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Home , Baladine Klossowska, Franz von Lenbach, Fritz von Uhde, Gabriel von Max, Max Slevogt, Munich Secession

The and America A Guide for Educators and Students TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOR EDUCATORS

GETTING STARTED 3

ABOUT THE FRYE 3

THE AND AMERICA 4

FOR STUDENTS

WELCOME! 5

EXPERIENCING ART AT THE FRYE 5

A LITTLE CONTEXT 6

MAJOR THEMES 8

SELECTED WORKS AND IN-GALLERY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS The Prisoner 9 Picture Book 1 10 Dutch Courtyard 11 Calm before the Storm 12 The Dancer (Tänzerin) Baladine Klossowska 13 The Botanists 14 The Munich Secession and America January 24–April 12, 2009 SKETCH IT! 15

A Guide for Educators and Students BACK AT SCHOOL 15

The Munich Secession and America is organized by the Frye in GLOSSARY 16 collaboration with the Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, and is curated by Frye Foundation Scholar and Director Emerita of the Museum Villa Stuck, Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker.

This self-guide was created by Deborah Sepulvida, the Frye’s manager of student and teacher programs, and teaching artist Chelsea Green. FOR EDUCATORS

GETTING STARTED This guide includes a variety of materials designed to help educators and students prepare for their visit to the exhibition The Munich Secession and America, which is on view at the Frye Art Museum, January 24–April 12, 2009. Materials include resources and activities for use before, during, and after visits.

The goal of this guide is to challenge students to think critically about what they see and to engage in the process of experiencing and discussing art. It is intended to facilitate students’ personal discoveries about art and is aimed at strengthening the skills that allow students to view art independently. Enjoy!

ABOUT THE FRYE ART MUSEUM The Frye Art Museum is dedicated to artistic inquiry, a rich visitor experience, and civic responsibility. A primary catalyst for our engagement with and artists is the Founding Collection of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century art by Munich- based artists. Admission to the Museum will always be free.

Located on Seattle’s First Hill, the Frye Art Museum first opened its doors in 1952 as the legacy of Charles and Emma Frye, prominent early- twentieth-century Seattle business leaders and art collectors. Since that time, works from the Frye Founding Collection of 232 , primarily by Munich-based artists, have continuously been on view. The Museum also hosts notable exhibitions of works by recognized and emerging artists from around the world.

The Munich Secession and America is an especially important exhibition for the Museum, as the Frye is perhaps the only American institution whose Founding Collection was dedicated primarily to the artists of the Munich Secession and their predecessors.

 THE MUNICH SECESSION AND AMERICA was dedicated primarily to the artists of the Munich Secession and The Munich Secession and America marks the first American exhibition their predecessors, the Frye is proud to present seventy exemplary in one hundred years dedicated to the renowned Munich Secession masterpieces produced by artists of the Munich Secession and the movement. This movement laid the foundation for Munich Künstlergenossenschaft during their battle with one another, in twentieth-century art. Drawing on major loans from European and with subsequent Secession movements in and , for museums and the extensive holdings of the Frye Founding Collection, artistic supremacy. As The New York Times noted in 1909: “The spectacle this exhibition represents two generations of artists: leading of the young [generation] smiting the old inevitably has its element of Secessionists such as Franz von Stuck, , Ludwig Dill, Max tragedy. …With the field won, however, it is easy to see how the truly Liebermann, and Hugo von Habermann, and artists who preceded great masters among the old had many of the virtues of the young, and them and were active in the rival Munich Artists’ Association, the how finely the best art of the different generations holds together when Künstlergenossenschaft, such as Franz von Lenbach, Friedrich August brought into close juxtaposition.” von Kaulbach, Wilhelm Leibl, and Franz von Defregger. Also included in the exhibition are works by a number of the guest artists who exhibited The Frye is able to present important paintings of the period, many with the Munich Secession: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Nicolai Fechin, of which will be seen for the first time in America, with the generous Théodore Rousseau, , and Narcisse Virgilio Diaz de la Peña. support of major museums in such as the Municipal Gallery in the , Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (The Bavarian Radically changing the manner in which artworks were presented in State Collections), , and the Museum Villa exhibitions, the Munich Secession illustrated a diversity of avant-garde Stuck in Munich; the Berlinische Galerie and Art Library of the State techniques and philosophies that stunned American audiences when Museums of Berlin; the State Museum Mainz; the Municipal Gallery in exhibited at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in January 1909, ; and the Art Museums of Krefeld: Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, the and in April of the same year at the Art Institute of Chicago. The New Unterberger Collection, and the Sander Collection. The exhibition also York Times praised the exhibition’s “impulsive, energetic, and extremely includes two important loans from the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. various art” and described it as “a force to be reckoned with,” noting that it showed “how far individualism may be carried.” The Munich Secession and America is organized by the Frye in collaboration with the Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, and is curated by The exhibition at the Frye Art Museum, exactly one hundred years later, Frye Foundation Scholar and Director Emerita of the Museum Villa celebrates the key artistic innovations of the Munich Secessionists: Stuck, Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker. An illustrated 300-page companion --Abstraction in Landscape, or modern catalogue with in-depth articles by leading scholars is available in the style, and Religious Painting--Mythology. It opens with three Museum Store. of the iconic paintings that were shown in the first, sparsely-hung Munich Secession exhibition on June 15, 1893: ’s Wrestling School, Franz von Stuck’s Sin, and Evening Sky by , which reveals the first stirrings of planar, ornamental Jugendstil.

The exhibition galleries of the Munich Secession, in a purpose-built, “modern” building with light-colored walls and a gold geometric frieze designed by Franz von Stuck, astonished audiences of the time. In 1906, the director of Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery described seeing exhibitions there: “The general effect of the Secession galleries this year surpasses anything of the kind which the writer hitherto has seen.” As perhaps the only American institution whose Founding Collection 

FOR STUDENTS

WELCOME! The Frye Art Museum is a fifty-six-year-old museum located on First Hill in Seattle. It was founded by Charles and Emma Frye, who were Seattle business leaders and art collectors. The Frye was founded with a collection of paintings by primarily Munich-based artists.

Today the Museum exhibits a variety of works from all over the world– both historic and contemporary–inspired by its Founding Collection. The coolest part about the Frye is that it is the only Seattle museum that is totally FREE to visit!

EXPERIENCING ART AT THE FRYE Visiting a museum may seem intimidating. It is often quiet and you are almost never allowed to touch anything. The truth is, museums can be exciting and dynamic community spaces that encourage discussion and debate, and may even inspire you to create your own art-works.

The key is to enter with an open mind. Be ready to see some things– both old and new–that challenge the way you view the world. You don’t have to be an art history buff–just be ready to learn a little about the context (place and time) the artworks were created in.

Most important, have a point of view. Everyone experiences art differently. Take some time with works that draw your attention. Think about what they may be saying to you. Feel free to take notes, sketch what you see, and ask questions.

 A LITTLE CONTEXT The current exhibition at the Frye Art Museum is titled The Munich Secession and America. Here is a little background information to help prepare you for your visit:

Where is Munich anyway? Munich (pronounced mew-nick) is the largest city in Germany. It is EUROPElocated in , in the south of Germany near . Munich’s 20 0 20 40 Greenlandpopulation is about twice as large as Seattle’s. At the time of the Munich (DENMARK) Jan May en Ba r e n ts Secession, Munich(NORWAY) and , France, were considered the twoS ea most Hammerfest importantGr e e n l a n dcities for studying, making, and exhibiting art in Europe. S ea Murmansk Den ma r k Tromsø St r a i t

Kiruna No r we g i an S ea Wh i t e S ea Arkhangel'sk Reykjavík

ICELAND Arctic S Circle ev e D rn v a Luleå i na ya NORWAY Oulu

Umeå Lak e FINLAND O ne g a Trondheim 60 Tórshavn 60 Faroe Islands Gu l f (DENMARK) SWEDEN Lak e of Tampere Lado ga 40 B ot h n i a SHETLAND Turku Helsinki Saint Petersburg 20 ISLANDS Gävle l an d Bergen Gu l f of F i n ORKNEY Oslo ALAND RUSSIA Rockall ISLANDS Stockholm ISLANDS Tallinn lga (U.K.) o ESTONIA V HEBRIDES Stavanger Moscow N o r t h Göteborg Aberdeen g e r ra k Gotland LATVIA S k a K a Riga A t l a n t i c t t e g a Glasgow Ba l t i c S ea t Vitsyebsk Smolensk Edinburgh No rt h LITHUANIA O c e a n DENMARK Öland Belfast UNITED S ea Malmö Vilnius Mahilyow Copenhagen D Kaliningrad Minsk n Isle i RUSSIA e of p

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Man Bornholm r Dublin Ir is h (U.K.) BELARUS S ea Leeds Gdansk´ Hrodna Manchester Homyel' IRELAND Liverpool Hamburg KINGDOM Brest NETH. Birmingham Amsterdam Bremen Berlin Poznan´ Cardiff Kyiv Rotterdam Ode r E l Lódz´ Rivne London Essen Leipzig b e Dn i C el t i c Wroclaw e pe r S ea Brussels st ul a VI UKRAINE E ng l i s h C h a n n e l Lille BEL. BonnGERMANY L'viv Guernsey (U.K.) Frankfurt Kraków am Main Jersey (U.K.) CZECH REPUBLIC C Chernivtsi Luxembourg A R Mykolayiv P Paris LUX. Brno SLOVAKIA A S e i T Chisinau n e e Stuttgart Bratislava H u b e I Strasbourg Rh in D a n A Iasi¸ Munich Cluj- N Odesa e Budapest Nantes Lo i r Vienna Napoca MOLDOVA LIECH. M AUSTRIA T S Zürich Vaduz HUNGARY S Bern S ROMANIA .. Ba y of GenevaSWITZ. P FRANCE D Ljubljana L Bucharest Constanta¸ Bi sc ay I Milan SLOVENIA Zagreb MASSIF Lyon Venice N A Turin Po A Bl a c k Bordeaux CENTRAL BOSNIA AND u be Varna R HERZEGOVINA Belgrade D a n S ea Genoa CROATIA I A SAN C SERBIA Bilbao MARINO Toulouse P BULGARIA MONACO E Sarajevo A Andorra Li g ur i an Florence L Pristina PYRENEES Marseille N P Sofia Porto la Vell a S ea KOS. Istanbul Ad r i at i c Podgorica S Skopje N S ea MONT. Zaragoza ANDORRA Corsica Rome MACEDONIA 40 I Bursa 40 Madrid VATICAN N Tirana Thessaloníki Barcelona CITY PORTUGAL E ALB. Naples Tag us Ba l ea r ic S TURKEY Lisbon S ea Ty r rh e n i an Ae g e a n ·Izmir SPAIN Valencia Sardinia GREECE S ea S ea BALEARIC Athens Sevilla ISLANDS Cagliari Io ni an Palermo S ea Gibraltar Málaga Me d i t e r ra n e a n S ea (U.K.) Sicily Rhodes St r a i t of Gi b ra l t a r Algiers Ceuta Al b o r á n Scale 1: 19,500,000 (SPAIN) S ea Melilla Oran Tunis Lambert Conformal Conic Projection, Crete (SPAIN) Valletta standard parallels 40 N and 56 N PartialRabat Map of Europe 2008 0 300 Kilometers TUNISIA MALTA Casablanca ALGERIA 0 300 Miles MOROCCO 0 Boundary representation is not  20 necessarily authoritative. 803304AI (R01083) 3-08 What does “secession” mean? together with other works and stacked from floor to ceiling on dark The word secession is often defined as a formal withdrawal from a group colored walls. Exhibitions were crowded and included loud public or even a country. In this case, the Munich Secession was a group of gathering spaces such as beer gardens. The exhibitions of the Secession artists based in Munich that broke away from the popular and royally showed fewer works, on light-colored walls, hung in one row, called chartered artist association, called the Munich Künstlergenossenschaft a “modern hang,” with a lot of breathing room around each painting. (pronouced mew-nick koonst-lur-guh-no-sen-shaft). The Munich One visitor remarked about the first Secession exhibition, “Everything is Secession created its new group in 1892 with a shared philosophy about new–modern–sparkles in white clear tones.” It’s hard to believe, but this what the aesthetic and economic future of art should be. was really shocking to visitors.

What was going on in the world during the Munich Secession? One of the first exhibitions in the U.S. to showcase Secessionist artists A lot! In the twenty years that the Munich Secession was in action was in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1909. A reviewer (1892–1914), there was a major stock market crash in the U.S. (the in The New York Times wrote that “the impressive, energetic, and largest until the Great Depression in the 1930’s); the birth of the extremely various art” in the exhibition was “a force to be reckoned automobile industry; colonialist battles in Africa; the invention of the X- with,” noting that it showed “how far individualism may be carried.” ray, telephone switchboard, and motion picture; huge immigration flows into the U.S. from Europe; the first airplane flight; and great advances in The artists of the Munich Secession were extremely well academically . trained, “stars” in their own time, and had an international outlook. Though not stylistically connected, they were united under a Most important, in regards to this exhibition, was the start of World philosophical view that the art world needed renewal, that it needed War I in 1914. As you may know, WWI was a global war concerning the a break from the “democratic” selection process of the Munich change of balance between the most powerful European countries. Künstlergenossenschaft exhibitions, which meant that literally A large part of that shift was the economic and military competition thousands of works would be shown. Unlike a lot of modern artist between Britain and Germany. The U.S. was aligned with Britain so there revolts, this was an elitist movement that stressed quality over quantity, was a lot of anti-German sentiment throughout the U.S. This made it while remaining very open to extremely differing opinions in the group especially difficult after 1916 (when America entered ) to collect, about the content, purpose, and techniques of art. exhibit, and celebrate the great artistic accomplishments being made by German artists such as those in the Munich Secession.

Why is this exhibition in Seattle in 2009? At the Frye? As children of German immigrants themselves, the Fryes were among the biggest supporters and collectors of Munich-based art. Without them, and collectors in other parts of America, this art may have never had a chance to be exhibited in the U.S. If it weren’t for the timing of WWI, the Munich Secession may have had an even larger impact on art Example of “ style” exhibtion and art history as we know it today. The Frye exhibition marks the first time these artworks have been seen together in the U.S. in 100 years!

What was so radical about the Munich Secession? Among other things, the Munich Secession radically changed the way artworks were presented in exhibitions. Before the exhibitions of the Secession, paintings were usually shown “salon style,” arranged closely Example of “modern hang” exhibition  MAJOR THEMES world around them. French Impressionists often chose to depict urban Now it’s time to see some of these radical works for yourself! As subject matter, showing wealthy people walking in the city or at leisure mentioned previously, the works of the Munich Secession are not in the suburbs, and they focused on fashion and material things that stylistically connected, so it is sometimes difficult to make links between they considered to be modern and new. them. That said, you will notice some key themes that the artists explored. German landscape painters tended to use darker colors and favored painting outdoors rather than in the studio. They not only portrayed The curator who organized the exhibition used those themes to organize atmospheric effects but also reflected on nature and on human the show. The floor plan below and the definitions below and to the existence. They often painted the same scene over and over again, right help you make these connections through the galleries. experimenting with color, brush strokes and the forms of nature. The German painters often used flattened compositions, which became Impressionism-Realism-Abstraction in Landscape more and more abstract. In their artworks, trees became “ornaments.” Landscapes and portraits were among the most popular themes in Wilhelm Trübner, like many other Secessionist artists, favored Secessionist art, and represent some of the Secession artists’ finest unspectacular, unassuming views. “It is not important what one depicts,“ works and most important experiments. German Secession artists he once said, “but rather how one depicts it.” originally adopted the style of French artists, especially those of the or the French Impressionists. Those paintings are Jugendstil often bright in color, painted with thick, rough, visible brushstrokes, Jugendstil (pronounced you-gend-shteel) is a decorative aesthetic emphasizing natural light or outdoor atmospheric conditions. The given its name from the German word “jugend” (meaning “youth”). French works also emphasized movement, unusual points of view, or Countless paintings, as well as everyday objects such as chairs, vases, reflected light to highlight how people perceive and experience the and cupboards, were made in this modern style. The style was known for organic themes–especially floral and other plant-inspired motifs–as well as highly stylized, flowing, curvilinear forms. This young style was Religious Painting-Symbolism-Mythology innovative because it was not based on historic artistic forms, but on the natural world. Flowing lines were combined with “flat” images and objects that are similar to what you see in Japanese graphic art. As a result, Jugendstil paintings are very graphic, and almost look like Impressionism-Realism-Abstraction contemporary posters. in Landscape Religious Painting-Symbolism-Mythology Munich Jugendstil Symbolist painters rejected the harsh realism of everyday life and Secession the decorative aspects of Jugendstil. They felt that art should do more than represent what we see. They wanted to depict our inner world, suggesting feelings or ideas that we cannot see, such as moods, psychological states, and emotions. Their subjects were often mythological, mystical, fantastic, or erotic.

Künstlergenossenschaft Can you see the connections between the works in each room? Do all the works fit one of these definitions? Why? Why not?

Frye Art Museum Floor Plan  SELECTED WORKS AND IN-GALLERY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Mihály de Munkácsy (born Michael Lieb) Hungarian (1844–1900) The Prisoner, 1871–73 Oil on panel Frye Art Museum, Charles and Emma Frye Collection, 1952.125

Mihály de Munkácsy was born “Michael von Lieb” to German parents in Munkács, Hungary. The name of his birth town later inspired the artist’s pseudonym. Munkácsy was considered one of the most outstanding Hungarian realist painters of the nineteenth century. With the help of patrons he studied at the Viennese, Munich, and Düsseldorf academies.

The Prisoner is a later version of Munkácsy’s Last Day of a Condemned Man (1869), which was his first major work. In The Prisoner, Munkácsy rejected the immense drama of Last Day of a Condemned Man and concentrated instead on the expression of the figure. The identity of the prisoner, whether he was a freedom fighter, robber or murderer, remains unknown. In Hungary, however, these paintings were What visual clues does the artist give to hint at the fact his subject is considered stories about the Hungarian Revolution (1848-49) and the imprisoned? country’s failed struggle for independence.

Last Day of a Condemned Man was considered a masterpiece. It was awarded the Gold Medal at the Paris Salon in 1870. It instantly made Munkácsy a popular painter and encouraged him to move to Paris, where he stayed for the rest of his life. How does Munkácsy create mood in this artwork?

Munkácsy continued to paint in a realist style until 1874. From then on, his subjects changed from everyday images to more fashionable, colorful salon paintings and still-lives. This was the period when he also turned to landscape painting. Over the years he became quite a celebrity. If you were to visually depict a scene of a prisoner, what would it look like? How would it be different or similar from Munkácsy’s prisoner?

 Fritz von Uhde German (1848–1911) Picture Book I (Das Bilderbuch I), 1889 Oil on canvas Frye Art Museum, Charles and Emma Frye Collection, 1952.174

Fritz von Uhde was a founding member of the Munich Secession who experimented constantly with different ways of painting the world. Uhde’s early work shows a great admiration for the Dutch Old Masters, who painted mostly dark canvases with dramatic uses of light to create form. After an 1882 journey to Holland, Uhde abandoned his dark canvases for new kinds of painting, which experimented with Naturalism and Realism, Impressionism, and even with Symbolism.

Uhde’s work was often rejected by official art critics, and the public, because his representations of ordinary everyday scenes were considered vulgar or ugly. The critic Otto Julius Bierbaum was more favorable of his work. In 1893, he wrote, “As a painter of children, for example, Uhde is extraordinarily distinguished. He does not depict them as sweetly as used to be popular; in other words not as amusing or Describe this scene of a girl reading. What makes this an informal charming dolls, but with extreme, very strict naturalness.” portrait rather than a formal portrait?

Picture Book I is an image of Uhde’s oldest daughter at eight or nine years old. Uhde, whose wife died in 1886, was, as a single parent, very much involved in his daughters’ lives and portrayed them often.

What do you see in this painting that an art critic in 1889 might think is ugly or vulgar?

10 German (1847–1935) Dutch Courtyard, circa 1882 Oil on panel Frye Art Museum, Charles and Emma Frye Collection, 1952.106

The Realism typical of Max Liebermann’s work was first developed when he trained under Mihály de Munkácsy (see page 9) as a young artist. AS for Fritz von Uhde (see page 10), this Realism was strongly rejected among critics. Living and working in both France and Holland also strongly influenced the realist manner of Liebermann’s work.

As seen in Dutch Courtyard, Liebermann strived to celebrate straight forward rural life and elevate it to the levels of fine art. This was not generally accepted. Liebermann continuously fought for approval throughout his career. His works are now considered a valuable part of the modern movement for their social commentary. Popular thought at the time was that they were dark, simple, dirty, and ugly.

As a Jewish man, Liebermann was forced to live his final years, after What is going on in this painting? Hitler’s takeover of Germany in 1933 in isolation. His widow Martha committed suicide in 1943, hours before police came to deport her to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Why do you think Liebermann wanted to capture this time and place?

Why do you think the artist chose not to show us the faces of the figures?

Can you think of any artists, musicians, or poets that have been ridiculed for their perspective or approach to making or presenting their work?

11 Hans Thoma German (1839–1924) Calm before the Storm (Stille vor dem Storm), 1906 Oil on canvas Kunstmuseen Krefeld, inv. no. 105/1906 GVZ

If you squint your eyes, you can see that Calm before the Storm is divided into two parts: a wheat field in the front and dark trees and sky in the back. The trees are so darkly rendered that they are hardly visible against the sky. The brewing clouds as well as the painting’s title let us know that change is in the air. Calm before the Storm is a very typical Hans Thoma landscape because the drama of the scene gives us a sense that the work’s intent is beyond depicting weather. Thoma uses the constant change of nature as a metaphor for life itself.

The brush work, open air setting, and use of natural light tie this work to Impressionism, but the added meaning through the use of metaphor connect this work to pre-symbolist painting as well.

Thoma started his life as a painter of clock-faces and went on to study Imagine yourself in this landscape. How would it sound, smell, and under many masters in Germany, France, and Italy. Most influentially, taste? in 1868 Thoma met , who was considered the leader of French nineteenth-century Realism. Thoma was affiliated with the Munich Secession from its start.

At the time, Thoma’s work was well known in America. It was shown in 1906 at the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo and in 1909 at New York’s What could this landscape represent beyond weather? Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Does this painting have any relevance today? Why? Why not?

12 Eugen Spiro Polish (1874–1972) The Dancer (Tänzerin) Baladine Klossowska, 1901 Oil on canvas Berlinische Galerie—Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur

Eugen Spiro was a portrait and landscape painter, graphic artist, and illustrator, best known for his portraits of European, and later American, celebrities including , Richard Straus, and Albert Einstein.

This portrait is of Spiro’s sister Elisabeth Dorothea Spiro, known as Baladine Klossowska. Klossowska was part of Europe’s cultural elite that hosted salons in both Paris and Berlin, which attracted the era’s most famous writers and artists, such as , André Derain, Maurice Denis, and . She was also the mother of artist and philosopher , as well as the lover of German poet .

Spiro became a member of the Munich Secession at the turn of the How do you think Spiro achieves a sense of movement in this painting? century and was greatly influenced by his teacher Franz von Stuck in Consider the figure, light, and brush strokes. the mid-1890s. During the time he was making The Dancer he was highly inspired by the flat style of Jugendstil. A review in the journal Die Kunst noted: “Painter Eugen Spiro… has the brash Munich flair, the Munich predilection for tones tending towards black, and–also a Munich trait–lapses into the poster style.” The term “poster style” refers to the rolling twisting line and planar forms Spiro often used. Many of Spiro’s Describe how this work is considered Jugendstil (see definition on page 8 early portraits of women appeared frequently in, or on the cover the for clues). magazine, Der Jugend, from which Jugendstil took its name.

As a Jewish man, Spiro was forced by the Nazis to flee from Berlin to Paris and eventually, in 1941, to America, where he continued to teach and paint portraits. He died in 1972 in New York City. This is a portrait of Spiro’s sister, who was a key personality in the radical art and literature scene of the time. How is this representation of a popular figure different or similar to how we depict popular figures today?

13 Gabriel Cornelius von Max Czech (1840–1915) The Botanists (Die Botaniker), 1880 Oil on canvas Frye Art Museum, Charles and Emma Frye Collection, 1952.117

Several monkeys are sitting on a table in what looks like a barn, examining flowers from a tipped-over vase. One monkey is tasting the leaves while the others check out the blossoms. By its title, The Botanists, we can guess that the artist is trying to be ironic or sarcastic as he imbues these monkeys with human-like characteristics.

This wasn’t Gabriel von Max’s only painting of monkeys; his interest in anthropology showed throughout much of his work. He owned a collection of prehistoric ethnological and anthropological finds and surrounded himself at home with a family of monkeys, which he regularly painted, often portrayed as humans.

His most famous monkey work, The Ladies’ Club (circa 1889), was presented at the Munich Künstlergenossenschaft. It criticized the How does Max use humor as criticism in The Botanists? practice of art critics and juries by mockingly depicting the ladies as a group of monkeys. In spite of making fun of the art establishment, the painting, which was later renamed Monkeys as Critics, was awarded a second-class gold medal and, become a popular attraction.

How do you think this work fits into the definition of Religious Painting- Symbolism-Mythology (see definition on page 8 for clues)?

14 SKETCH IT! After viewing the entire exhibition, select a work that really speaks to you. It can be one of the works we have looked at together or not. Spend a good three minutes really looking at the work.

Why have you selected this work? What drew you to it? Was it the sub- ject matter, color, mood, scale, etc.? Does this work fall under one of the three major themes (Impressionism-Realism-Abstraction in Landscape, Jugendstil, or Religious Painting-Symbolism-Mythology)? Do you think this was a radical work for that time period? If so, why?

Now, use the grid to the right to sketch out the work. Take a good ten or more minutes to sketch. Really look at what you are sketching; draw what you see. Think about how the artist constructed the work when it was originally made. Think about how dark and light was used. Think about how line was used (if at all).

BACK AT SCHOOL Now it’s time to create your own masterpiece inspired by the key themes in the exhibition The Munich Secession and America.

Supplies needed: 8.5” x 11” sheet of drawing paper Drawing or painting tools of your choice

Step One: Pick one of the three key themes (Impressionism-Realism-Abstraction in Landscape, Jugendstil, or Religious Painting-Symbolism-Mythology) from the exhibition and write it on the back of your paper.

Step Two: Using what you remember from the exhibition, the definitions on page 8, and the artworks included in this packet, create a portrait or scene inspired by the theme you selected. Think about the composition, mood, and your use of light and dark. Don’t worry about making a perfect likeness of yourself or the scene. Think more about representing your selected theme clearly.

Step Three: Share your artworks with your classmates. See if you can guess what themes they chose. 15 GLOSSARY with ample space between each painting. It was a radical contrast from the salon style that was popular before it. Aesthetic (noun) A philosophical theory or idea about what is aesthetically valued at a Munich Künstlergenossenschaft given time and place. (pronounced mew-nick koonst-lur-guh-no-sen-shaft) An artist collaborative established in 1868 in Munich, Germany, under the patronage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. King Ludwig granted the A complex style in French architecture and design, parallel to Jugendstil Munich Artists’ Association a royal charter under the name Munich in . Developed through the 1890s and brought to a wide Künstlergenossenschaft. The Künstlergenossenschaft mounted audience by 1900 in Paris. It is characterized by sinuous lines and international exhibitions, each displaying thousands of artworks. These flowing organic shapes based on plant forms. exhibitions included contemporary German and international art, as well as historical works. Graphic A visual representation of an object, scene, person, or abstraction Munich Secession produced on a surface. Often associated with a flattened aesthetic. The Munich Secession grew out of an artistic and economic dispute with the Munich Künstlergenossenschaft in 1893. The Munich Secession is Impressionism (see definition on page 8) the earliest split of a group of artists in protest against an existing artists’ association but other Secessions followed in Vienna, Berlin, and other Jugendstil (see definition on page 8) cities.

Metaphor Realism A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind Until the nineteenth century Western art was dominated by academic of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or theory painting depicting scenes from history. Realism placed an analogy between them. increased emphasis on realistic subject matter. In practice, this often meant scenes of peasant and working class life, the life of the city Modernism streets, cafes and popular entertainments, and an increasing frankness A broad movement in Western art, architecture, and design that in the treatment of the body and sexuality. rejected the past as a model for the art of the present. It began in about 1850 and has continued up to the present day in a movement Religious Painting-Symbolism-Mythology (see definition on page 8) known as critical modernism, although many argued in the 1980s that modernism had run its course and that we were then living in a post- Salon Style modern society. Modernism proposed new forms of art characterized A method of hanging paintings developed in the late-nineteenth and by constant innovation and a strong reduction in form. Modernism early-twentieth centuries for arranging paintings at large European art was also driven by various social and political agendas, which often exhibits, to allow visitors the opportunity to view as many works as reflected utopian ideals of society. Sometimes it was based on a belief in possible. Technically, it means hanging paintings close together starting continual progress, although in critical modernism artists portrayed the slightly below eye-level and continuing up to the ceiling. injustices in society.

Modern Hang A method of hanging paintings, seen first at the Munich Secession exhibition in 1893. Technically, it means hanging paintings in a single line 16