Expressionists at Folkwang: Discovered, Defamed, Celebrated
With Expressionists at Folkwang, Museum Folkwang is highlighting a particular focus of the museum collection on the occasion of its 100th anniversary in Essen that is closely interwoven with the history of the museum. On the basis of around 250 Expressionist masterpieces, the exhibition traces the manifold connections between artists and the museum and sheds light on the collection and exhibition activities surrounding this art movement from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day.
鈥淚t is a selectively beautiful collection, the likes of which are rarely seen.鈥� With these words August Macke described his impressions of a visit to Museum Folkwang in Hagen in the summer of 1908. The museum was only a few years old at the time. Karl Ernst Osthaus had founded it in 1902 to 鈥渃reate a base for artistic life in the western industrial district鈥�. The rapidly growing collection, but also the extensive exhibition programme, quickly made Museum Folkwang one of the most important art museums in Germany. Osthaus valued modern painting of the late 19th century and acquired works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Ferdinand Hodler or Edvard Munch early on. But he was also very interested in current artistic developments. Expressionism played a significant role in this.
Osthaus was in contact with all the important centres of this revolutionary art movement, which spread rapidly, especially in German-speaking countries. He presented works by the artists鈥� group Br眉cke (Bridge) founded in Dresden in 1905 around Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. But August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Gabriele M眉nter and Franz Marc of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Munich were featured in exhibitions as well. The Viennese artists Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele were able to present their novel images of the human being in Hagen in 1910 and 1912. And the first large travelling exhibition of the work of the young deceased painter Paula Modersohn-Becker started at Museum Folkwang in 1913.
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With Expressionists at Folkwang, Museum Folkwang is highlighting a particular focus of the museum collection on the occasion of its 100th anniversary in Essen that is closely interwoven with the history of the museum. On the basis of around 250 Expressionist masterpieces, the exhibition traces the manifold connections between artists and the museum and sheds light on the collection and exhibition activities surrounding this art movement from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day.
鈥淚t is a selectively beautiful collection, the likes of which are rarely seen.鈥� With these words August Macke described his impressions of a visit to Museum Folkwang in Hagen in the summer of 1908. The museum was only a few years old at the time. Karl Ernst Osthaus had founded it in 1902 to 鈥渃reate a base for artistic life in the western industrial district鈥�. The rapidly growing collection, but also the extensive exhibition programme, quickly made Museum Folkwang one of the most important art museums in Germany. Osthaus valued modern painting of the late 19th century and acquired works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Ferdinand Hodler or Edvard Munch early on. But he was also very interested in current artistic developments. Expressionism played a significant role in this.
Osthaus was in contact with all the important centres of this revolutionary art movement, which spread rapidly, especially in German-speaking countries. He presented works by the artists鈥� group Br眉cke (Bridge) founded in Dresden in 1905 around Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. But August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Gabriele M眉nter and Franz Marc of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Munich were featured in exhibitions as well. The Viennese artists Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele were able to present their novel images of the human being in Hagen in 1910 and 1912. And the first large travelling exhibition of the work of the young deceased painter Paula Modersohn-Becker started at Museum Folkwang in 1913.
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The art movement was considered "diseased" until Essen's Folkwang Museum rallied to the cause, buying and displaying the novel works.
The art movement was considered "diseased" until Essen's Folkwang Museum rallied to the cause, buying and displaying the novel works. A new exhibition at Folkwang looks back at expressionism's early years.
In the exhibition 鈥淓xpressionists at Folkwang鈥� the partial reconstruction of the Schiele collection of the Folkwang museum's founder Karl Ernst Osthaus, which was confiscated by the National Socialists in 1937, was a particular highlight.
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