PRESS RELEASE Bremen, 26
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PRESS RELEASE Bremen, 26. August 2020 | Subject to modifications “The Picasso Connection: The Artist and his Gallerist” 21 November 2020 to 21 March 2021 Press conference: Thursday, 19 November 2020, 11 am Curators: Dr Manuela Husemann, Dr Barbara Nierhoff The Kunsthalle Bremen holds one of the most important collections of prints and drawings by Pablo Picasso. “The Picasso Connection: The Artist and his Gallerist” (21 November 2020 to 21 March 2021) is the first exhibition dedicated to this extensive collection of prints and the unique story of how they came to the museum through the efforts of Bremen gallery owner Michael Hertz, who was the exclusive representative of Picasso’s printed works in Germany. Left to right: Pablo Picasso, Bacchanal with Black Bull , 1959 | Pablo Picasso, Flying Dove (with Rainbow) , 1952 | Alle: Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, © Succession Picasso / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 The Picasso collection at the Kunsthalle Bremen is one of the oldest and largest collections of works by the artist found in a museum in Germany. In 1917, during the First World War, the museum laid the foundation with the purchase of an early etching. Today, the Picasso collection contains over 630 printed works, three paintings and two drawings by the artist. A large part of this extensive collection can be traced back to Bremen art dealer Michael Hertz who, beginning in 1951, held the exclusive rights to sell Picasso’s printed works in Germany. Thanks to his dedication, German museums and private collections coveted works by Picasso. This is remarkable in light of the fact that at the time the artist was controversial, and purchases of his works were frequently criticized as “squandering taxpayer money” and “incomprehensible smudges of paint”. However, by placing the works in important exhibitions, Michael Hertz was able to gain a foothold for them in museums and on the art market. In addition to the prints and drawings, the exhibition “The Picasso Connection” sheds light on the market in Germany for Picasso’s work in the 1950s and 1960s. The artist’s reception after the Second World War and the prices for his works at that time will be examined against the backdrop of gallerist Michael Hertz’s international network. In addition, the show will explore the various acquisition policies of different museums, regional features and reactions to the purchase of Picasso’s work. PRESS RELEASE Bremen, 26. August 2020 | Subject to modifications The exhibition will present a total of around 250 works. These include works on paper, illustrated books, paintings, and sculptures. Many of these objects will be exhibited for the first time in decades. Pablo Picasso in the collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen Containing pieces from 1905 to 1968, the Bremen collection encompasses nearly all of Pablo Picasso’s (1881–1973) creative periods. At the same time, it covers the broad range and stylistic variations found in his long artistic career, including the early figure groups of entertainers and street performers from his Rose and Blue Periods, Cubist abstractions, his return to a neoclassical language following the First World War and Surrealist variations. It continues with his extensive mythological series and illustrations of literary classics as well as the numerous portraits of women and variations on the subject of the artist and model from the post-war period. A highlight of the exhibition are the many linocuts that Picasso began creating in the late 1950s. Linocuts were an unusual medium at that time and Picasso was the first to make them “museum- compatible”. These and other graphic works are examples of how, like no other artist of his century, he was able to adopt a variety of printing techniques as his own and develop them further. The focus on Picasso’s printed works in the Bremen collection can be traced back to Günter Busch, the director of the Kunsthalle at that time. Busch placed special emphasis on Picasso’s works on paper and, with Hertz’s support, continued to expand the holdings into the 1970s, creating one of the most extensive collections in Germany at that time. Left to right: Pablo Picasso, Woman’s Head , 1949 | Pablo Picasso, Sylvette , 1954 | Pablo Picasso, Face (Marie-Thérèse) , 1928 | Alle: Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, © Succession Picasso / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 Michael Hertz and the Art Market Within the scope of the exhibition, the prints will be examined in the context of the activities of art dealer Michael Hertz (1912–1988). His keen acute art-historical sensibilities and business acumen were instrumental in shaping Picasso’s reception in the post-war period. Initially beginning with lithographs, the Kunsthalle Bremen was one of the first German museums to purchase Picasso’s works after 1945. The first painting, “Head of a Woman” (1949), was purchased in 1953 for DM 7,500. The painting “Sylvette” (1954) was also acquired for the Kunsthalle Bremen collection in 1955 for DM 45,000 through Michael Hertz in 1962. PRESS RELEASE Bremen, 26. August 2020 | Subject to modifications The exhibition will also analyse the market for Picasso’s printed works and the price increases in the 1950s and 1960s. The influence of the Bremen art dealer will also be highlighted. In comparison to other German galleries, Hertz generated substantial sales figures of Picasso’s works during these years. In the exhibition catalogue, ten German museums provide details into their collection of Picasso’s works, some with purchasing prices, including the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin; the Folkwang Museum, Essen; the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main; and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Selected loans of Picasso acquisitions from other museums and private collections in the exhibition document the broad range of Hertz’s activities. The Michael Hertz gallery also sold important paintings, sculptures and printed works by other representatives of modern and post-war art to major collections in Germany and Europe. In addition to Pablo Picasso, the gallery handled works by Juan Gris, Max Ernst, Henri Laurens, Fernand Léger, André Masson, Joan Miró, Roberto Matta and Ernst Wilhelm Nay as well as Paula Modersohn- Becker. Left to right: Pablo Picasso, André Villers, To The World/ Torbi , 1962 | Pablo Picasso, After the Lance (Bull and Picador) , 1959 | Both: Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Pablo Picasso: © Succession Picasso / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020, André Villers: © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 | Michael Hertz at his desk, Bremen, May/June 1955, ZADIK – Zentralarchiv für deutsche und internationale Kunstmarktforschung, Köln, Photo: Rudolph Stickelmann, Bremen (Staatsarchiv Bremen) Hertz and Picasso: Two Peace Activists Pablo Picasso was a devoted peace activist, as can be seen in many of his works, especially before and after the Second World War. Michael Hertz was also active in the peace movement. They met at the artist’s Paris studio in the spring of 1951. According to the art dealer in his memoires in 1977, Hertz was “a real attraction” for the artist. He “positively pumped [Hertz] for information about the “Partisans de la Paix” in Germany.” Picasso was a member of the French Communist Party. Among other things, Hertz campaigned in the Deutsche Friedens-Union (German Peace Union) for military neutrality vis-à-vis the Eastern Bloc. Accompanying Exhibition in the Department of Prints and Drawings: “Art Hertz: From Kollwitz to Miró” A complementary exhibition will be on display simultaneously in the Department of Prints and Drawings with printed works that the Kunsthalle Bremen acquired through the Michael Hertz gallery, demonstrating the wide-ranging business relations between Hertz and the Kunsthalle. “Art Hertz: From Kollwitz to Miró” (21 November 2020 to 21 March 2021) presents a selection of works by artists such as Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, Otto Dix, Alberto Giacometti, Käthe Kollwitz, Fernand Léger, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Emil Nolde, André Masson and Joan Miró. PRESS RELEASE Bremen, 26. August 2020 | Subject to modifications Catalogue: For the Picasso exhibition, a catalogue (German/English) will be published by Hatje Cantz Verlag. Along with reproductions, the exhibition catalogue brings together essays by Kai Hohenfeld, Manuela Husemann, and Barbara Nierhoff-Wielk. The catalogue is available for purchase in the museum shop at the start of the exhibition for € 32 (ISBN 978-3-7757-4804-9 (German), ISBN 978-3-7757-4805-6 (English). “Placing the collection of Picasso’s printed works in Bremen in the context of the general Picasso reception in post-war Germany is an exciting approach to exploring the work of this artist. The exhibition highlights the history of the unique holdings found at the Kunsthalle Bremen,” says Dr Martin Hoernes, Secretary General, Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung. Made possible by: Karin and Uwe Hollweg Stiftung With the kind support of: Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH Die Sparkasse Bremen AG Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung CITIPOST Nordwest-Mail GmbH and a group of private sponsors Media partners: Weser-Kurier Mediengruppe Bremen Zwei arte Transportation partner: Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft MbH Cultural partner: NDR Kultur Press area access: Printable images for your editorial news reports can be found in our download area: www.kunsthalle-bremen.de/presse/ PR contact Kunsthalle Bremen |Am Wall 207 | 28195 Bremen | Press and Public Relations T +49 (0)421 - 32 908 380| F +49 (0)421 329 08-470 | [email protected] | www.kunsthalle-bremen.de www.twitter.com/Kunsthalle_HB | www.facebook.com/KunsthalleBremen | http://blog.kunsthalle-bremen.de/| www.youtube.de/KunsthalleBremen | www.instagram.com/Kunsthalle.Bremen | voicerepublic.com/users/kunsthalle-bremen .