Deutsche Kunst, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf 1928

Ruth Horadam


Here's a wonderful document from history,
the
illustrated catalog
of an exhibit of German contemporary art
from the year 1928.

(making a nice contrast to
this collection
of things done ten years later.)

Can you feel the impending catastrophe?


The thing about this work ....
is that, to me, it feels a few cuts above the
Annual exhibit of American art
that the Art Institute of Chicago was showing during the same year.

Maybe it's just that the German catalog
was showing a lot more sculpture,

Or -- maybe it's because the German artists
have lived with so much Medieval sculpture.

As is evident -- in the "three Marys" shown above.

(and, BTW, this artist
has utterly dropped out of sight)




Hermann Haller

What a wonderful head!





Herbert Garbe

"I am lost - where am I going ?"

And -- whatever happened to this sculptor ?
Not every artist who joined the NAZI party
enjoyed a big career.

Garbe died in a POW camp in 1945,
and he's now principally known as
another sculptor's husband.






Josef Enseling


Another great head!

(and this poor artist
had the distinction of being credited
as the teacher of Joseph Beuys --
so that's the only way
he can be found on the internet)





Edwin Scharff



These portraits really come alive



Franz Xaver Lindl


A nice little riff,
more Romanesque than Art Deco,
but whatever happened this guy ?



Richard Langer


Quite an accomplished designer
who never made it to my list.

This piece can be found on Wikipedia,
but apparently he died in 1927,
at the age of 40



Fritz Koelle

Here's the first artist
that was already on my list.

Another great head,
how I envy his ability.

We won't go into his career
with the Third Reich,
but it appears that his descendants
have made a site for him here





Georg Kolbe

The great one --
what a wonderfully
lost figure.






Another lost figure
(or maybe -- she's just day dreaming)
from another one of my favorite sculptors,
Anton Hanak


Johannes Knubel


I never heard of this elegant sculptor either,
but his rather clumsy
architectural work
is all over Wikipedia



Bernhard Sopher


I'm guessing that he was Jewish
(since he was born in Palestine and
moved to the U.S. in 1935)

I wish I could find more of his work.



Hans Wissel


I usually don't go in for the
ugly figure school,
but this one does
feel compelling



Josef Daniel Sommer

I find him listed
in a 1936 catalog,
but other than that,
this guy has entirely disappeared.

This piece feels a little small,
but I'm hoping he got better



Otto Schliessler

And... another great head!

But I'm afraid he gets listed in
"Artists for the Reich"
as one of the fellows who
took the jobs
of the politically/culturally/ethnically
incorrect
artists who were purged from the academies.



Jupp Rubsam

Not really to my taste,
but it does bear a strong
resemblance
to a Ruben Nakian piece
in the Chicago American exhibit
from the same year.





Max Esser

A very tight sense of form
that feels so Germanic