Hamburger Kunsthalle
until 24 September 2023
To mark the 100th anniversary of the friends’ society Freunde der Kunsthalle e.V., the Hamburger Kunsthalle will pay tribute in 2023 to its major supporter with an exhibition of paintings, sculptures and works on paper from its Modern Art collection dating from the years around 1923. Around 60 exhibits have been selected that provide insights into artistic practice, social currents and historical events in Germany and Hamburg that year. The featured works, by artists including Alma del Banco, Rudolf Belling, Robert Desnos, Walter Dexel, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Karl Hofer, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Käthe Kollwitz, Karl Kluth, Rudolf Levy, Dorothea Maetzel-Johannsen, László Moholy-Nagy, Anita Rée and Friedrich Wield, will be loosely inserted into the permanent collection display devoted to Classical Modernism. They shed light on a dazzling period in history, giving viewers a vivid impression of the artistic fecundity of what is often called the »crisis year« of 1923.
1923 is today considered to have been a fateful year. Severe crises were unsettling the young Weimar Republic as the occupation of the Ruhr region, hyperinflation, rampant poverty and coup attempts put German democracy to the test. At the same time, though, the twenties witnessed a thriving art and culture scene as well as great enthusiasm for popular sports. Theatre, cabaret, dance events and concerts flourished, as did the cinema and literature. The culture of the day was political, avant-garde and marked by an impressive degree of diversity, with Impressionism, Expressionism, New Objectivity, Surrealism and applied arts at the state-run Bauhaus happily existing side-by-side.
A publication in the Kleine Reihe series will accompany the exhibition, featuring texts by Juliane Au, Gabriele Himmelmann, Florian Ludwig, Karin Schick, Jan Steinke and Andreas Stolzenburg (scheduled for June 2023, approx. 150 pages).