GALERIE HENZE & KETTERER & TRIEBOLD RIEHEN/BASEL Dr. Alexandra Henze Triebold – Marc Triebold Wettsteinstrasse 4 - CH 4125 Riehen/Basel Tel. +41/61/641 77 77 - Fax: +41/61/641 77 78 www.henze-ketterer-triebold.ch - www.henze-ketterer.ch Karl Hofer – Hans Purrmann – Christian Rohlfs Figures, Still-lifes and Southern Landscapes between Impressionism, Expressionism and New Objectivity th th 12 May till 26 August 2017 Galerie Henze & Ketterer & Triebold Riehen/ Basel Zweigstelle der Galerie Henze & Ketterer AG Wichtrach/ Bern Kunst von der klassischen Moderne bis in die Gegenwart Galerie - Kunsthandlung - Kunstbuchhandlung -Verlag - Archive Ausstellungen - Ankauf - Verkauf - Kommission - Schätzung Beratung bezüglich Dokumentation Echtheit Konservierung Versicherung Transport Konzeptionelle und organisatorische Betreuung von Kunstausstellungen und Kunstsammlungen Dienstag-Freitag 10 - 12 + 14 – 18 Uhr - Samstag 10 - 16 Uhr GALERIE HENZE & KETTERER & TRIEBOLD RIEHEN/BASEL Dr. Alexandra Henze Triebold – Marc Triebold Wettsteinstrasse 4 - CH 4125 Riehen/Basel Tel. +41/61/641 77 77 - Fax: +41/61/641 77 78 www.henze-ketterer-triebold.ch - www.henze-ketterer.ch Karl Hofer – Hans Purrmann – Christian Rohlfs Figures, Still-lifes and Southern Landscapes between Impressionism, Expressionism and New Objectivity 12th May to 26th August 2017 Karl Hofer and Hans Purrmann belonged to the same generation, having been born in Karlsruhe in 1878 and in Speyer in 1880 respectively, while Christian Rohlfs – born in Niendorf near Leezen in 1849 – was already a generation older. Nonetheless, as we shall see below, there were a great many parallels in their lives and in their artistic developments. Hofer, Purrmann and Rohlfs all enjoyed a full academic training. They learnt their “craft” the traditional way, attended a diversity of painting classes and were students of the leading artist- teachers at the renowned academies of their time. In 1897 Karl Hofer enrolled at the Karlsruhe Academy, where he became a master pupil of Hans Thoma in 1901. Only a year later, in 1902, he transferred to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, where he was a master pupil of Leopold von Kalckreuth. Hans Purrmann attended the Arts and Crafts College, likewise in Karlsruhe, from 1897 until 1899, and later, until 1905, the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he studied, first under Gabriel von Hackl and then under Franz von Stuck, together with Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Rudolf Levy. Christian Rohlfs enrolled at the Grand Ducal Art College in Weimar in 1870, where he studied successively under the history and figure painter Paul Thumann, the genre painter Ferdinand Schauss and the Belgian nude painter Alexandre Struys. He later became one of Max Thedy's students until finally completing his training and becoming a fully fledged artist in 1884. The works of all three artists manifest the influence of the French Impressionists, not least through the typical Impressionist style of their early years. Sojourns in Paris, visits to exhibitions and also direct contact with the painters of the French avant-garde clearly left their mark on the work of all three artists. History tells us that Hofer first stayed in Paris in 1899. This was followed by a further stay in 1900, when he made the acquaintance of Julius Meier-Graefe. He later resided in the French capital between the years of 1908 and 1913. Hofer's work manifests the influence of Paul Cézanne more than any other Impressionist painter. Purrmann moved to Paris in 1905 after having seen works of the Impressionists at the German National Gallery and the Salon Cassirer in Berlin. He made the acquaintance of Pablo Picasso and also that of Henri Matisse, with whom he founded the so-called “Académie Matisse” in 1908 – with Matisse as the teacher and Purrmann as the massier, the person responsible for organization and administration. It was during this time that Purrmann's work was decisively influenced by the French Impressionists, and not least by Matisse. Inspiration also came from Cézanne, Renoir and Seurat, whose works Purrmann also collected. The artist remained in Paris until 1914, returning to Germany upon the outbreak of the First World War. By 1888, the works of Christian Rohlfs were also showing signs of a formal dissolution in the Impressionist sense, a development that Rohlfs saw confirmed only a short time later in the works of Monet, Pissarro and Sisley, which were on exhibition at the Grand Ducal Academy in Weimar in 1890, as the artist himself had noted in writing. Some time later – at the Folkwang Museum in Hagen after 1903 – Rohlfs became familiar with the works of Renoir, Signac, Gauguin and van Gogh, and also Munch, who were also to exercise a decisive influence on his style. 2 Hofer, Purrmann and Rohlfs had already attained considerable success prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. They had their own one-man exhibitions, took part in important group exhibitions, won scholarships and prizes and held important academic posts. Having at one time been mere pupils and students, they were now the masters and mentors who were to influence the younger generation. As teachers at the art colleges, they now shared their artistic experience and expertise with multitudes of students. In 1907 Meier-Graefe published an article in “Kunst und Künstler” entitled “New German Romans”, an article that gave Hofer his breakthrough in the German-speaking countries of Europe. There then followed a multitude of exhibitions at the most renowned galleries: Cassirer (Berlin), Tanner (Zürich), Alfred Flechtheim (Frankfurt am Main, later Berlin) and Kunstsalon Ludwig Schames (Frankfurt am Main), as well as such public institutions as Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kestner Gesellschaft (Hanover), Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum Folkwang (Essen), German National Gallery (Berlin). In 1909 Hofer took part for the first time in the exhibition of the “Berliner Secession”, which had been founded by the German Impressionist Max Liebermann. By 1922 Hofer had already become widely known abroad, with exhibitions at many venues, including Venice and, from 1925 onwards, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh (every year until 1939), where he was also a member of the selecting jury. Since 1902 he had been receiving financial support from the Swiss industrialist and patron Theodor Reinhart, at first in the form of individual financial allowances and then by way of a contractually agreed grant until 1913. It was in this same year that Hofer became a member of the “Free Secession” in Berlin and exhibited in the following year together with Liebermann, Heckel, Kirchner, Pechstein and Schmidt-Rottluff. In 1920 he was appointed to a teaching post, later to a professorship, at the “United State School for Fine and Applied Art in Berlin”. In 1923 he was elected to the Prussian Academy of the Arts, where he entered its Senate in 1929, after having been appointed only a year before to the Board of Directors of the Deutscher Künstlerbund (Association of German Artists). For his part, Purrmann likewise exhibited, as early as 1918, at the Paul Cassirer Gallery in Berlin. Further exhibitions followed at the Pro Arte Gallery in Basel and the Alfred Flechtheim Gallery in Berlin. In 1915 he had been elected associate member of the “New Munich Secession” and frequently took part in its exhibitions. His membership lasted until 1937. In 1919, at the proposal of Liebermann and Slevogt, he became a member of the Prussian Academy of the Arts. Rohlfs, too, exhibited at the Alfred Flechtheim Gallery in Düsseldorf and the Paul Cassirer Gallery in Berlin, but also at other galleries: Neumann in Berlin, Garvens in Hanover, Nierendorf in Berlin, Commeter in Hamburg and Ferdinand Moeller in Berlin. He also had numerous one-man exhibitions at many important public galleries and museums, including the Museum Folkwang in Hagen, the German National Gallery in Berlin, the Municipal Museum of Erfurt, the Christian Rohlfs Museum in Hagen (founded in his honour in 1927 on the occasion of his 80th birthday), the Municipal Museum of Wuppertal, the Kunsthalle Bern, the Basel Art Museum and the Kunsthalle Zürich. Rohlfs took part in group exhibitions of the Berlin Secession and at the Academy of the Arts and the Deutscher Künstlerbund. His acquaintanceship with Karl Ernst Osthaus came about in 1900 through an introduction by Henry van de Velde, at the very time when Osthaus had founded the Folkwang Museum, where Rohlfs then moved into a studio at Osthaus's invitation. In 1902 Rohlfs – still in the capacity of a teacher – took over the directorship of the Weimar Academy and was later granted the title of “Professor”. In 1907 he became a member of the “Separate League of West German Art Lovers and Artists”, which had been founded by Karl Ernst Osthaus. Other memberships followed: the “New Secession” in Berlin and the “Folkwang Association” in Hagen, both in 1911, and the “Free Secession” in Berlin in 1914. In 1922 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Technical University of Aachen. In 1924 Christian Rohlfs was granted the freedom of the City of Hagen and membership of the “Prussian Academy of the Arts” in Berlin. A year later he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Kiel and was elected associate member of the State Academy of Art in Düsseldorf. During the Nazi regime, one of the darkest periods of German history, all three artists suffered the same fate: they were relieved of their offices and dismissed from their posts. Their work was banned as “degenerate” and they were forbidden to exhibit or sell their works and were not even allowed to work as artists. Their works in public institutions were confiscated, some being exposed to ridicule in the exhibition “Degenerate Art” in Munich. Many works were sold abroad in exchange for foreign currency or even destroyed.