SPECIAL EXHIBITION

March 7 – September 8, 2024
TWO PEOPLE
The Artist Couple Franz M. Jansen and Fifi Kreutzer

The Rhineland Expressionists Franz M. Jansen (1885–1958) and Fifi Kreutzer (1891–1977) made each other‘s acquaintance in Cologne in 1908. Influenced by the life-reform ideals of the German Youth Movement, they decided after their marriage in 1917 to leave the big city in favor of a life that embraced nature in the sparsely populated countryside of the Rhine-Sieg District.

It was there that the two artists created an extensive oeuvre that – besides paintings, drawings, and prints – included a wide variety of handicrafts as well as the design for an entire house. Portraits, landscapes, themes related to life on the farm, join nature and animal motifs to fill their works as well as references to literature and poetry, fairy tales, and myths.  

Their connectiveness and mutual inspiration often manifest themselves in their choice of topics and motifs, in the use of artistic techniques, and in stylistic convergences. And yet, they retained their individuality. While Franz M. Jansen repeatedly adapted to contemporary currents in politics and art, Fifi Kreutzer remained immune from the various stylistic innovations and attributed the same unchanging significance to her art as to her efforts in the garden and on the surrounding land.

Fifi Kreutzer und Franz M. Jansen are highlighted in the Exhibition for the first time as an artist duo. Commonalities and interdependencies, but also independence and differences in their work are convincingly illustrated against the background of their personal development, on the basis of their respective emphasis on themes and motifs, and with reference to the biographical context.

The title TWO PEOPLE is taken from the verse epic of the same name by poet Richard Dehmel (1863–1920). Before the first world war, Dehmel was one of Germany‘s most popular writers. Franz M. Jansen venerated him and in particular his poetic epic which was published in 1903. Celebrating unconditional love and eroticism‘s place above society‘s conventions, the work hit the nerve of Jansen‘s feelings and youthful passion for Fifi Kreutzer, whom he was not able to marry until 1917 after overcoming parental opposition. The title also stands as a parable of the artist pair‘s life together with all its ups and downs.

The show includes some 200 works from public and private holdings and is supplemented by an exhibition catalogue.