Lichtwark revisited: Artists’ views of Hamburg
23 May–7 September 2014
Hamburger Kunsthalle
Glockengiesserwall
20095 Hamburg
Germany
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Alfred Lichtwark (1852–1914), the influential first director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. The exhibition Lichtwark revisited. Artists’ views of Hamburg takes up and expands on one of his most important projects: the development of a Sammlung von Bildern aus Hamburg (Collection of Paintings from Hamburg). Lichtwark encouraged artists to create paintings inspired by the city of Hamburg, its people and its surroundings, with the aim of acquiring these works for the Kunsthalle collection. For the current exhibition, six contemporary artists were likewise invited to produce works that are directly linked to Hamburg. The newly created pieces are now being presented alongside more than 50 selected artworks that were commissioned by Alfred Lichtwark between 1889 and 1913. It is particularly interesting to see what has inspired or fascinated the artists who have taken part in this project, how the view of Hamburg has changed over time, how today’s artists respond to the city and what artistic form they have chosen to express their individual views.
Alfred Lichtwark was a pioneering figure in the history of the modern art museum and earned international recognition during his lifetime for his farsighted ideas on art education. Having been appointed director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1886, he systematically extended its collection, above all by acquiring works of modern art. The Sammlung von Bildern aus Hamburg, which was established in 1889, was one of his most ambitious initiatives in this context. Lichtwark recognised very early on that the city of Hamburg could provide interesting subject matter for young artists, and at the same time he hoped that the familiarity of the subject matter might “entice” the Hamburg public to look more favourably upon modern art. He began by commissioning young local painters to produce works with Hamburg as their theme, and later invited artists from all over Germany and abroad to do the same. Among the artists Lichtwark commissioned for this project were Ernst Eitner and Arthur Illies from Hamburg, leading German artists such as Max Liebermann, Leopold von Kalckreuth and Lovis Corinth, as well as international artists such as the French Post-Impressionists Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, who spent several weeks painting in Hamburg in 1913. The paintings they created during this time, including Bonnard’s Abend am Uhlenhorster Fährhaus (1913) and Vuillard’s Blick auf die Binnenalster (1913), are now among the most important works in the Hamburger Kunsthalle collection. Lichtwark commissioned works by around 40 artists in total and was delighted by their differing perspectives on the city: “Each artist has chosen and seen something different. Even if they have painted related or identical subjects, no two artists have said the same thing.”
The story of the Sammlung von Bildern aus Hamburg now continues with the latest contributions by six international contemporary artists. Some of them were already familiar with Hamburg, while others have come to the city for the first time to participate in this project. The works commissioned by Alfred Lichtwark for the Hamburger Kunsthalle collection were above all paintings; a hundred years later, the range of artistic media employed by the invited artists has expanded to include photography, film, installation and graphic art.
New York-based artist Jill Baroff (b. 1954) creates drawings and installations that systematically examine temporal and spatial phenomena. Here she presents Tide Drawings Hamburg, a series of drawings that capture the changing rhythm of the river Elbe. Baroff charted water levels in Cuxhaven at the mouth of the river last year, using data culled from the internet. The concentration of the drawn lines reflects the different phases of the tidal cycle, but also storms such as Hurricane Xaver, which hit Germany’s north coastal region in December 2013.
Julius von Bismarck (b. 1983) has produced two works that explore the relationship between man and the sea. Individually, the installation Hoch und Runter and the film Den Himmel muss man sich wegdenken have a contemplative quality; when viewed together they remind us of our powerlessness in the face of the thundering ocean. Julius von Bismarck is here revisiting a central theme of Romanticism—the sublime and overwhelming force of nature—but by using an old, dilapidated boat as the central element of his installation, the Berlin-based artist links this motif to contemporary reality, which can be equally merciless.
In her installation-based work Reeducation, Michaela Melián (b. 1956) expands the traditional representation of a panoramic view: on the basis of historic and contemporary images of the Grindelhochhäuser (a complex of 12 high-rise buildings in Hamburg’s Grindel district) and their surroundings, she created drawings that are projected onto a fabric-covered circular form. The title of her work refers on the one hand to the programme of political re-education that was overseen by the Allied powers following the defeat of National Socialism, and on the other to the architects’ vision of a completely new form of social housing.
Jorinde Voigt (b. 1977) has analysed Alfred Lichtwark’s Übungen in der Betrachtung von Kunstwerken (Exercises in the Contemplation of Artworks) from 1898 and subsequently transformed them into a matrix of ten drawings. Designed for children above all, Lichtwark’s exercises involved studying original works of art and were intended to “train the eye.”
Adrian Williams (b. 1979) explores Hamburg through collages of images and texts. She steers clear of stereotypical images of the city and its landmarks, focussing instead on everyday scenarios. Williams’ narrative works are a blend of fiction and reality, and reveal details of the urban surroundings that often go unnoticed. The photographs and text passages that are woven into her collages were created spontaneously as she wandered around the city.
In Tobias Zielony’s (b. 1973) video installation, the subject of people fleeing their home country by boat is examined as a chapter in the history of modern seafaring. The piece centres on an interview with a Sudanese refugee who describes his voyage by boat from Africa to Europe. Zielony has illustrated this account with various visual motifs from Hamburg. Taking the graffito like real boat people. dislike maritime marketing as his starting point, the Berlin-based artist thereby challenges the notion of Hamburg as a desired destination.
As in Lichtwark’s day, the Hamburger Kunsthalle hopes to be able to acquire these artworks for its permanent collection and thus continue the tradition of the Sammlung von Bildern aus Hamburg.
Curators: Dr. Ute Haug, Merle Radtke, M.A. and Dr. Petra Roettig
