Adolf Dietrich by Richard Phillips

M isappropriation: In Defense of the Real Adolf Dietrich RICHARD PHILLIPS KRONENHALLE ties. W ithin the context of works by m odern m asters, I was first introduced to A dolf D ietrich’s (1877-1957) all w ith their recognizable styles, D ietrich’s draw ing w ork in 2003 by the artist Peter Fischli following a truly stuck out, seem ing all the m ore m asterful. dinner at the legendary K ronenhalle restaurant in W hile D ietrich may have been a “national Swiss Zurich. After our m eal, I accom panied Peter on a treasure,” I soon cam e to the realization that it was a tour of the restaurant’s collection w here, after seeing reputation he’d acquired for the w rong reasons. In works by M atisse, Kandinsky, B raque, and Picasso, I m y m ind, he was, and still is, a com pletely m isunder was led into a dining room on the second floor and stood artist. Since there are no texts on D ietrich in PFEFFERVOGEL, Öl auf Karton, WARTH) MUSEUM, ITTINGER 46 THURGAU, x 38 cm. KUNSTMUSEUM (PHOTO: / shown a pencil draw ing of two squirrels in a tree. I English, I have been at the m ercy of w hatever lim ited was told that the draw ing was by an early tw entieth- inform ation I have been able to find (or have had century artist considered a “Swiss national treasure.” translated into English), all of which claim ed the I was surprised by the draw ing, struck by the unique artist, whose work stylistically shared som e of the qualities of realism carried out by the artist’s extraor form al traits of so-called “naïve artists,” to be an “out dinary sensitivity to light and tone and by his dem o sider artist.” Such m islabeling certainly has had a cratic recording of detail, from the squirrel’s fur to negative effect on the trajectory of D ietrich’s career the trees’ bark to the snow ’s m elting surface. There and has severely lim ited his international exposure seem ed to be a w illingness to invest in the life of the to a broader, critically engaged audience. im age far beyond any initial painterly representa In 2004, with little m ore than a rough idea of his tion. The effect of such com m itm ent to rendering output and very little know ledge about the artist’s drew out the specificity (and thus psychology and at biography (and a great deal of m isunderstanding, titude) of place and of the anim als, which, im bued I later determ ined), I began work on a large-scale with such intensity, seem ed to take on hum an quali- painting after Dietrich’s ZWEI EICHHÖRNCHEN (Two Squirrels, 1948). The piece, titled SIMILAR TO RICHARD PHILLIPS is an artist who lives and works in SQUIRRELS (2004), was intended for an exhibition N e w Y o rk . at Le C onsortium in D ijon them ed around represen- ADOLFDIETRICH, TOUCAN, 1927, oil on cardboard, 18 x 15” PARKETT 87 2010 6 7 country road to get there— I saw, in person for the tial fears of poverty and war, his feelings of lone been lim ited, forcing him to m ake use of all surfaces. first tim e, m any of the paintings I’d previously only liness.After seeing this body of work in person, In one work on paper, for exam ple, there’s a highly experienced as reproductions in books. A long with it was easy to understand how D ietrich cam e to be detailed rendering of a tiger (inspired by a trip to the the extraordinary pieces being exhibited, I was for associated with the late-New Objectivism and Neo- zoo) with two disassociated landscapes draw n on the tunate enough to be taken by the m useum ’s curator, Rom antic m ovem ents. back of the sam e sheet. Early drawings— one of his M arkus Landert, to see many of the works in the Landert inform ed m e that D ietrich was the youn father and another of a hare— reveal the artist’s un estate that were not on view— paintings, drawings, gest of four brothers and that he was from a very poor usual sensitivity both in charcoal and chalk on toned photographs, sketches, notes, and letters. This expo family. W hile his brothers left hom e seeking em ploy paper. Pencil drawings likewise display his ability sure to the depth of m aterial in the archives entirely m ent in larger towns and cities, D ietrich stayed in to create atm osphere, which he carried over to his changed my perceptions of the artist. It m ade m e see, Berlingen to help support his parents, which m eant paintings on cardboard and wood panel. D ietrich’s for one, that D ietrich may not have been as m uch of running their sm all farm and tending to their single sketchbooks show how extensive and relentless he an outsider as people thought (and still think), and cow and goat. For additional incom e, he w orked as a was at recording all sorts of com positional ideas, as that there m ay be another version of the events of his lum berjack and at a local textile m ill. N evertheless, well as keeping detailed notes on color, tim e of day, life that contradicts w hat we know of him and his art. he showed talent in his art and was encouraged by and even w eather— all of w hich facilitated his early W alking into the gallery, I confronted two Diet- his elem entary school teachers to pursue his artistic Rom antic works and his m ethodical transition to the rich portraits, one picturing him as a stern, elderly abilities. Looking at his earliest w atercolors, one can “Swiss Picturesque.” m an, and another— m uch tougher in nature—of his see how com m itted he was to being taken seriously Yet, along w ith his conventional painterly explora elderly father. The dates of these two paintings and as an artist; he borrow ed freely from popular publi tion, he also conducted m ore audacious experim ents, their subjects im m ediately revealed one m isconcep cations, designing his own N ouveau A rt borders in such as allow ing children to finish his draw ings for tion: that D ietrich didn’t begin painting until late in order to give them a “contem porary” look. Som e of him in order to capture their unselfconscious expres ADOLF DIETRICH, TWO SQUIRRELS, pencil life. In fact he com pleted his first paintings in 1902 at his earliest paintings com bine still life im agery with siveness. D ietrich never m ade paintings from these on paper, 18 x 11 1 /2” / ZWEI EICHHÖRNCHEN, the age of tw enty-five. I then began to focus on m any of rom antic m otifs. Their palettes are extrem ely satu particular drawings (what if he had?), as he consid Bleistift auf Papier, 46 x 29 cm. the other works installed around the gallery, thrilled rated in hue and have rem arkable intensity, as is the ered them finished works on their own, a kind of side (PHOTO: RESTAURANT KRONENHALLE AG, ZÜRICH) by my first opportunity to see so m any of D ietrich’s case with HERMELIN UND TOTE MÖWE IN MOND project used to provide a playful critique to his m ore strengths as an artist operating all at once and in full SCHEINLANDSCHAFT (Erm ine and Dead Seagull in stable working m ethod. W here he com bined dispa view. It occurred to m e that one of D ietrich’s m ost M oonlight Landscape, 1908), a nocturne that pic rate, often contradictory aspects of his practice, he tations of identity and nation states. As I w orked on popular subjects— a local Bernese M ountain Dog tures an erm ine and a hanging bird. did so with specific, refined intentions. H e brought my painting, my goal was to am plify those qualities nam ed Balbo, who appears in many paintings—-in I m ade an interesting discovery while com paring together, for exam ple, direct observation (usually which, in my m ind, form ed the basis of D ietrich’s m any ways steals the show. The dog is sim ply m ore the front and back of m any works, w here I found clear still life) w ith the landscape notations h e’d recorded highly idiosyncratic construction of the real. W hile disarm ing (not to m ention charm ing) than all of the evidence of the artist’s poverty. H is supplies m ust have in his sketchbooks. As D ietrich’s colleague and fellow devising my com position, I followed D ietrich’s use other hum an portraits put together. In the fam ous of elevated perspective, w hich allowed for a candid GELBROTER ABENDHIMMEL (Yellow-Red Evening gaze upon the subject from high up in the trees and Sky, 1925), there is a lum inous, orange sky am idst created an unm itigated relationship betw een viewer an array of unusual cloud and tree form ations. The and subject. The goal was simply to put the “act of landscape is punctuated by a bunny running through looking” and “nature” on the sam e footing. the lushly painted foreground epitom izing the Rous- seauian goals of the Neo-Rom antic m ovem ent.

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