Emil Nolde - A Critical Approach by Mischa Kuball

The Draiflessen Collection invited the conceptual artist Mischa Kuball (born 1959) to create an exhibition examining the painter Emil Nolde (1867–1956). Nolde is one of the best known artists of classic Modernism. The fact that he was a committed National Socialist was overlooked for decades—even though this was perfectly well known both to his contemporaries and to those who critically addressed his work after 1945. For some time, however, Nolde’s political orientation has come back into focus. Emil Nolde’s art has not changed, but our view of it has. By what criteria do we judge art? How does our knowledge shape our perception? Who was (and is) involved in interpreting art?

For the exhibition Emil Nolde - A Critical Approach by Mischa Kuball, Mischa Kuball developed works of art that encompass a multi-layered, open, critical, and simultaneously aesthetic illumination of one of the most ambivalent German artists of the last century. His artistic approach and a series of earlier works make Kuball particularly predestined for the task of grappling with Nolde’s work and identity. Using the medium of light and photographic techniques such as film and photography, Kuball negotiates socio-political issues and questions of perception by making connections and structures visible and focusing our attention in new directions. The video installations and pictorial series created expressly for this exhibition project thus provide an unusual perspective on Emil Nolde’s oeuvre because they do not display or reproduce any of his works directly, but instead open up spaces of association whose field of reference extends beyond the specific example of Nolde. Kuball thus encourages the viewer to abstractly illuminate the processes behind the works, and to consciously recognize and critically scrutinize them.

The Nolde Foundation Seebüll granted Mischa Kuball free access to its facilities, allowing him to develop new artistic works for this exhibition on site. Kuball focuses on three aspects of Nolde’s life and work: his treatment of foreign cultures, his dedication to the National Socialists, and his carefully crafted stylisation as a resistance artist after 1945. Along with Nolde’s former home and studio, Kuball was particularly interested in the areas of the foundation not open to the public: the art storage facility and the archives, in which Nolde’s works, his correspondence, and the artefacts Nolde collected during his lifetime are preserved. The first three documenta exhibitions, at which Nolde’s works were displayed, also played a central role in this exhibition. For his project Kuball exclusively selected works that were displayed in these three shows. The first documenta of 1955 in particular was perceived as a counter project to the propaganda exhibition Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) of 1937. The documenta was not the only project that contributed to the myth of Nolde as a defamed artist, but was certainly the one that has had the most far-reaching impact to this day.

#NoldeKritikKuball

The exhibition catalogue, published by DCV Books, will be released in November featuring an interview with the artist Mischa Kuball among several essays with an orientation in the cultural studies, art history, and philosophy, addressing issues ranging from artistic self-staging to ways of forming a (critical) opinion.   

The starting point for Kuball’s research for this project was the Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation Seebüll, which was set up in Nolde’s will. It was the artist’s former residence and workplace and is today the site where his extensive estate is stored and administered. The ensuing exhibition concept involves a critical artistic approach. Kuball’s artworks challenge our approach to viewing art and aim at perception, reception, and related processes. The questions that have emerged address important issues: How does a myth, or a critical opinion, develop? How do we deal with history? And how do we view artworks that have a problematic context? How can contemporary artistic practice come to terms with this?  

Curators Dr. Barbara Segelken, Nicole Roth
Press contact Tanja Kemmer | Press material