PAINTER

MENTOR

MAGICIAN MUELLER

AND HIS NETWORK IN WROCŁAW OTTO ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS ENGLISH EXHIBITION SPACE INTRODUCTION

From to Wrocław, from Wrocław to Berlin: the im- pact of the expressionist painter extends into post-war and beyond. A chapter of 20th 2 3 4 century German-Polish art history is newly told in special consideration of the cultural interaction between the cities 1 5 of Berlin and Wrocław (formerly known as Breslau, the capital of Lower ). 8 6 The former Brücke artist, born in Silesia, taught for more 10 9 7 than ten years at the State Academy of Arts and Crafts in Wrocław. In the 1920s, this was widely regarded as one of Europe’s most progressive academies of art. Yet Mueller’s enormous influence in his widespread network of friends and acquaintances involved in art and culture has gone virtually unnoticed. His circle included artists, architects, art critics, writers, collectors and his students. This ar- tistic and intellectual environment – and in particular the inspirational interaction between the artists – flourished largely thanks to the close relationship between the cities of Berlin and Wrocław.

The central idea of the exhibition is to cast light on Mu- eller’s triple role as painter, mentor and magician from different perspectives and at the same time to provide a platform for the results of a German-Polish research pro- ject. One special feature of the curatorial concept is the principle of the ‘guest exhibit’: what is meant by this are selected works of Polish and Neo-Expres- sionism, art movements that up to now have received little attention in . Like spotlights, they enable unique visual comparisons and reveal new intercultural contexts over the epochs while underlining the German-Polish ori- entation of the exhibition. OTTO MUELLER GUEST EXHIBIT 1 – FROM BERLIN TO WROCŁAW Cat. 2 Zdzisław Nitka (Oborniki Śląskie/PL 1962) Cat. 5 BRÜCKE: A GROUP OF GERMAN OPALAJĄCY SIĘ JESIENIĄ Otto Mueller (Liebau 1874 –1930 EXPRESSIONIST ARTISTS (SUNBATHERS IN AUTUMN), 1986 Obernigk) Tempera and collage on cardboard WOMAN IN BOAT, 1910 Otto Mueller lived in Berlin from 1907 to 1919. He was a Private collection Distemper on canvas member of the community of artists known as Brücke from Brücke-Museum, Berlin 1910 until its disbandment in 1913. The style of The Polish neo-expressionist, a former graduate of Cat. 3a that became his own is already recognisable in the works today’s art academy in Wrocław (Akademia Sztuk Otto Mueller he produced under this influence. Otto Mueller replaced Pięknych im. Eugeniusza Gepperta we Wrocławiu) and BOY BETWEEN LEAFY PLANTS (BOY traditional oil-on-canvas painting with distemper-on-hes- now a professor there, focuses on European avant- IN REEDS), 1912 sian (a coarse jute fabric). WOMAN IN BOAT, acknow- garde in his work. Nitka’s work is reminiscent of the ledged by both and Mueller as a valid exam- fruitful time of the artistic group and quotes the Staatliche Museen ple of Brücke painting, demonstrates the visual result of woodcut NUDE ON CARPET I of 1911 by the Brücke zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett this technique in its frescoesque effect: flatness, reduced member Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. modelling of the body, subdued, earthy colours. Cat. 3b Otto Mueller Otto Mueller’s experiments in woodcut are limited to the GIRL BETWEEN LEAFY PLANTS (GIRL Brücke period. The white line cut BOY respectively GIRL IN REEDS), 1912 BETWEEN LEAFY PLANTS is an exception in his work: Woodcut the figure and vegetation as white silhouettes on a black Cat. 10 EARLY Brücke-Museum, Berlin Maria Möller-Garny background are very charming – they are an early indica- (Essen 1886–1971 IMPRESSIONS Cat. 1 tion of the play with line, plane and vegetation elementary Maienfeld) to Mueller which he was to perfect as a painter and litho- PORTRAIT OF The art dealer, Ferdinand Möller, who was in charge of the (Aschaffenburg 1880 –1938 grapher in Wrocław. FERDINAND MÖLLER, Wrocław branch of the Gallery Ernst Arnold from Frauenkirch-Wildboden) 1948 OTTO MUELLER Oil on canvas 1913 to 1920 “discovered” Mueller in 1919 when he took WITH PIPE, 1913 Written statements and the considerable number of por- Ferdinand-Möller-Stiftung, up his professorship. That same year he honoured him by Oil on canvas traits of Otto Mueller that were painted demonstrate the Berlin showing his in a group exhibition – Otto Mueller Brücke-Museum, Berlin esteem in which he was held by his artist colleagues at Cat. 9 became one of the most important artists at the gallery. Brücke – particularly Kirchner und Heckel. When the wife of the gallerist, Maria Möller-Garny, paint- (Meiderich 1881–1919 ed a portrait of her husband, she showed Otto Mueller’s Berlin) painting COUPLE ON BEACH in the background and also WOMAN LOOKING BACK, after 1914/15 Wilhelm Lehmbruck’s sculpture WOMAN LOOKING BACK. Cast Stone The prominent positioning of these works is proof that Private collection Mueller’s painting was seen as an icon of modernism and that Ferdinand Möller continued to represent the artist even after the gallery had moved to Berlin. TRANSFER OF ART Cat. 19 Cat. 20 Otto Mueller AND CULTURE IN MODERNISM (Liebau 1874 –1930 2 Ludwig Peter Kowalski Obernigk) THREE HUTS, (Königshütte 1891–1967 Berlin) ONE WITH RED ROOF, WROCŁAW – INNER CITY, 1928 TWO MUSEUMS AND THEIR REPRESENT- ca. 1928 Oil on canvas Distemper on hessian ATIVES IN BERLIN AND WROCŁAW Karsch-Nierendorf Property of Verein für Kommunalwissenschaften, Collection Berlin, on permanent loan to Muzeum Miejskie, The relations between the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Wrocław Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wrocław were character- ised by lively mutual exchange until the end of the Second Ludwig Peter Kowalski is seen as Otto Mueller’s World War: apart from the items on permanent loan, there most important companion in Wrocław. Kowalski’s were also and primarily many loans to special exhibitions. cityscape opens the exhibition tour of Wrocław in Today’s Muzeum Narodowe in Wrocław took over parts of the 1920s. Its academic and conservative style was the significant collection of the Silesian Museum of Fine approved by national socialist cultural policy. The Arts after the Second World War. artistic form may be regarded as monumental and patriotically romantic but it reflected the perception The painting ENCOUNTER BETWEEN FRIEDRICH II AND of “” at that time. EMPEROR JOSEPH II IN NEISSE IN THE YEAR 1769 by the Wrocław-born painter Adolph Menzel is a symbol for the close link between the two cities: it not only portrays an important event in the history of Silesia but it was also the subject of a cultural initiative through which it came to Berlin as a “gift of friendship” from Wrocław in 1953. Today the painting hangs in on the Museumsinsel in Berlin.

Berliner Nationalgalerie played a leading role during the . When its director Ludwig Justi opened the first GALERIE DER LEBENDEN in the in 1919, one of the main focuses was on the development of modern and contemporary arts. This was exemplified by the Otto Mueller Memorial Exhibition held in Wrocław in 1931 – only a few months after the death of the ex- pressionist artist – on the initiative of the director Erich Wiese. It was adopted in Berlin that same year by Ludwig Justi as a commemorative exhibition. Both of these muse- um directors were enthusiastic supporters of . Erich Wiese in Wrocław was in close contact with the local art scene centred on the academy, and particularly with the professors Otto Mueller and Johannes Molzahn whose works he bought for the museum. STYLISTIC PLURALISM – INSPIRATION Cat. 31 Cat. 24 AND EXCHANGE (Brieg 1875 –1947 Berlin) 3 MODEL IN REPOSE, ca. 1931 (Rheine 1886–1965 Königswinter) Oil on canvas PORTRAIT OF INGE, 1926 The Wrocław academy was reputed to be “the liveliest in Private collection Oil on canvas Germany” in the 1920s and for more than a decade it at- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie tracted important representatives of classical modernism as an institution with trans-European radiance. Its brief The sensational appearance of Inge von Mandel heyday was primarily thanks to the progressiveness of its inspired the Wrocław painters. She was the exemplary two directors August Endell and Oskar Moll and stylistic incarnation of the “new woman” of the 1920s: modern pluralism as a teaching concept. and self-confident. A comparison of the two Inge portraits by Carlo Mense and Oskar Moll (the portrait In 1918 Endell offered a professorship to Oskar Moll, who on the wall opposite) illustrates the various art move- originated from Silesia and was well known in Berlin as ments at the academy. the main founder of the Académie Matisse in with its French Peinture. One year later, the expressionist Otto Mueller also moved from Berlin to Wrocław. His charis- matic personality and his new concept of figural depiction aroused a great deal of attention. was GUEST EXHIBIT the first to come in 1925, then Carlo Mense as a supporter Cat. 27 of – another one of the new art forms in modernism. Moll, by then director, aspired to draw all the Zdzisław Nitka avant-garde movements of the 1920s to Wrocław. Johan- (Oborniki Śląskskie/PL 1962) nes Molzahn followed in 1928 as a representative of ab- MĘŻCZYZNA W KAPELUSZU OTTO MUELLER stract art. As a painter, commercial artist and photographer (MAN WITH HAT OTTO MUELLER), 2003 he was also a valuable asset for the practice-orientated Chalk and tempera on paper teaching concept. Moll also appointed two former Private collection masters to the academy: in 1929 and Georg Muche in 1931. Nitka may here make reference to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s OTTO MUELLER WITH PIPE from Moll’s pluralistic teaching model and the atmosphere of the Brücke period. Here, however, he only adopts tolerance and cosmopolitanism he nurtured did not meet the central statement, the man with hat, and transfers only with approval. Some students complained that they him onto the paper as a frontal view. Turbulent, were disoriented by the different artistic concepts. swirling brush strokes alienate the face: a modern interpretation in blue evolves. In 1932 the academy was closed due to the implementation of drastic measures of economy. Only a few painter-pro- fessors such as Muche and Molzahn were able to main- tain their ateliers until 1933. When the national socialists seized power in 1933 and asserted their cultural policies against Modernism the fate of the academy was sealed. The tradition of the Wrocław academy was re-established in 1946 with the founding of the art college on what was now Polish territory (today Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Eugeniusza Gepperta we Wrocławiu). Cat. 28 “SILESIAN ” Otto Mueller 4 (Liebau 1874–1930 Obernigk) FARMSTEAD WITH DONKEY AND CHILD, ca. 1929 Distemper on hessian Cat. 36 The city of Wrocław and its surrounding areas, which the Private collection Michael Willmann. new professors Oskar Schlemmer and Georg Muche avid- JUBILEE EXHIBITION 1630 –1930, ly explored, were full of medieval and baroque buildings. Mueller’s “gypsy” theme in the years after 1925 in Exhibition Catalogue, The baroque frescos adorning the university, the cathedral Wrocław inspired him to seek new, more expressive Silesian Museum of and the monasteries, known today as Lubiąż and Krzezów, methods: the dramatic contours, the vivid, contrast- Fine Arts, Wrocław 1930 were frequently visited and studied by the teachers and Muzeum Narodowe, ing colours and the addition of requisites have created Wrocław students of the academy. Main works by probably the something entirely new. He shows us an antithesis most important German baroque painter, Michael Will- to the ordered, conventional world he rejects and mann, were to be found in the rich collection of the Sile- tries to flee. sian Museum of Fine Arts (today in the Muzeum Narodowe, Wrocław). Thanks to the efforts of museum director Erich Wiese, there had been a great revival of interest in the baroque in Wrocław since the mid-1920s: Wiese organised a grand jubilee exhibition in around 1930 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Willmann’s death. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition was designed by the acade- my professor and typographer Johannes Molzahn.

Particularly Oskar Schlemmer, with his many fields of inter- est, explored what was for him a new city very extensively and, inspired by all the new impressions at the academy, developed a veritable “painting mania”: in fact he found a new style for himself which he named “Silesian Baroque”.

Georg Muche was also inspired by the art around him. He is said to have taken part in a competition to paint the interior of Wrocław cathedral. In the 1930s and 1940s he increasingly dedicated himself to the painting of frescos. One remarkable aspect is a recurring motif of a boy’s head, both in the works of Schlemmer and Muche, that was probably inspired by Otto Meyer-Amden, a Swiss art- ist and close friend of Schlemmer. In 1931 Schlemmer or- ganised an exhibition for his friend in the rooms of the Wrocław academy that was received with great enthusi- asm by colleagues and students.

The new impressions in the Lower Silesian capital and the lively exchange between the colleagues led to highly productive and creative years for all the painters at the academy. EUROPEAN MODERNISM GUEST EXHIBIT 5 BETWEEN WROCŁAW AND BERLIN Cat. 51 Stanisław Kubicki (Ziegenhain 1889–1943 near Warsaw/PL) Cat. 43 BAUHAUS AND BLOOMING TREES (KWITNIENIE), 1928 Oskar Schlemmer ( 1888 –1943 ITS ENVIRONMENT Pastel on paper Baden-Baden) Collection Prof. S. Kubicki, Berlin THE NIGHTINGALE: Oskar Schlemmer came to Wrocław from Bauhaus in Des- SEVEN FIGURINES, 1929 sau in October 1929 to take up his professorship. Here he Stanisław Kubicki has always been seen as a sym- Pencil and watercolour on paper, the figurines continued to pursue the basic ideas of the innovative Bau- bolic figure of Polish Expressionism. During the 1920s have been cut out haus doctrine together with his colleagues Georg Muche he turned increasingly to Cubo-Expressionism and separately and mounted and Johannes Molzahn: students were encouraged and experimented with abstracting forms. The mosaic-like on white cardboard Staatliche Museen obliged to work in the various ateliers and to contribute composition of the abstract and geometric fields places zu Berlin, Kunstbibliothek actively to the projects – in full accordance with the inter- BLOOMING TREES very close to the Bauhaus oeuvre. disciplinarity of the Wrocław academy postulated by Oskar Cat. 44 Moll. This opened up a whole new field of experimentation. Oskar Schlemmer BAUHAUS STAIRWAY, 1932 Right at the beginning of his time as a teacher, Schlem- Watercolour and ink mer worked together with his students on the scenic stage GUEST EXHIBIT over pencil on linen backdrops and costumes for two short operas which were Cat. 49 embossed writing paper Private collection later performed at the theatre in Wrocław. Sketches of the costumes they designed show the characteristic style Henryk Berlewi Cat. 48 of the Bauhaus period which had become world famous (Warsaw/PL 1894–1967 Paris/F) Georg Muche (Querfurt 1895 –1987 through Schlemmer’s TRIADIC BALLET (premiered in 1922). ABSTRACT COMPOSITION, 1924/67 Lindau) Colour silk screen on light cardboard SMALL PAINTING WITH Henryk Berlewi Archive, Potsdam GRID MOTIF, 1917 Oskar Moll’s liberal leadership of the Wrocław academy Oil on canvas Staatliche Museen gave the colleagues the widest possible freedom of choice Berlewi was at first a proponent of Jewish Expres- zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie and enabled them to concentrate on their own painting. sionism and part of a group of artists founded in This led to an enormous creative drive and an artistic Łódź under the name of Jung Idysz (Young Yiddish). Cat. 30 Johannes Molzahn productivity that is reflected in the multitude of important After a stay in Berlin in 1922, he turned to con- (Duisburg 1892 –1965 works that date back to this time: Schlemmer’s BAUHAUS structivism and became a co-founder of the Blok ) STAIRWAY, Muche’s SMALL PAINTING WITH GRID MOTIF group of artists. In 1924 he published his manifesto FEMINA II, 1930 and Johannes Molzahn’s FEMINA II (see section Kästchen 3) MECHANO-FAKTURA in ’s journal Oil on canvas Museum Folkwang, and PORTRAIT OF MY WIFE. Bauhaus and its environment , in which he advocated a mechanical- Essen also influenced artists of the avant-garde working in Berlin geometric artistic form and the reduction of colours and . One of these was the Polish expressionist to black, red and grey. MECHANO-FAKTURA (Cat. 50), Stanisław Kubicki whose work BLOOMING TREES (KWIT- STILL LIFE-BOTTLES (MECHANO-FAKTURA) (Cat. 67) NIENIE) seems to be reacting to the geometrical and ab- and ABSTRACT COMPOSITION are examples of this. stract artistic form. IN THE NETWORK OF JOURNALS: Cat. 55 DIE AKTION, DER STURM, ZDRÓJ

Johannes Molzahn The German-Polish group of artists Bunt held their first (Duisburg 1892–1965 Munich) exhibition in April 1918: the name Bunt (in English: insur- PORTRAIT OF MY WIFE (ILSE MOLZAHN), 1930 rection) and the inscriptions on the posters were in both Oil on canvas languages, German and Polish, as an expression of a pro- Johannes-Molzahn-Centrum für gressive and cross-border artistic intention. The artists in Documentation und Publication®, Kassel the group belonged to an international avant-garde net- work between Berlin, Poznań, Kraków und Łódź. Their Molzahn’s first wife was a writer and journalist. ideas were exchanged and their message spread in the Wrocław was both a curse and a blessing for Ilse leading art journals of the time, such as Franz Pfemfert’s Molzahn: her sharp-tongued reports, for example DIE AKTION and Herwarth Walden’s DER STURM. Works about the exhibition of the German craft association of the Polish group of artists were published in the Berlin WuWA or Wrocław high society were the cause journals and shown at exhibitions on several occasions. of several scandals in public opinion. In 1918 both DIE AKTION and the Polish avant-garde jour- nal ZDRÓJ dedicated a special edition to the Bunt group. They both selected a meaningful motif of the Polish ex- pressionist and Bunt member Stanisław Kubicki for the Cat. 58 cover: a rower battling against the flow.

Otto Mueller Herwarth Walden’s gallery and journal DER STURM in Ber- (Liebau 1874–1930 Obernigk) lin was one of the foremost addresses for the avant-gar- GYPSY MADONNA (SHEET 8 OF GYPSY FILE), 1926 de: it represented artists such as the constructivist Teresa Lithograph Żarnower and Henryk Berlewi. The latter became interna- Private collection tionally well known primarily through the publication of his MECHANO-FAKTURA theory.

Professors from the Wrocław academy such as Carlo Cat. 59 Mense, Georg Muche and Johannes Molzahn and also former members of Brücke belonged to the close cir- Otto Mueller cle surrounding Walden and Pfemfert: the international GYPSY IN PROFILE (COVER OF GYPSY FILE), 1927 avant-garde journals of the 1920s therefore connected a Lithograph border-crossing network of leading artists of European Private collection modern art.

Mueller’s so-called “gypsy pictures” have become a main theme in Wrocław. The key work is the GYPSY FILE, completed in 1927, with nine colour lithographs. Mueller toured the Balkans several times to make drawings of Roma, and he was a painter even when he was drawing. Cat. 98 GUEST EXHIBIT Otto Mueller Cat. 73 JEWISH LIFE (Liebau 1874 –1930 6 Obernigk) PORTRAIT Jan Cybis (Fröbel 1897–1972 Warsaw/PL) IVO HAUPTMANN, 1901 MARTWA NATURA (STILL LIFE), 1958 Coloured charcoal Oil on canvas Cat. 84 At the beginning of the 20th century Wrocław had, after and gouache on paper, Muzeum Narodowe, Wrocław Carlo Mense Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, the third largest Jewish mounted on canvas (Rheine 1886 –1965 Schlesisches Musem Königswinter) community in the German Empire. Partly due to the pres- zu Görlitz, permanent Various objects, such as bottles, jugs and a table DOUBLE PORTRAIT ence of the Jewish theological seminary Fraenckel’sche loan from Ernst von lamp, are arranged beside a fruit bowl on a bright red (RABBI S. Stiftung – a college for rabbis – the Lower Silesian capital Siemens Kunststiftung, surface. The expressive colourfulness and the relaxed AND DAUGHTER), Wrocław developed into one of the most important centres München ca. 1925/26 brush strokes suggest the influence of German Expres- Oil on canvas of Jewish learning in Europe. The Jewish community also sionism – Cybis had first studied under Otto Mueller Staatliche Museen played an important part in the artistic and cultural scene in Wrocław – and also French Postimpressionism. zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie there: the great art collections of Toni and Albert Neisser,

Cat. 23 Carl Sachs, Max Silberberg, Gustava Landerer and Leo Alexander Kanoldt Lewin were famous beyond the bounds of the city. This (Karlsruhe 1881–1939 was where patrons, intellectuals and artists came together Berlin) to cultivate both their personal and professional contacts. STILL LIFE WITH GUITAR, 1926 Oil on canvas The Wrocław – Berlin connection was a crucial factor Staatsgalerie Stuttgart for cultural activity. This is reflected in the monthly jour- nals SCHLESISCHE MONATSHEFTE, whose reports con- tained the latest news about art, literature and music in the two cities.

The Jewish lawyer Ismar Littmann was a particularly prom- inent collector of the works of the professors at the acad- emy: on occasion he bought works directly from the atel- iers. Besides paintings by Otto Mueller, he also purchased Alexander Kanoldt’s STILL LIFE WITH GUITAR and Carlo Mense’s DOUBLE PORTRAIT RABBI S. AND DAUGHTER. The latter, like the symbolic painting MOI RODZICE (MY PARENTS) of the Polish expressionist , is in the tradition of Jewish family portraits. Heinrich Tischler however, a friend of Otto Mueller in Wrocław, treated Jew- ish religious themes using an expressionist artistic form.

An end was put to the cultural diversity and modernity in Wrocław when the national socialists seized power: many Jewish artists and patrons were deported and murdered or, like Ismar Littmann, committed suicide. GUEST EXHIBIT 1917 – FOLLOWING THE TRACES OF Cat. 86 7 GERMAN AND POLISH EXPRESSIONISM Jankel Adler (Tuszyn 1895–1949 Aldbourne) MOI RODZICE (MY PARENTS), 1921 Cat. 78 There was a key moment for the Polish avant-garde in 1917: Oil on wood Stanisław Kubicki the icon of this movement, at the same time a symbol for (Ziegenhain 1889 –1943 Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź near Warsaw/PL) an entire generation, came into being in the Lower Silesian THE TOWER OF BABEL town of Chełmsko Śląskie: Stanisław Kubicki’s THE TOW- Jankel Adler painted MY PARENTS – according (REVOLUTION) (WIEŻA ER OF BABEL (REVOLUTION) (WIEŻA BABEL). One pos- to the results of recent research, in the atelier of his BABEL), 1917/63 sible interpretation sees the motif as a sign for the fall of Linocut friends, the artist couple Kubicki and his wife – in Collection Prof. S. Kubicki, the “old world” by the establishment of the “new communi- Berlin shortly after emigrating from Poland to Germany. Berlin ty” longed for by the proponents of Polish Expressionism: In it Adler evokes the theme of parting and leaving transnational, social and ensuring gender equality. Cat. 79 one’s home country but he also makes an artistic Stanisław Kubicki declaration about himself: who he is and where he NUDE WITH CLOUDS (AKT Kubicki’s NUDE WITH CLOUDS (AKT Z CHMURAMI) of the comes from. Z CHMURAMI), 1916/63 previous year is reminiscent of the art of the Brücke group The message of the painting can therefore be under- Linocut and also stands as a programmatic image for the aesthet- Collection Prof. S. Kubicki, stood as autobiographical. He uses the title and the Berlin ics of expressionism, still new in Poland at that time. double portrait of his parents to indicate his sense of belonging to Eastern European Jewry and his Chas- Cat. 80 Ludwig Peter Kowalski’s female nude with red shoes seems Ludwig Peter Kowalski sidic family tradition. The composition and direction to be a direct reference to Otto Mueller. Over and above (Königshütte 1891–1967 of reading draw the eye from the bottom to the top: Berlin) their “very close friendship”, Mueller and Kowalski also Adler’s mother is portrayed as a full figure; she is TWO SEATED NUDES, 1923 inspired each other in their art. A series of nude drawings sitting and pointing upwards. Although the father is Lithograph by both artists appeared in the mid-1920s all showing the Private collection partly concealed by her, he is all the more present same model: Mueller’s later partner Elfriede Timm. Here intellectually and characterised by his intensive stare Cat. 81 Kowalski approached Mueller’s characteristic expression- and his gesture of blessing. He in turn is pointing to Ludwig Peter Kowalski ist style; the touches of colour used are taken from Mu- the Hebrew text of the MESUSA: the most important FEMALE NUDE WITH eller’s portrayal. There is also a lithograph by Kowalski RED SHOES, 1924 and first prayer that a father teaches his children. Coloured chalk dated 1923, that in terms of subject and technique recalls This scroll – which Adler integrated into the painting and charcoal on paper Mueller’s rare early of the Brücke period. as a collage – is kept in traditional Jewish households. Private collection

Both parents point expressly to religious teaching; Cat. 82 Otto Mueller’s self portrait on a garden bench also dates the father, however, seems to be the one who taught Otto Mueller back to 1917 and shows him in the military hospital of a him the Law of God. (Liebau 1874 –1930 former Camillian monastery. It is characterised by his re- Jankel Adler, who came from Tuszyn near Łódz, is Obernigk) laxed, expressionist way of drawing and an idiosyncratic STANDING FEMALE referring to his religious and artistic education. At NUDE, ca. 1925 , such as the hand on his heart and the mon- the time of painting in 1920/21 he was already an artist Chalk on dark yellow paper key sitting in the tree. The red shoes are a humorous eye- of the European avant-garde and an active member Private collection catcher. There were originally two versions of this painting of the Young Yiddish group. In MOI RODZICE (MY but today only the one in this exhibition remains which, Cat. 83 PARENTS) Adler combines old and new impressions Otto Mueller not surprisingly, belonged to Mueller’s painter colleague, – Eastern European mysticism, cabbalistic teachings, SELF PORTRAIT ON Oskar Moll. and Dada intermingle, whereby the artistic A GARDEN BENCH/ST. CAMILLUS HOSPITAL, influence of can also be felt. ca. 1917 Watercolour and ink on paper Private collection MAGIC THE ARTIST 8 AND MASK 9 AS A MAGICIAN

Cat. 89 Otto Mueller’s years in Wrocław are characterised by his Cat. 107 Since ancient times, the in the western world Otto Mueller (Liebau love affairs. He sublimated his feelings in portraits, inti- Otto Mueller (Liebau has repeatedly associated art with magic, interpreted artis- 1874 –1930 Obernigk) 1874 –1930 Obernigk) MASCHKA MUELLER, mate representations of couples and melancholy images SELF PORTRAIT tic creativity as an act of magic. The shaping of an image ca. 1908 of longing. Often they are an expression of his desperate WITH PENTAGRAM, of nature has been seen as a mirror to the soul and a ma- Lithograph, unique item, need for harmony and togetherness. ca. 1924 gical process. By the period of German at the green primed Distemper on hessian latest, the image of the artist as a magician and with this Staatliche Museen Von der Heydt-Museum zu Berlin, In 1919 – on taking up his professorship – he and his wife the way the artist portrayed the world, had become of Kupferstichkabinett Maschka Mueller separated. She nevertheless remained great significance. The artist is initiated into areas that re- his most important confidante until his death in 1930. The main hidden from ordinary people: as a seer – retired into Cat. 95 Otto Mueller early lithograph MASCHKA MUELLER reveals what type of his own inner being – he has access to a hidden inner know- EMBRACING COUPLE, woman Mueller was attracted to and was certainly inspired ledge. This myth about the artist was to reappear in mo- 1918/19 by her temperament and independent spirit. EMBRACING dernism, particularly at the beginning of the 20th century. Distemper on canvas COUPLE reflects the apparently almost despairing impul- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie sivity of a love that seems to be no longer requited, an It is significant that the figure of the artist-magician was image of a longing confirmed in a letter from the painter in especially popular in the circles of the bohemian and Cat. 90 Wrocław to his former partner. avant-garde: there where attempts were being made to Otto Mueller POLISH FAMILY, 1920/21 shake off the rules of conventional, bourgeois society. Lithograph Otto Mueller found new love in Wrocław when he met the They developed new styles of art and alternative ways of Private collection Jewish art student Irene Altmann. This love was not to life. The idea of metamorphosis and the self portrait of last: Altmann’s father was opposed to the relationship of the magician were used for self-presentation and the pres- Cat. 92 Otto Mueller his daughter with the academy professor and non-Jew entation of artist friends – both in German and in Polish COUPLE WITH MASK Mueller. Here again the artist gave expression to his mel- expressionism. (SELF PORTRAIT WITH ancholy in sometimes encoded, symbolic paintings such as MODEL AND MASK), 1921 POLISH FAMILY and COUPLE WITH MASK. Lithograph The confirmed bohemian Otto Mueller presents himself Brücke-Museum, Berlin as a pipe-smoking magician in his SELF PORTRAIT WITH Mueller’s marriage to Elsbeth Lübke lasted only a few PENTAGRAM. Around his neck he wears a reversed pen- Cat. 94 years, in spite of the birth of their son Josef Mueller in tagram, a magic symbol used to call up, but also defend Otto Mueller WOMAN SEATED 1925. The relationship seems to have broken up because oneself from spirits. IN REEDS, 1922 of the anti-bourgeois lifestyle of the painter. The sketch- Black distemper on like painting WOMAN SEATED IN REEDS demonstratively A dialogue charged with emotion developed over another white canvas displays the body of the young Elsbeth. Her face, which self portrait that appeared at the same time: THE LAST Collection Felix und Herlinde Peltzer-Stiftung, she is turning away, creates a contrast laden with tension. CIGARETTE OF THE CONDEMNED by the Polish painter Berlin Mueller probably met the art student Elfriede Timm in the Witkacy, a highlight in the juxtaposition of German and mid-1920s. She inspired him to create a whole series of Polish expressionism. Although Otto Mueller and Witkacy Cat. 96 Otto Mueller large-format paintings of standing young female nudes had never met, they appear as kindred spirits in their self GIRL BEFORE MENS’ such as GIRL BEFORE MENS’ HEADS. The composition portraits: they are magicians, prophets and conjurers of HEADS, 1929 and facial individuality are different from the more stand- other realities. Distemper on hessian ardised figures of his earlier paintings. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie Cat. 99 Cat. 103a, b GUEST EXHIBIT Stanislaw Kubicki Cat. 108 (Ziegenhain 1889 –1943 Alfred Jäschke (1886–1953 Görlitz) near Warsaw/PL) Gerhart Hauptmann in his study in AUTOPORTRET IV Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) Villa Wiesenstein, Agnetendorf (today Jagniątków) (SELF PORTRAIT IV), (Warsaw/PL 1885–1939 Jeziory/PL) printed in the OSTATNI PAPIEROS SKAZAŃCA (THE LAST journal ZDRÓJ, on wall, left: Year 2, No. 1, 1918 CIGARETTE OF THE CONDEMNED MAN), 1924 PORTRAIT OTTO MUELLER Collection Oil on cardboard by Ivo Hauptmann, present whereabouts Prof. S. Kubicki, Berlin Muzeum Literatury im. Adama Mickiewicza, unknown, year unknown Warsaw Cat. 104 Photograph Jerzy Hulewicz Dom Gerharta Hauptmanna, (Kościanki/PL Witkacy was a member of the group Ekspresjoniści Jelenia Góra–Jagniątków 1886 –1941 Warsaw/PL) Polscy (Polish Expressionists) from Kraków. He fought SELF PORTRAIT, printed in the as an officer of the White Guard against Austria- Otto Mueller was related to the Silesian writer brothers journal DIE AKTION, Hungary in the First World War and was badly wound- Carl and Gerhart Hauptmann. As a young man he vis- special edition ed. His self portrait stands in close connection with ited them regularly – in Schreiberhau (today Szklarska JERZY VON HULEWICZ, his traumatic war experiences. The artist plays the role Year 8, No. 35/36, 1918 Poręba) and Agnetendorf (today Jagniątków) in the Collection of “messenger to the nation”: surrounded by cigarette Sudeten Mountains. He had a friendly relationship with Prof. S. Kubicki, Berlin smoke, he seems to hypnotise the observer with his Ivo, Gerhart Hauptmann’s eldest son who later became gloomy gaze. The painting originated at the same time Cat. 105 a painter himself. The two young men even painted as Otto Mueller’s SELF PORTRAIT WITH PENTAGRAM Margarete Kubicka portraits of each other. Ivo Hauptmann’s now lost (Berlin 1891–1984 Berlin) and the two works of art display astonishing parallels portrait of Otto Mueller hung for a long time in Gerhart SELF PORTRAIT IV, in terms of content and composition. Witkacy com- Hauptmann’s study in Villa Wiesenstein 1917/63 mitted suicide in 1939 on hearing of the invasion of Linocut Collection Soviet troops into Poland – had he already foreseen Prof. S. Kubicki, Berlin the disastrous developments in his painting?

Cat. 106 Margarete Kubicka HOMMAGE À KUBICKI: KUBICKI AND Like Otto Mueller in Wrocław and Witkacy in Kraków, the THE SCIENCES, 1924 members of the expressionist group Bunt in Poznań – such Watercolour Private collection as Jerzy Hulewicz, Stanisław Kubicki and his wife Marga- rete – produced self portraits that are an indication of their powers of perception. Margarete Kubicka – the only wom- an at Bunt – presents herself with a self-confident, critical gaze. Stanisław Kubicki, however, stages himself in the withdrawn pose of a thinker: he employs the melancholy gestus of the head supported by the hand and the deep set, overshadowed eyes to create his image of an artist and intellectual.

Margarete Kubicka echoed this striking portrayal of the head and the head-on-hand motif in her watercolour HOM- MAGE À KUBICKI: KUBICKI AND THE SCIENCES in 1924: Kubicki the genius becomes the mystic engineer of a world of the mind. OTTO MUELLER’S Cat. 146 GUEST EXHIBIT Cat. 145 10 STUDENTS (Breslau 1901 – 1992 Berlin) FAREWELL – WINTER, 1991 Mixed media, Wojciech Weiss acrylic on canvas (Leorda 1875–1950 Kraków/PL) Otto Mueller taught at the Academy of Arts and Craft in Camaro Stiftung, Berlin WIECZORNY PROMIEŃ (EVENING RAY), 1898 Wrocław from 1919 until his death in 1930. As a free-think- Oil on canvas er and unconventional teacher he made a deep impression Muzeum Narodowe, Poznań on his students. His lack of prejudice against female stu- dents made him different from many of his colleagues. Ar- Wojciech Weiss, who came from Kraków, made tistic talent was all that mattered to him. Works from this reference to the Norwegian artists Edvard Munch und period, particularly from the nude drawing courses and Gustav Vigeland in his oeuvre. His early works are amusing anecdotes, illustrate the direct influence of the seen as Early Polish Expressionism. Weiss’ painting teacher and mentor. There are striking parallels between WIECZORNY PROMIEŃ (EVENING RAY) – with its his art and the works of his students: for example Grete abstract tendencies – is extraordinarily close in its Jahr-Queißer and Alexander Camaro in many of their sub- composition to Alexander Camaro’s paintings SNOW jects such as Nude/Nude in Landscape or Couple/Lovers, LANDSCAPE – WINTER and its later version FARE- Willy Schmidt and in various motifs such as WELL – WINTER of 1991. The rhythmisation by means masks and “Gypsy Head” or in the selection of their paint- of vertical elements – here tree trunks – has a very ing media and the assimilation of the expressionist form. musical effect similar, for example, to the composi- tions of . WIECZORNY PROMIEŃ The careers of these young painters, men and women, (EVENING RAY) is scheduled to be acquired by began very promisingly. As National Socialism began to Muzeum Narodowe Poznań before the end of this year. assert itself, however, many of the former students were forbidden to exhibit, persecuted or forced to flee. Some of them, particularly the women, had to give up their profes- sion to support their families. Others, however, succeeded in re-establishing themselves: Horst Strempel and Alexan- der Camaro experienced the zenith of their careers in the modernism of post-war Berlin, Isidor Aschheim achieved success in Jerusalem, headed a graph- ic print workshop in Paris.

The influence of Otto Mueller as a painter, mentor and charismatic personality not only had an extraordinary im- pact on his students but also radiates beyond post-war modernism into the present day. IMPRINT An exhibition of Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, in collaboration with Alexander und Renata Camaro Stiftung and Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu. MALER. MENTOR. MAGIER. OTTO MUELLER UND SEIN NETZWERK With funds of Freunde der Nationalgalerie and: IN BRESLAU

Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin 12.10.2018 to 3.3.2019

MALARZ. MENTOR. MAG. Partner: OTTO MUELLER A ŚRODOWISKO ARTYSTYCZNE STIFTUNG WROCŁAWIA PREUSSISCHE SEEHANDLUNG

Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu 8.4.2019 to 30.6.2019

A richly illustrated catalogue in German and Polish will accompany the exhibition. The two language editions will be available at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin

Exhibition: Idea and conception Dagmar Schmengler

Curator, Curatorial assistant, Berlin Dagmar Schmengler, Agnes Kern

Editorial staff booklet Lidia Głuchowska, Agnes Kern, Teresa Laudert, Dagmar Schmengler, Małgorzata Stolarska-Fronia

Translation Linda Wilharm

Communications design / Booklet Melanie Achilles, StudioKrimm

Made possible by MAGICIAN PAINTER MENTOR OTTO MUELLER 12.10.18 –3.3.19 www.mnwr.pl www.camaro-stiftung.de www.smb.museum/hbf www.ottomuellerinberlin.de especially ouraccompanying programm, see: For furtherinformation, Invalidenstraße 10557 50–51, Berlin Staatliche Museen zuBerlin Museum fürGegenwart –Berlin Hamburger Bahnhof –