the technical equipment. Most recently in 2004 - parallel to the architectural affiliation of the Frieder Burda Collection Museum - the Café Kunsthalle was established in the foyer.
Exhibitions
Originally initiated as an exhibition hall for Baden-Baden artists, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden has developed into an institute of international standing since the late 1950s.
The history of the exhibition activities in the Staatliche Kunsthalle was strongly shaped by the personality, professional interests and corresponding content-related accents of its directors:
Under the direction of Dietrich Mahlow (1957–1967) the State Art Gallery became a showcase for world cultures. Exhibitions such as American Ceramics (1960), The Naive Image of the World (1961), Text and Image (1962/63) or Primitive Textile Knitting from Egypt (1963), in addition to countless monographic works from Hans Arp to Jean Tinguely , created a new vision for this House.
With Klaus Gallwitz (1967–1974) the first blockbuster exhibitions found their way into Baden-Baden: Revolutionsarchitektur (1970), Salvador Dalí (1971), Hans Makart (1972), Russische Realisten (1972/73). In the 14 times 14 series (1968–1973), the State Art Gallery was presented to the public as an open studio for two weeks at a time. Back then, young artists who are now world famous, including Georg Baselitz , Gerhard Richter , Günther Uecker , Markus Lüpertz and Anselm Kiefer had their first exhibition here.
Hans Albert Peters (1974–1980) examined positions in classical modernism with Juan Gris (1974), Aristide Maillol (1978), Robert Delaunay (1976), Richard Serra (1979) and René Magritte (1976). The Milan Pinacoteca di Brera was a guest with selected works of Northern Italian painting from the 16th to 18th centuries from Bembo to Guardi (1975).
Under the direction of Katharina Schmidt (1980–1985), great interpreters of human existence were discovered: Bruce Nauman (1981), Rebecca Horn (1981), Dani Karavan (1982), Jannis Kounellis (1982), Karel Appel (1982), Cy Twombly (1984). The drawings by Georges Seurat (1984), Japanese brush drawings in the exhibition From the Flowing Ephemeral World (1984) and Chinese paintings of the Ming and Quing dynasties in In the Shadow of Tall Trees (1985) are also remembered .
The traveling exhibition Rooms of Today's Drawing with works from the Basler Kupferstichkabinett took place from October 12 to December 1, 1985.
Jochen Poetter (1985–1997) documented minimalist strategies that put the architecture in relation to the respective artistic staging, with artists such as Gerhard Merz (1987), Donald Judd (1989), Dan Flavin (1989), Reiner Ruthenbeck (1993) and Richard Tuttle (1993). American artists such as Chuck Close (1994), Alex Katz (1995) and Cindy Sherman (1997) were rediscovered for Germany.
Margrit F. Brehm (1997–1999), as acting director, set accents with impressionism and symbolism - turn of the century painting from Poland (1997), highlights from the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (1998), Minimal-Maximal (1999), with cosmic visions in ... on the one hand because of the stars (1999) and solo exhibitions such as Erwin Gross (1997), John Armleder (1998/1999) and Dieter Krieg (1999).
Art served Matthias Winzen (1999–2005) as a means of knowledge in its own right. In trilogies like you should make yourself a picture (2001/02) and Multiple Spaces: Soul - Park - Film (2004/05), the Kunsthalle gained the profile of a research institute on the question of the place of art in life under his leadership. Exhibitions on Thomas Ruff (2001/02), Georg Herold (2004), Marlene Dumas (2005/06), Thomas Schütte (2006) and Stephan Balkenhol (2006) alternated with thematic insights into private collections.
Fritz Emslander (2005–2006), as acting director with depth of field - Bilder vom Menschen (2006 ), showed treasures from the history of photography from previously little-known French collections. In Ballerina in a Whirlpool (2006), human structures of perception were examined on the basis of important works of installation art from the Hauser & Wirth collection . Lost and Found (2006/07) was dedicated to the little-known contemporary Hungarian art.
Karola Kraus (since autumn 2006) focuses her particular interest on classics of conceptual art in dialogue with artistic positions from the 1980s and 1990s. Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue - Positions der Farbfeldmalerei , André Cadere - peinture sans fin , Dirk Skreber - Blood Speed , Nairy Baghramian - Walker Day Off , Stephen Prina and Kasimir Malewitsch mark their exhibition activities in 2007/2008.
Johan Holten curated his first exhibition Taste in 2011 . The good, the bad, and the really expensive . Since then, numerous solo and group exhibitions have followed under his direction: Chto Delat? in Baden-Baden. The didactic piece of disagreement (October 29, 2011 - February 12, 2012), Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - A romantic exhibition by Jan De Cock (March 10 - June 24, 2012), Such undreamt-of depths - works by Wangechi Mutu (14 July - September 30, 2012), PICTURE NEED. Does society need art? (October 20, 2012 - February 17, 2013), Elizabeth Peyton - Here She Comes Now (March 9 - June 23, 2013), ON TIME - What's Behind the Plaster (July 20 - October 27, 2013), Power of the Powerless (November 16, 2013 - February 9, 2014), Room Service - From the Hotel in Art and Artists in the Hotel (March 22 - June 22, 2014), Eva Kot'átková - Experiment for seven body parts (November 9 2014 - March 1, 2015), After the premature death (March 21 - June 21, 2015)
- 2016/17: Michael Müller. SKITS. 13 exhibitions in 9 rooms
- 2017/18: Emeka Ogboh . If Found Please Return to Lagos
Quotes
“The Baden-Baden State Art Gallery, with its refined alternation of small and large rooms with wonderful skylights in its restrained clarity and elegant modesty of architecture, is not overshadowed by all the so-called stars of later generations! On the contrary, with many exuberant new buildings, people wanted the quiet and concentration of the rooms in the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. "
“The concert hall of the Vienna Society of Friends of Music is world-famous for its unsurpassed acoustics. What the concert hall in Vienna is for music, the Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden with its harmonious room proportions is as an exhibition space for the visual arts. No exhibition curator can go wrong with this architecture. "
useful information
Every two years the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden organizes the Hans Thoma Prize for Fine Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg in Bernau in the Black Forest. It advises the art commission of the regional finance office in Karlsruhe / Freiburg in the area of "art in" buildings and has been in charge of it since 2004 the “Brenner's Artist in Residence” grant.
With the catalogs of the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, current publications relevant to the art discourse are created, in which art historical research and documentation materials for the individual exhibitions are presented in a corresponding manner.
Since 1997, an interdisciplinary accompanying program has opened up new groups of visitors with lectures and discussions, readings, artist talks, film evenings and concerts. This is done in cooperation with the Volkshochschule Baden-Baden, the church educational institutions, the Baden-Baden theater , the Südwestrundfunk , the local hotel industry and other institutions in the city with which the art gallery has long-term partnerships. The Friends of the State Art Gallery in Baden-Baden was founded in 1999 to provide financial and non-material support for the Kunsthalle .
In 2007 Günther Förg realized a colossal wall painting in the foyer of the Kunsthalle. In 2009 the foyer / café Kunsthalle was redesigned by the artist Tobias Rehberger , based on his award-winning Café Was Du liebst, which also makes you cry at the Venice Biennale . In 2010 Daniel created 12 colors for the Kunsthalle café . In 2013, the Prinzessinnengarten Berlin designed the café in the entrance area.
literature
- Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (Ed.): 77 years of the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. Exhibitions, stagings, installations 1909–1986. Catalog, 1986.
- Gerhard Kabierske: Temple or stable? The building of the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. In: Working Group for City History Baden-Baden (Ed.): Aquae. Contributions to the history of the city and the health resort Baden-Baden. Issue 24, 1991, ISSN 0175-4858 , pp. 117-141.
- Otto Linde : The art gallery in Baden-Baden. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung . Vol. XXX, No. 63 (August 6, 1910), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-opus-44046 , pp. 418-420.
Web links
- Official website of the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
- History of the Kunsthalle on the official website of the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
- Literature by and about Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ^ G. Kabierske: The building of the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden - temple or stable. In: Cat. 77 Years of the Kunsthalle, p. 9
- ^ Rika Wettstein, in: History of the Kunsthalle , bad-bad.de
Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 30.6 ″ N , 8 ° 14 ′ 17 ″ E