EXHIBITION 01
25.11.23 – 2.3.24
André Bauchant | Camille Bombois | Séraphine Louis | Henri Rousseau | Louis Vivin
You are cordially invited to the opening of our office and exhibition space at Jülicher Str. 24a, Cologne, on November 25, 2023, from 5 – 8 pm.
Works by renowned as well as obscure or forgotten artists are shown there in solo or group exhibitions at regular intervals to provide an insight into the collection.
The inaugural exhibition will showcase paintings by the French classics André Bauchant (1873 – 1958), Camille Bombois (1883 – 1970), Séraphine Louis (1864 – 1942), Henri Rousseau (1844 – 1910) and Louis Vivin (1861 – 1936).
Charlotte Zander cherished their oeuvres and assembled major bodies of their works that in some instances are of unrivaled art-historical significance. The works of these five artists constitute the core of her collection and provided her with guidance in her decisions concerning other artists she began collecting.
In addition to our exhibition programming, we will delve into questions of what it means to be an artist amid changing economic and political processes, the places of artists and works in art history and society and the politics of collection-building. We want to probe these issues in a variety of formats, always taking the collection as point of departure. Addressing these concerns, which are of broader relevance and have not been explored in sufficient depth, is an integral part of working with the collection. The aim is also to draw the interest of scholars representing a range of disciplines.
As in the past, we will collaborate with museums and curators in Germany and abroad. A sizable group of works from the Zander Collection is currently on view in the exhibition Which Modernism? Insiders and Outsiders of the Avant-garde at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz.
We look forward to your visit!
André Bauchant (1873 – 1958) starts painting at the age of forty-six; his work is shown in the Paris Salon d’automne on a regular basis beginning in 1921. In 1922, he attracts the attention of Le Corbusier, who writes about him in his magazine L’Esprit nouveau. In 1928, Bauchant designs a stage setting for Sergei Diaghilev’s production of Stravinsky’s ballet Apollon musagète. That same year, the art dealer Wilhelm Uhde includes his works in the exhibition Les Peintres du cœur sacré. In 1937, Bauchant participates in the exhibition Les Maîtres populaires de la réalité, which is shown in Paris and then travels to Zurich, London, and New York. Charlotte Zander mounts a comprehensive retrospective of his oeuvre in 2001. Bauchant’s works are held by collections including those of the Kunsthaus Zürich; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tate, London.
Camille Bombois (1883 – 1970) shows his pictures in Paris’s Montmartre in the 1920s when the art dealer Wilhelm Uhde became aware of him and included his paintings in the 1928 exhibition Les Peintres du cœur sacré. This was followed by the participation in Les Maîtres populaires de la réalité in Paris, Zurich, London, and New York. In 1955, several of his works are on view at documenta in Kassel. Charlotte Zander mounts solo exhibitions of his art on a regular basis between 1984 and 1999. Works by Bombois are held by collections including those of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art; New York; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Séraphine Louis (1864 – 1942) first participates in an exhibition in her hometown of Senlis in 1927; the following year, her paintings are shown in Wilhelm Uhde’s exhibition Les Peintres du cœur sacré in Paris. Her works are featured at the 1a Bienal de São Paulo in 1951 and at documenta in Kassel four years later. Three years after her death, Galerie France, Paris, mounts her first solo exhibition, followed by solo presentations in Senlis, Zurich, and Düsseldorf. In 2008, the director Martin Provost makes the biographical film Séraphine, which wins seven Césars in 2009. Collections that hold works by Louis include the Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie, Senlis; the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Hamburger Kunsthalle.
Henri Rousseau (1844 – 1910) starts painting in 1885, and his pictures are exhibited in the Salon des Artistes Indépendants the following year. The art dealer Wilhelm Uhde mounts a solo exhibition of Rousseau’s art at his Paris gallery in 1908 and publishes a monograph in 1921. Rousseau’s oeuvre gains institutional recognition after his death, and his works are included in seminal exhibitions of the twentieth century such as Der Blaue Reiter (1911) in Munich; Les Maîtres populaires de la réalité (1937) in Paris, Zurich, London, and New York; and documenta (1955) in Kassel. At the 1950 Biennale d’Arte di Venezia, an entire room is dedicated to his work, which is also showcased in solo exhibitions all over the world, including at the Arts Club of Chicago (1931); Kunsthalle Basel (1933); the Art Institute of Chicago (1942); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1985); Tate Modern, London (2005); Fondation Beyeler (2010); the Palazzo Ducale, Venice (2010); and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (2016). Among the many museums that have works by Rousseau in their collections are the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Fondation Beyeler and Kunstmuseum Basel; the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main; and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Louis Vivin (1861 – 1936) starts painting in 1904; he first exhibits his work in 1923, in Paris’s Montmartre, Wilhelm Uhde also sees his paintings there around 1925. Three years later, Vivin’s work is included in the exhibition Les Peintres du cœur sacré. His first exhibition, at Perls Galleries, New York, in 1932, is followed by group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Kunsthalle Basel; and the Haus der Kunst, Munich. After 1945, solo exhibitions are held at venues including the Arts Club of Chicago; Galerie Bing, Paris; and the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. Vivin’s art is also shown at the Bienal de São Paulo in 1951 and at documenta, Kassel, in 1955. Charlotte Zander shows his work in solo exhibitions in 1982 and 1989. In 1985, the Musée du Vieux-Château, Laval, mounts a comprehensive retrospective of his art titled Hommage à Louis Vivin. Vivin’s works are held by the collections of the Centre Pompidou and the Musée d’art modern de la Ville de Paris, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and other museums.
Sammlung Zander gGmbH
Jülicher Str.24a
50674 Cologne
Opening hours
Friday 2 – 6 pm
Saturday 11 am – 2 pm
and by appointment
THE SKY IS THIN
Drawings
10.11.23 – 13.1.24
Joe Bradley | Martina Bindreither | Rosie Camanga | Gillian Carnegie | John Dilg | Carroll Dunham | Therese Eisenmann | Jason Fox | Madge Gill | Bruno Gironcoli | Martin Kippenberger | Ledger Drawings | Monika Lengauer | Meuser | Michaela Naderer | David Ostrowski | Tobias Pils |Gerwald Rockenschaub | Simona Runcan | Bill Traylor | Franz West | Agatha Wojciechowsky | Harvey Quaytman
THE SKY IS THIN. DRAWINGS
SELECTED BY ELENA BRUGNANO & TOBIAS PILS
STANDARD (OSLO)
10.11.2023-13.01.2024
—–
The sky is thin
Drawing a line.
Inhaling a square.
Hotel Central.
A cat on stairs.
1xLight.
Wearing a hat.
Exhaling Viennese Actionism.
Water fountains in the desert.
Bathers.
Anti drawings.
Out of love and dirt.
Questioning children’s eyes.
A crucifixion with cars passing by.
You ripe I eat you.
How fragile we are.
—–
The exhibition includes works from the Zander Collection by Rosie Camanga, Madge Gill, Bill Traylor and Agatha Wojciechowsky.
Standard (OSLO)
Waldemar Thranes Gate 86C
NO-0175, Oslo
WHICH MODERNISM?
Insiders and Outsiders of the Avant-Garde
22.10.23 – 14.1.24
André Bauchant | Max Beckmann | Camille Bombois | Heinrich Campendonk | Marc Chagall | Edith Dettmann | Adolf Dietrich | Otto Dix | Max Ernst | Kurt Günther | Alexander Kanoldt | Fernand Léger | Séraphine Louis | Jean Lurçat | August Macke | René Magritte | Max Peiffer-Watenphul | Dominique Peyronnet | Henri Rousseau | Felix Nussbaum | Christian Schad | Georg Schrimpf | Karl Schwesig | Richard Seewald | Adalbert Trillhaase | Maurice Utrillo | Louis Vivin | Gustav Wunderwald among others
WHICH MODERNISM?
INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS OF THE AVANT-GARDE
Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
The exhibition is dedicated to two poles of modern art between the two world wars. The focus is on a re-evaluation of so-called naïve painting and avant-garde positions, such as Cubism, New Objectivity and Surrealism. A high-caliber selection of around 100 works tells the story of relationships, networks, and mutual influences between well-known protagonists of Classical Modernism and lesser-known autodidacts of naïve art. It enables a new reading and puts the canon of “in”- and “outsiders” up for discussion.
The center is the historical exhibition Les Maîtres populaires de la réalité. This took place in 1937 in the hall of the Revue de la Renaissance in Paris; in the shadow of the World’s Fair, which was dominated by strong ideological juxtapositions; Stalinist and Nazi megalomaniac architectures and sculptures. The show Les Maîtres populaires de la réalité featured works by Henri Rousseau, Séraphine Louis, André Bauchant, and Camille Bombois, among others. The artists never saw themselves as a unified group, but they were seen as a popular counter-movement to other styles, with whose representatives they were in close contact. The exhibition was later shown in modified form in Zurich, London, and later in New York. Afterwards it became quieter and most of the artists shown there were initially forgotten again.
The exhibition, based on an idea by Manja Wilkens, was created in close cooperation between the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz and the Sprengel Museum Hannover. Numerous works in the exhibition come from the collections of both museums. They are supplemented by exquisite national and international loans and, in particular, an extensive convolute from the Zander Collection.
A catalog accompanying the exhibition has been published by Distanz Verlag, Berlin.
Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz
Theaterplatz 1
09111 Chemnitz
A LIFE IN PICTURES
A Portrait of Seeing for Rudolf Zwirner
29.7. – 14.8.23
Georg Baselitz | Hans Bellmer | Joseph Beuys | Louise Bourgeois | Serge Charchoune | Natalie Czech | Gaspare Diziani | Albrecht Dürer | Max Ernst | Jean Fautrier | Dan Flavin | Bruno Goller | George Grosz | David Hockney | Merlin James | Jasper Johns | Anger Jorn | Martha Jungwirth | On Kawara | Martin Kippenberger | Konrad Klapheck | Astrid Klein | Yves Klein | Gary Kuehn | Mark Lammert | Maria Lassnig | Sol LeWitt | René Magritte | Agnes Martin | André Masson | Jakob Mattner | Olaf Metzel | Henri Michaux | Piet Mondrian | Michael Müller | Bruce Nauman | Michael Oppitz | Blinky Palermo | Panamarenko | Giuseppe Penone | Raymond Pettibon | Francis Picabia | Pablo Picasso | Angelika Platen | Sigmar Polke | Robert Rauschenberg | Gerhard Richter | Henri Rousseau | Fred Sandback | Matija Skurjeni | Daniel Spoerri | Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo | Jean Tinguely | Cy Twombly | Franz Erhard Walther | Andy Warhol | Franz West
A LIFE IN PICTURES. A Portrait of Seeing for Rudolf Zwirner
at PalaisPopulaire, Berlin
The exhibition A Life in Pictures. A Portrait of Seeing for Rudolf Zwirner traces the various stages of the gallery owner’s life as reflected in art. Works from different periods of origin are juxtaposed to create exciting dialogues, enabling conclusions to be drawn about existential themes of humankind.
Since 1956, all aspects of Rudolf Zwirner’s life have been closely linked with art, the development of which he decisively shaped in the second half of the twentieth century up to the present day: professionally as a gallery owner, secretary general of documenta II, cofounder of the world’s first art fair, and curator, but also privately in intensive exchange with artists. Life in Pictures. A Portrait of Seeing for Rudolf Zwirner, shown on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday, makes a plea that art as an essential part of the human condition. The more than fifty works in the exhibition, which come from museums, private collections, as well as the Deutsche Bank Collection, which owes important acquisitions to the Zwirner gallery, paint an artistic portrait of this impressive, multi-faceted man. At the same time, however, they stand for the constants, ruptures, and developments in art and the art trade since the postwar period, which Zwirner decisively influenced and shaped. Rudolf Zwirner was already associated with most of the artists represented in the show in the early stages of their careers and participated in their later successes.
Curated by Philipp Bollmann and Michael Müller
The exhibition includes works from the Zander Collection by Henri Rousseau and Matija Skurjeni.
PalaisPopulaire
Unter den Linden 5
10117 Berlin
BIENNALE FOR FREIBURG 2
The Song of the Street
16.6. – 30.7.23
Ayo Akingbade | Samar Al Summary | Halil Altındere | Danielle Arbid | James Gregory Atkinson | Maximiliane Baumgartner | Dara Birnbaum | Cudelice Brazelton IV | Eva Eisenlohr | Alia Farid | Maryam Ghasemi | Rebecca Grundmann | Deborah Joyce Holman | Kirti Ingerfurth |Anas Kahal | Amal Kenawy | Klein | Nikifor Krynicki | lo.me (Loren Tschannen und Mélissa Biondo) | Hemansingh Lutchmun | Medienwerkstatt Freiburg | Shaun Motsi | Henrike Naumann | Vera Palme | Phung-Tien Phan | R.E.P. (Ksenia Hnylytska, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Lesia Khomenko, Volodymyr Kuznetsov und Lada Nakonechna) | Lotty Rosenfeld | Finnegan Shannon | somebody*ies (Anna Byskov, Christina Krys Huber, Hannah Kindler, Stella Meris und Nika Timashkova) | Hito Steyerl | Maria Toumazou | Matt Welch | Yong Xiang Li & François Pisapia
The street—like a living organ—is characterized by constant movement and change. It is witness to immediate reality and, at the same time, to the layers and deposits of historical events and socio-political power relations that inscribe themselves in its strata. In the past and the present alike, the street exists as a political symbol. Under the title “Das Lied der Straße,” the Biennale für Freiburg 2 reflects on the street as a space in which social debates and power relations are negotiated and brought into the public sphere. The street was and is a place where different attitudes and realities of life meet, and images of continuous, urban transformation are projected.
Opening: Friday, 16.6.23, 7 pm
Curated by Paula Kommoss
The Zander Collection is pleased to lend several works by Nikifor Krynicki for the exhibition.
Biennale für Freiburg
Dreisamstr. 21
79098 Freiburg im Breisgau
BOOK RELEASE
Koenig Books, Cologne
9.6.23
Warm invite to the book release of
26 ARTISTS. WORKS FROM THE ZANDER COLLECTION
June 9 from 5 – 7 pm
at Buchhandlung Walther König, Ehrenstraße 4, 50672 Cologne
on occasion of the book release the shop window is curated by Susanne Zander
Charlotte Zander (1930–2014) was a devoted collector of works by artists without academic training. Presenting works, biographies and chronologies of exhibitions, the publication showcases a number of artists in the collection: André Bauchant, Erich Bödeker, Camille Bombois, Adolf Dietrich, Louis Ducasse, Emerik Feješ, Willem van Genk, Madge Gill, Margarethe Held, Morris Hirshfield, Paul Humphrey, Johann Korec, Augustin Lesage, Séraphine Louis, Henri Rousseau, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Sava Sekulić, Bill Traylor, Adalbert Trillhaase, Oswald Tschirtner, Mirko Virius, Louis Vivin, Alfred Wallis, Scottie Wilson, Adolf Wölfli and Carlo Zinelli.
The selection of works for the book is based on an exhibition at Schloss Bönnigheim in 2016–2017 curated by Susanne Pfeffer.
Susanne Zander (Ed.), Texts by Susanne Pfeffer, Moritz Scheper
Language: German / English
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne 2023
Kindly supported by:
Stiftung Kunst, Kultur und Bildung der Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg
ZILKENS FINE ART Insurance Broker GmbH
WHICH MODERNISM? INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS OF THE AVANT-GARDE
Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover
6.5. – 17.9.23
The point of departure for the exhibition is LES MAITRES POPULAIRES DE LA RÉALITÉ, the first major overview of “naïve” painting, which was shown concurrently with the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris and subsequently in Zurich, London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In separate chapters, the present exhibition explores the interrelationships between six artists on show there with the exponents of the classical avant-gardes. The selection of works by Henri Rousseau, Camille Bombois and Séraphine Louis together with those by Pablo Picasso, Max Beckmann and Marc Chagall, among others, permits a new reading of modern art.
The exhibition draws largely on works of the Zander Collection besides the collections of the Sprengel Museum Hannover and the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz.
Curated by Reinhard Spieler and Manja Wilkens; Co-curator is Alexander Leinemann.
“Which Modernism? Insiders and ‘Outsiders of the Avant-Garde” is an exhibition of the Sprengel Museum Hannover (6.5. to 17.9.23) and the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (22.10.23 to 14.1.24).
Sprengel Museum Hannover
Kurt-Schwitters-Platz
30169 Hannover
NEW BOOK
26 Artists. Works from the Zander Collection
André Bauchant | Erich Bödeker | Camille Bombois | Adolf Dietrich | Louis Ducasse | Emerik Feješ | Willem van Genk | Madge Gill | Margarethe Held | Morris Hirshfield | Paul Humphrey | Johann Korec | Augustin Lesage | Séraphine Louis | Henri Rousseau | Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern| Sava Sekulić | Bill Traylor | Adalbert Trillhaase | Oswald Tschirtner | Mirko Virius | Louis Vivin | Alfred Wallis | Scottie Wilson | Adolf Wölfli | Carlo Zinelli
26 ARTISTS. WORKS FROM THE ZANDER COLLECTION
Presenting works, biographies and chronologies of exhibitions, the publication showcases a number of artists in the Zander Collection that have recently drawn particular attention from the art world. In this way, it probes the question: Who is an artist—and who actually decides? Charlotte Zander (1930–2014) was a devoted collector of works by artists without academic training such as Margarethe Held, Morris Hirshfield, Séraphine Louis, Henri Rousseau and Adolf Wölfli. The selection of works for the book is based on the new presentation of the collection at Schloss Bönnigheim in 2016–2017 curated by Susanne Pfeffer.
26 Artists. Works from the Zander Collection
Edited by Susanne Zander, texts by Susanne Pfeffer, Moritz Scheper
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne 2023
ISBN 978 3 7533 0381 9
NAIVE REALISM | From Rousseau to Grandma Moses
Museum MORE, Gorssel
25.3. – 25.6.23
André Bauchant | Camille Bombois | Emile Branchard | Pedro Cervántez | Adolf Dietrich | Miep Dehé | Jean Ève | Victor Joseph Gatto | Morris Hirshfield | Sipke Houtman | Thorvald Arnst Hoyer | Josephine Joy | John Kane | Lawrence Lebduska | Séraphine Louis | Sal Meijer | Grandma Moses | Nikifor | Dominique Peyronnet | Horace Pippin | Henri Rousseau | René Rimbert | Aloys Sauter | Abraham Smalt | Adalbert Trillhaase |Louis Vivin
Uninhibited, imaginative and touchingly uncomplicated. This appears to be the irresistible appeal of naive realism. But this seemingly straightforward surface conceals a rich artistic spectrum. And its unschooled makers were on the cusp of modern art. Museum MORE is uniting 80 paintings by renowned and less well-known naive realists from the United States and Europe. A unique transatlantic assembly of distinctive artworks and captivating life stories. Inspired by the pioneering exhibition Masters of Popular Painting at New York’s Museum of Modern Art 85 years ago, Museum MORE is reuniting works by many artists featured in the original exhibition. Naive Realism | From Rousseau to Grandma Moses features remarkable art by self-taught artists including Henri Rousseau, Camille Bombois, Séraphine Louis, Nikifor, Grandma Moses, John Kane, Horace Pippin and Morris Hirshfield.
The Zander Collection is pleased to lend several works by André Bauchant, Adolf Dietrich, Morris Hirshfield, John Kane, Aloys Sauter and Séraphine Louis to the exhibition.
Museum MORE
Hoofdstraat 28
7213 CW Gorssel
GAME OF NO GAMES
Instructions for Walking in High Spirits
Symposium 11.2.23
Symposium
Games of No Games
Instructions for Walking in High Spirits
Reflections on the use of the term Outsider Art
Saturday, 11.2.23, 10:30 am – 4:30 pm, Kölnischer Kunstverein
with Lisa Arndt, Nikola Dietrich, Andreas Fischer, Amelie Gappa, Charlotte Laubard, Kito Nedo, Nadine Oberste-Hetbleck, Susanne Pfeffer, Falk Wolf and Susanne Zander
The symposium aims to explore the question of whether there is a need today for categorisations through terms such as Outsider Art. Is a definition possible at all, or is the term not rather arbitrary and oriented more towards social ideas of norms than towards the artistic work?
The symposium is part of the programme accompanying the exhibition Game of No Games at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, which presents historical and contemporary works by artists who have received little attention throughout art history. Their participation in society and the art world has been limited – as a result of conservatorships, disenfranchisement, or discrimination, to name a few.
Kölnischer Kunstverein, Hahnenstrasse 6, 50667 Köln
THE PAINTERS OF THE SACRED HEART
Böttcherstrasse Museums, Bremen
3.12.22 – 12.3.23
André Bauchant | Camille Bombois | Séraphine Louis | Henri Rousseau | Louis Vivin
The Painters of the Sacred Heart is on view at Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, from December 3, 2022 until March 12, 2023. Curated by Udo Kittelmann and organized with Dr. Henrike Hans.
The exhibition is a collaboration with Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, the Böttcherstraße Museums, Bremen and the Zander Collection.
Exhibition catalogue:
Die Maler des Heiligen Herzens I The Painters of the Sacred Heart
André Bauchant, Camille Bombois, Séraphine Louis, Henri Rousseau, Louis Vivin
Texts by Udo Kittelmann, Frank Schmidt, Henrike Hans, Annabel Ruckdeschel
Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2022
GAME OF NO GAMES
Anleitung zu beschwingtem Gehen
13.11.22 – 5.3.23
Adelhyd van Bender | Klaus Beyer | Lee Godie | Helga Sophia Goetze | Margarethe Held | Dietrich Orth | Albert Leo Peil | Rabe perplexum | William Scott | Wendy Vainity | August Walla
Curated by Nikola Dietrich and Susanne Zander
Opening: Saturday, 12.11.22, 7 pm
This exhibition presents historical and contemporary works by artists who have received little attention throughout art history. Their participation in society and the art world has been limited—as a result of conservatorships, disenfranchisement, or discrimination, to name a few. This is closely associated with the lack of stable institutional footholds or larger (art) networks and support systems. Conventional categorizations, such as Outsider Art or Art Brut, along with the concurrent emphasis on their alleged distinguishing characteristics—which have so far often been read as narratives on the spontaneous vs. planned, innate vs. learned, naïve vs. sophisticated, or even primitive vs. modern—are currently considered outdated and must be critically challenged. Accordingly, this exhibition intends to encourage a different understanding concerning established ways of thinking in the art world, as well as consolidate an approach to exhibiting and representing different artistic practices that is more readily assimilated.
Through their works, the artists on view at the Kölnischer Kunstverein immerse themselves in self-alienating role-playing games. They can thus take on different identities and undergo a kind of metamorphosis—to the point of becoming animals. “I’m a frigging hunter, but I know that it causes trouble… I have to mask it [what is troublesome] so that I can continue to exist in society at all,” the artist Rabe perplexum declared (in Experimente, Der unbekannte Künstler, 1987). In both her works and life, she adopted a raven persona.
Our aim is not to place the exhibited artists and their artistic practices in the margins of society, nor to portray them as artists that unveil repressed realities or develop suppressed longings behind their apparent detachment from the world. Rather, this exhibition explores how they deliberately work with their dependencies. Adelhyd van Bender, for instance, designed a large and complex body of work that breaks the world into mathematical formulas. Intertwining these with biographical details in associative chains, his practice builds a new order. As a model for his drawings, which were copied and revised several times, he often used letters addressed to him from official authorities, which testified to his constant struggle against the prolongation of his conservatorship.
These artists have often positioned themselves within society, precisely in the non-places of art and interstitial spaces where a larger public could be found, so as to relate to this community and criticize it with a matter-of-factness that is peculiar to each of them. By leaving behind social conventions, norms, and dominant traditions, as well as undermining social or gender performances, these artists have frequently been met with a lack of understanding. This was certainly the case for Helga Goetze, who broke away from a conventional way of life in the 1970s and later advocated free love, sex, and female pleasure almost daily in front of the Memorial Church in Berlin.
The radical potential of the works gathered here resides in the fact that they insist on unfulfilled socio-political promises and, as Dietrich Orth hints at in one of his works that gives the exhibition its title, provide instructions and suggestions for a better, fairer way of treating one another. They manifest a profound longing directed toward the future—something that can also be understood as a critique of the present.
MORRIS HIRSHFIELD REDISCOVERED
American Folk Art Museum, New York
23.9.22 – 29.1.23
The comprehensive retrospective Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered reassesses the art and reception of a unique painter who was posthumously overlooked. The exhibition features over 40 paintings by the self-taught artist, including iconic works such as Girl with Flowers, Stage Beauties, Parliamentary Buildings, and Inseparable Friends.
Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered was curated by Richard Meyer, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor of Art History at Stanford University. Susan Davidson served as curatorial advisor for the exhibition. Valérie Rousseau, the American Folk Art Museum’s (AFAM) senior curator of self-taught art and art brut, was the coordinating curator for the exhibition.
The exhibition features works by Morris Hirshfield from the Zander Collection, among others.
Accompanying the exhibition is the catalog:
Master of the Two Left Feet
Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered
Ed. by Richard Meyer
The MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technlogy 2022
THE PAINTERS OF THE SACRED HEART
Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
16.7. – 20.11.22
André Bauchant | Camille Bombois | Séraphine Louis | Henri Rousseau | Louis Vivin
Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, presents The Painters of the Sacred Heart. The exhibition, curated by Udo Kittelmann, is on view from July 16 until November 20, 2022.
With the exception of Henri Rousseau, whose work found influential supporters early on, the complex oeuvres of the five artists in the exhibition are still largely unknown to wider audiences. Over the decades, they have been branded “naïfs,” identified as exponents of a nascent modern primitivism, and finally labeled “outsider artists.” The new exhibition now places their output in a different context, framing them as early critics of modernism.
Primarily based on selected works from the collection of Charlotte Zander, who unerringly pursued her personal vision, collecting art beyond the systematically organized canon, the exhibition presents the works of these outstanding and widely underappreciated artists, the “Painters of the Sacred Heart,” in unprecedented breadth.
The exhibition was organized in cooperation with Museen Böttcherstraße, Bremen, where it will subsequently be on view from December 3, 2022, until March 12, 2023.
The following catalogue is released in conjunction with the exhibition:
Die Maler des Heiligen Herzens / The Painters of the Sacred Heart
André Bauchant, Camille Bombois, Séraphine Louis, Henri Rousseau, Louis Vivin
Writings by Udo Kittelmann, Frank Schmidt, Henrike Hans, Annabel Ruckdeschel
Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2022