Ot to M U Elle R

PAINTER MENTOR MAGICIAN MUELLER AND HIS NETWORK IN WROCŁAW OTTO ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS ENGLISH EXHIBITION SPACE INTRODUCTION From Berlin to Wrocław, from Wrocław to Berlin: the im- pact of the expressionist painter Otto Mueller extends into post-war modernism 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 Silesia). 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 artistic 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 Expressionism and Neo-Expres- sionism, art movements that up to now have received little attention in Germany. 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 painting 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 Woodcut ledged by both Erich Heckel 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) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 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 Dresden 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 paintings 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. Wilhelm Lehmbruck 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 “German Art” 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 Alte Nationalgalerie on the Museumsinsel in Berlin. Berliner Nationalgalerie played a leading role during the German Empire. When its director Ludwig Justi opened the first GALERIE DER LEBENDEN in the Kronprinzenpalais 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 expressionist 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 museum directors were enthusiastic supporters of modern art. 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 Oskar Moll AND EXCHANGE (Brieg 1875 –1947 Berlin) 3 Carlo Mense 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 Paris 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. Alexander Kanoldt was GUEST EXHIBIT the first to come in 1925, then Carlo Mense as a supporter Cat. 27 of New Objectivity – 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 Bauhaus Private collection masters to the academy: Oskar Schlemmer in 1929 and Georg Muche in 1931.

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