After extensive modernization and repairs have been completed, the August Macke Haus will officially open its new exhibition rooms with one of the fine arts' major themes: the image of the "mother," a motif that for many centuries has been a key source of inspiration for artistic efforts in all cultures. The "mother" motif also played a significant role in the work of the Rhenish Expressionists and artists involved in the 1920's Neue Sachlichkeit as they responded to the dramatic political and societal upheavals of the times. With some 60 paintings, drawings, works of graphic art, and sculpture by 42 artists, the August Macke Haus focuses detailed attention on this topic for the first time and presents it as part of its series of theme-specific exhibitions.
Represented in the Exhibition alongside the pioneering Paula Modersohn-Becker and Käthe Kollwitz, are also Rhenish artists who were part of the August Macke circle such as Heinrich Campendonk, Marie von Malachowski, Carlo Mense, Heinrich Nauen, Hans Thuar, and Marta Worringer, as well as other prominent figures including Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Gerhard Marcks, Max Pechstein, Christian Rohlfs, und Georg Schrimpf. Important accents were also set by women artists such as Lea Grundig, Hannah Höch, Jeanne Mammen, and Hanna Nagel, as well as by the critical works of Conrad Felixmüller, George Grosz, John Heartfield, and Heinricht Zille, which circulated in large editions.
The all-powerful imagery of the iconic ensemble composed of "Mother of God" and "Jesus Child" fired artists' imaginations well into the 20th century. Working from this source, they presented ideal renderings of the emotional and intimate mother-child relationship. They thus also helped reinforce middle-class gender stereotypes which cast women either as dissolute harlots or virtuous and modest mothers.
Moreover, since the 18th century, the conviction had taken hold that mothers were chiefly to be associated with emotions and with nature while fathers were considered to personify rational thinking and moral authority. Frequent symbols of nature and fertility in the current Exhibition's works, such as fruit, flowers, and garden scenes, indicate how intensive such perceived attributes continued to play a role in the 20th century. The trailblazers of modern mother imagery, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Käthe Kollwitz, were no exception as they stripped down the motif to the primal unit of mother and child: the former in a monumentalization of the life force, the latter in eternal mourning for the dead child.
During the first World War and the subsequent revolution artists produced a strikingly large number of seemingly visionary mother images, exemplified in the Exhibition by Carlo Mense and P. A. Seehaus. They expressed hopes for the birth of a new kind of human being. By contrast, works created at the same time and in the following years of crisis – using dramatic overemphasis as with George Grosz and John Heartfield or finely detailed portrayal as with some of the etchings from Lea Grundig's Mütter ("Mothers") cycle – cried out against the inhuman conditions in which the poor, and particularly mothers and children, were forced to exist. The imagery of Mother with Child was employed to graphically illustrate the unworthy urban surroundings and deficient nourishment.
Very often, especially after the birth of children, the artists produced portraits and depicted everyday scenes from their own families, thereby giving us a look at the role allocation in their homes. In such cases, the women artists usually showed the situation of mothers in terms that were clearly closer to reality than did their male colleagues. Hanna Nagel and Hannah Höch uniquely revealed their own precarious positions between their vocations as artists and their desire to have children.
Recurring themes are also, not least of all, the grief and helplessness encountered after the loss of children, widows left behind with children, the problems of unwanted pregnancy, and the strict laws against abortion.
Lenders: (among others) Brücke-Museum, Berlin; Kunsthalle Bielefeld; Kunsthalle Bremen; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe; Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal
Exhibition Catalogue:
With articles by Gesa Bartholomeyczik, Elke Kleinau, Gabriele Jonas, Karla Verlinden, und Anja Herrmann
128 pages, hardcover 28 x 21 cm
Price at the Exhibition: 25 Euro
Supporting Program
Reading in the Studio
Sunday, 6 November 2011, 7 pm
MAMA!
Literary "Mother" portraits by writers including Roman Gary, Claire Goll, Maxim Gorki, Oskar Maria Graf, and Marcel Pagnol.
With Birte Schrein and Severin von Hoensbroech; Tickets 15 €, (reduced) 13 €, incl. admission to Exhibition.
(Tickets must be reserved in advance by phone.
Film in Studio
Thursday, 24 November 2011, 7 pm
"Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück"
Germany 1929, Directed by Phil Jutzi.
Sociocritical story of a worker family in Berlin-Wedding.
Based on an idea of Heinrich Zille with artistic consulting by Käthe Kollwitz, Hans Baluschek, and Otto Nagel. Admission 6 €, (reduced) 5 €, incl. admission to Exhibition.
(Tickets must be reserved in advance by phone.)
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