Vernissagen | Wartist

Exhibition: Jacques Grison – Devant Verdun (Bar-le-Duc, F)

From 16 November 2017 to 30 March 2018, Jacques Grison presents his photos on the battlefield of Verdun from his series “Devant Verdun” in the eponymous exhibition in the gallery of the département’s administration in Bar-le-Duc (France) präsentieren. Since decades, Grison, who was born in the region, approaches the former battlefield through his photos: His pictures show the wounds of war, still visible in a landscape that was shaped by the fighting one hundred years ago.

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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

“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.

Wounds of the World – Magnum Photos (Osnabrück)

Sorry, this entry is only available in German.

Margret Eicher: Once Upon a Time in Mass Media (Berlin)

From 25 July until 8 September 2013, conceptual artist Margret Eicher presents media tapestries in the exhibition “Once Upon a Time in Mass Media” at the Kleine Orangerie am Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin. In these large-format collages, she addresses media images and their social reception in various ways. The chosen form of expression plays a major role, too: tapestries once were tools of (self-) representation of power and authority. In Eicher’s works, too, there are numerous references on war and violence.

Das Experiment 2, 2008, Digitale Montage/Jacquard, 270 x 370 cm © Margret Eicher

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 ↩

Marissa Roth: One Person Crying – Women and War (Berlin)

Sara Duvall mit einem Foto ihres Sohnes Aaron Reed, getötet im Irak, Chillicothe, Ohio 2005 (© Marissa Roth)

From 8 March until 3 April 2013, Berlin-based Willy-Brandt-Haus presents the exhibition One Person Crying: Women and War with photos by Marissa Roth. Since 1984, the Pulitzer Prize laureate (born in 1957 in Los Angeles) is dealing with this issue: back then, she travelled to the Yugoslav homeland of her Jewish grandparents who had been murdered in 1942 by Hungarian Fascists. In 1988, she was assigned by Los Angeles Times to portray Afghan women refugees. The subject remained crucial for her work: One Person Crying: Women and War addresses the effects of war on women within their respective societies. Continue reading