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Warning & Temptation – The Pictorial Worlds of War of Käthe Kollwitz and Kata Legrady (Berlin)

From 30 June until 9 November 2014, Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum in Berlin presents the exhibition Warning and Temptation – The Pictorial Worlds of War of Käthe Kollwitz and Kata Legrady. Two very different artists and their individual examination of war are contrasted with each other; on one hand, the pacifist works of Käthe Kollwitz that have not lost their impact and timelessness over many decades; and on the other hand, the direct and colourful works by Kata Legrady, born in 1974 in Hungary, whose contemporary approach addresses the propagandistic promises of war. In addition, the exhibition will present selected pupil’s works that mainly deal with Käthe Kollwitz as mother and grandmother, who has lost her son Peter during the First World War, and her grandson Peter during the Second World War. Continue reading

Thomas Geve: “There are No Children Here” (Cologne)

From 9 May to 3 August 2014, the NS-Dokumentationszentrum Köln (Nationalsocialism Documentation Centre Cologne, NSDOK) presents the special exhibition “Es gibt hier keine Kinder” – Auschwitz, Groß-Rosen, Buchenwald (“There are no children here”). After his liberation from KZ Buchenwald, Thomas Geve, then 15 years of age, drew his memories of life in concentration camps. Proximity to death and the constant subjection to the guards are central to the documentary drawings; equally, they are a testimony of a youth’s will to survive. The NSDOK exhibition shows 75 of his drawings that since 1985 are part of the Yad Vashem collections in Jerusalem

Thomas Geve: „Gefahren in Auschwitz“, 1945 (© Yad Vashem)

On our own matters: World War I Centenary in “Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte”

Sorry, this entry is only available in German.

“No Escape” – Exhibition about the Graphic Novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Osnabrück)

From 27 April until 27 July 2014, the exhibition “Kein Entkommen” (No Escape) about the graphic novel “Im Westen nichts Neues” (All Quiet on the Western Front) by Peter Eickmeyer will be shown at the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Centre in Osnabrück. In three years’ time, the Melle-based artist made his adaption of Erich Maria Remarque’s world-famous novel, a cornerstone of addressing the First World War in literature. The exhibition includes original drawings from the graphic novel and delivers insight into its making.

grounded/airborne (Kleine Galerie, Torgau)

Usually, wartist.org contains articles about exhibitions of other artists, movies, galleries and museums. Today, however, we have the pleasure to write on our own issues: ausgebildete Photographer Martin Bayer (educated at Lette-Verein Berlin) presents from 28 February to 10 April 2014 his exhibition grounded/airborne at Kleine Galerie (Torgauer Kunst- und Kulturverein “Johann Kentmann” e.V.). The photos from his series grounded show details of retired military planes; they will be historically commented by some aerial pictures from the First World War. Grounded addresses the medial and artistic aestheticisation of weapons, while both the clear assignment of the pictured objects to historic events and the alleged simple classification into “friend” and “enemy” become desintegrated.

grounded #4, C-print on alu-dibond, 50x75 cm (© 2012 Martin Bayer)

Zwischen Kaiserwetter und Donnergrollen (Hanover)

From 20 October 2013 until 19 January 2014, the “Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst” (German museum of caricature and the art of drawing, named after Wilhelm Busch) in Hanover will present the exhibition “Zwischen Kaiserwetter und Donnergrollen – Die wilhelminische Epoche im Spiegel des Simplicissimus von 1896 bis 1914” (between “Kaiserwetter” (an old expression for splendid weather) and rolling thunder – the Wilhelmine era in the mirror of Simplicissimus between 1896 and 1914). Since its foundation in 1896, the satiric magazine “Simplicissimus” held the proverbial mirror up to the German society that in the years before the First World War was shaped by domestic and international crises and societal, cultural and technological changes. The exhibition centres around originals of leading satiric fin-de-siècle artists such as Thomas Theodor Heine, Eduard Thöny, Olaf Gulbransson, Bruno Paul, Karl Arnold, Rudolf Wilke, Wilhelm Schulz and Ferdinand von Rezniček.

Wartist Presents: Panel Discussion “Quo Vadis Afghanistan?”, Bavarian Army Museum (Ingolstadt)

We would like to invite all interested guests to the security political panel discussion “Quo Vadis Afghanistan?” with experts from Berlin, Brussels, Eschborn and Ingolstadt as part of our recently opened exhibition “Landscapes & Memory” with photographs by Jo Röttger. The panel discussion will take place in the Neues Schloß (New Castle), the main building of the Bavarian Army Museum, on Monday, 10 June 2013 from 1800h to 2000h and is followed by a small reception, offering the opportunity to continue the talks.

© Jo Röttger: Afghanistan, Camp Fayzabad, military policeman and playing child

Wartist Presents: „Landscapes & Memory“ – Photos by Jo Röttger, Bavarian Army Museum (Ingolstadt)

On 28 May 2013, the exhibition „Landscapes & Memory“ by Hamburg-based photographer Jo Röttger will open at Bayerisches Armeemuseum (Bavarian Army Museum) in Ingolstadt. In 27 large-format photos with their picture language that reminds of romanticism, Röttger approaches landscapes and identity while addressing desire and alienation as well as the ongoing war in Afghanistan. A bilingual catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, curated by Martin Bayer (Wartist).

Concert: Revered – Banned – Drowned (Berlin)

On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition “verfemt, verfolgt – vergessen? Kunst und Künstler im Nationalsozialismus”¹ the chamber symphonic orchestra Kammersymphonie Berlin, conducted by Jürgen Bruns, will play the concert Verehrt – verfemt – versunken² at Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church), Berlin’s oldest church. The concert consists of worky by Franz Schreker, Gideon Klein, Erich Zeisl, Egon Wellesz and Pavel Haas. They ranked as the most revered composers of their times, but due to Nazi persecution and murder, they vanished into oblivion. Both the concert and the exhibition are part of the theme year “Diversity Destroyed”.

banned, persecuted – forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism ↩
revered – banned – drowned ↩

banned, persecuted – forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism (Berlin)

From 16 March until 28 July 2013, Stadtmuseum Berlin presents the exhibition “verfemt, verfolgt – vergessen? Kunst und Künstler im Nationalsozialismus”¹ with various works from the impressive Collection Gerhard Schneider at its location Emphraim-Palais. On the occasion of the theme year “Diversity Destroyed” on the Nazi’s takeover 100 years ago, the Stadtmuseum Berlin thus remembers the methodic defamation of modern art, up to destruction of artworks and lives. The exhibition is dedicated to all artists who had been banned, persecuted or even murdered, and whose works and lives have been nearly forgotten. It is therefore even more necessary to remember their suffering, but not the least their lives and works, to snatch them from oblivion.

Georg Netzband: Der Sieger, 1939 (Dr. Gerhard Schneider, VG Bild-Kunst 2011)

banned, persecuted – forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism ↩