"Portrait of Max
Hermann-Neisse," George Grosz, 1925. Oil on canvas from the
collection of the Stadtische Kunsthalle Mannheim.
Negotiating
History:
CHICAGO, ILL. - An exhibition of works on paper created by German
artists ranging over the past two centuries highlights the
summer's exhibition schedule at The Art Institute of Chicago. ":
Prints and Drawings from Friedrich to Baselitz," on view through
September 22, brings together 40 important prints and drawings.
The exhibition features selected works recently acquired by the
Art Institute by, among others, Philip Otto Runge (1777-1810),
Erich Heckel (1883-1970) and Sigmar Polke (born 1941). In all,
nearly 30 artists are represented.
Released in conjunction with the exhibition is The Art Institute
of Chicago's latest issue of Museum Studies, entitled
Negotiating History; (volume 28, number 1). The
publication explores the various ways in which German artists
have, at widely different historical moments, reconsidered and
responded to their national past. Fighting repeated battles over
what constitutes a distinctly German aesthetic, artists,
political figures and cultural commentators alike have brought to
light (or attempted just as strongly to avoid) a mythical,
idealized history in the face of an uncertain present.
Recently, a significant number of German works on paper have
entered the Art Institute's permanent collection, including
hundreds of prints and drawings from the Romantic, Expressionist
and postwar periods. These additions amplify the strength and
diversity of the permanent collection and serve as the focus for
.
"This exhibition and related publication investigate the German
artistic impulse to reconsider and reformulate the past," stated
Jay A. Clarke, associate curator of the department of prints and
drawings. "The concept of German art, like that of Germany
itself, is complex and even problematic. During the Romantic era
(roughly 1780-1820), the German nation as we now know it did not
exist. The country was split between East and West Germany only
to be united as one Germany again in 1989."
"Monk," Katharina Fritsch, 1997-99. Polyester and paint
sculpture. The Anstiss and Ronald Krueck Fund for Contemporary
Art.
Due in part to these changes and the turmoil that often
accompanied them, German artists frequently used their work to
construct a sense of national identity and cohesiveness by mining
their cultural heritage. Alternately, contemporary artists have
adopted this self-same past in order to critique historical
concepts of nationalism. The exhibition presents works that
demonstrate artists' often precarious attempts to negotiate
history, and reveal their struggles to define a distinctly German
art.
In the last 15 years, the Art Institute has acquired numerous
German works, which enhance the strength and diversity of the
museum's permanent collection. The arduous selection process has
allowed the newly acquired works to join in conversation with
pieces that entered the Art Institute collection decades ago.
Among the other artists represented in exhibition are Karl
Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841), Max Klinger (1857-1920), Kathe
Kollwitz (1867-1945), Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907), Karl
Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976), Paul Klee (1879-1940), Ludwig
Meidner (1884-1966) and Markus Lupertz (born 1941).
While the exhibition is devoted exclusively to works on paper,
the publication includes painting, sculpture and photography that
range chronologically from Caspar David Friedrich's poetic,
Romantic symbolism to the Northern Renaissance-inspired woodcuts
of the Expressionists, from the seething political satire of
Weimar-era artists George Grosz and Otto Dix to Georg Baselitz's
deeply personal response to the legacy of World War II.
Negotiating History is the first publication devoted
entirely to the museum's important and growing collections of
German art, one that now ranks among America's most prominent.
This is an exciting opportunity for collectors, steeped in the
legacy of late-Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century collectors
who were passionate about French Impressionism but less
enthusiastic about the art of German-speaking Europe, to learn
more about the sweep of German art. In an effort to further
educate the public as to the wide range of German art in the
permanent collection, this show accompanies two other exhibitions
on view: "Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting" and "Postwar
German Works on Paper: Gifts of Susan and Lewis Manilow."
The profusely illustrated 112-page book includes five essays and
94 illustrations that thoroughly explore Germany's art history.
Complete with a special portfolio section highlighting 20 recent
acquisitions, this issue offers both a compelling, accessible
introduction to, and an important reassessment of Nineteenth and
Twentieth Century German art.
In the opening article, "German Romanticism: The Search for 'A
Quiet Place,'" author Marsha Morton shows how visual art,
literature and philosophy intersected in the early Nineteenth
Century, as the German Romantics constructed a national aesthetic
based on the graphic styles of the late Middle Ages and Northern
Renaissance, and on the native spiritual traditions of Pietism
and mysticism. In her essay "Neo-Idealism, Expressionism and the
Writing of Art History," Jay A. Clarke takes a different
approach, focusing on art criticism in order to reveal the
unexpected correspondences between Neo-Idealism and
Expressionism, two turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century movements that
sought to revive the Germanic past in order to combat the
imagined threat of French Impressionism and other "foreign"
influences.
In the essay that follows, "'A Clear and Simple Style':
Traditional and Typology in New Objectivity," Maria Makela
explores the role of the New Objectivity movement in the
tumultuous Weimar era (1918-33) arguing that practitioners of
this style returned to representational art, revived Old Master
painting techniques and used social stereotyping as a way to
impose order on a culture in disarray. Richard Shiff, in an essay
entitled "Georg Baselitz Grounded," writes on this postwar
artist's work of the 1960s. Drawing on both Baselitz's
biographical experience and on his elusive art, Shiff suggests
that the artist's works and methods can be seen as a powerful,
deeply individual response to the "destroyed order" of World War
II-era Germany.
"Carl Philipp Fohr," Samuel Amsler (Swiss; 1791-1849) after a
drawing by Carl Barth, 1818. Engraving on white wove paper.
In the issue's final article, "History by Degrees: The Place of
the Past in Contemporary German Art," Stephanie D'Alessandro
addresses the broader terrain of German art from 1945 to 2000,
charting the divergent paths that different generations of
artists have taken in grappling with their nation's historical
and cultural legacy.
Moving beyond the essays' theme of history and its uses, a
concluding portfolio highlights the recent acquisitions. These
entries -- which cover works by such German and German-speaking
artists as Karl Blechen, Kathe Kollwitz, Paul Klee and Sigmar
Polke -- offer, like the articles that precede them, eloquent
testimony to the scope, riches and vitality of the museum's
collection.
Museum Studies, published twice annually, is devoted to
exploring the museum's extensive holdings and history through a
wide variety of articles written for a general audience. Each
issue features a selection of absorbing, accessible essays on a
variety of subjects and viewpoints, written by Art Institute
curators and staff, as well as other nationally and
internationally renowned scholars, these articles contain the
most recent information on the Art Institute and its collections
and are richly illustrated with both color and halftone
reproductions. Museum Studies has won design awards from
the American Association of Museums, the American Federation of
the Arts, Chicago Women in Publishing, and others.
Negotiating History: is available at The Museum Shop for
$14.95. An annual subscription to Museum Studies is available to
members of the Art Institute for $20 and to nonmembers for $25.
For subscription information, call 312-443-3786 or visit
www.artic.edu.
