Thurgau Art Society
The Thurgauische Kunstgesellschaft (THKG), also known as the “Thurgauischer Kunstverein”, was founded in 1934. Its purpose is to «promote interest in art and the creative process».
history
The first president of the THKG was Heinrich Häberlin . At the beginning, her showroom was in the commission room of the Thurgau government building. Due to various donations, however, the space problem soon became so acute that new exhibition spaces were sought.
In 1939, for example, the Art Society contributed 3,000 Swiss francs to the Hippolyt Saurer Foundation at Eugensberg Castle . Subsequently, the founder and widow of Hippolyt Saurer , Sina Saurer-Hegner, transferred the Eugensberg with all the art treasures for a price of 520,000 Swiss francs.
After fewer and fewer museum visitors came during the Second World War and the canton of Thurgau refused a complete takeover and the founder refused a partial liquidation, and the President of the Board of Trustees and owner of the Mammern hydrological sanctuary, Waldemar Ullmann, was murdered by his former gardener in 1944, Sina Saurer-Hegner dissolved the foundation.
As a result, for the art society and its president Jacques M. Bächthold, the acute question of space was a new one. When Emanuel von Bodman's widow wanted to give away her house in need of renovation in 1949 , the takeover failed due to a lack of will on the part of the political authorities.
Adolf Dietrich bequeathed his house in Berlingen as well as his artistic estate and the copyrights relating to it to the art society in his will. However, this brought the art society various right-handers. The Adolf Dietrich House at Seestrasse 26 in Berlingen was converted into a museum by the art society. The awarding of the Adolf Dietrich Prize to artists who have a relationship with Thurgau and the Lake Constance area is meanwhile recognized nationwide.
Ernst Mühlemann was President of the Thurgau Art Society from 1959 to 1979 and promoted the establishment of an art museum in his home canton. In 1963 the art collection was in charge of the history and nature museum of the canton of Thurgau in Schloss Frauenfeld . There was still no art museum in connection with the promotion of photography, film, theater and music. In the same year, for example, the «Commission for the Promotion of Fine Arts» was created and a targeted collecting activity began. Albert Knoepfli , Andres Nold and Werner Schmid were their commission members.
The Thurgauische Kunstgesellschaft considered the opening of a temporary museum in the Villa Sonnenberg in Frauenfeld in 1974 as a temporary solution . It was criticized that an art house was looked after by the museum society. In fact, the art society did not even have a say in the later realization of the art museum in the Ittingen Charterhouse . The museum as an institution hardly coincided with the art society's intention to publicize the process character of contemporary art .
In 1989 the art society adopted new statutes under its new president, the Ermating doctor Kurt Egloff. In Kreuzlingen was launched in 1994 by the Art Society in a former gallery of "art space Kreuzlingen". Since then, a number of events and exhibitions have been held there.
literature
- Brigitta Hochuli: From the artist's gourmet to the art space. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , Vol. 70, 1995, pp. 49-58. ( e-periodica.ch )
- Rudolf Marti, Rolf Erb (ed.): Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. Huber, Frauenfeld 1997, ISBN 3-7193-1147-3 .