A project by documenta archiv, Draiflessen Collection, Nolde Foundation Seebüll and Mischa Kuball
December 9, 2022–February 19, 2023
In cooperation with Draiflessen Collection, Nolde Foundation Seebüll and Mischa Kuball.
Emil Nolde (1867–1956) is one of the best-known representatives of classic modern art in Germany. Work and person are marked by the creation of myths and their deconstruction. After World War II, contemporary art critics and Nolde himself propagated the image of an ostracized painter, persecuted by the Nazis. Only recently has awareness once again been drawn to his opportunism towards the Nazi regime and his anti-Semitic positions.
With the support of the Nolde Foundation Seebüll, the Düsseldorf-based conceptual artist Mischa Kuball (b. 1959) set out on the trail of this ambivalent artist personality and critically examined Emil Nolde’s work and impact. The first results were on display in the Draiflessen Collection in Mettingen in the winter of 2020/2021.
At the invitation of the documenta archiv, Kuball continues his investigation in Kassel: The research-based exhibition project “nolde / kritik / documenta” sheds light on the entanglement of work and biography and inquires into the contradictions of modernism that emerge in an exemplary way in the artistic persona of Nolde. Point of departure is the presentation of Nolde’s paintings and watercolors at the first three documenta exhibitions (1955, 1959, 1964) as crucial moments for shaping the “myth” of the artist. Some of the works shown at the time are now returning to the Fridericianum for the first time.
Kuball’s staging follows the principle of multi-layered juxtaposition: of the spoken and the unspoken, the visible and the invisible. His artistic research opens up sociopolitical perspectives pointing beyond the persona of the artist and exposes mechanisms of artistic self-staging and memory culture. The exhibition layout subverts conventional forms of museum presentations and provokes irritations in the contemplation of the original paintings.
The exhibition will be complemented by a programme of panel discussions. The catalogue will be published by DCV in German and English.
