The largest art collection in the region is being shaken up with REMIX. 800 Years of Discovering Art. The exhibition presents the treasures of the MKK in a completely new way and invites visitors to take an impressive journey through the centuries in the large exhibition hall. Who is she looking at, the beautiful Italian woman painted by Theobald von Oer? What is going through the mind of Anselm Feuerbach's mysteriously pensive Leontine? And why is Caspar David Friedrich's fascinating winter landscape not a depiction of reality, but a profound invention? The paintings and sculptures of past centuries are full of fascinating stories. The exhibition "REMIX. 800 years of art" invites you to discover them. It can be seen from February 24, 2023 at the Museum of Art and Cultural History (MKK) in Dortmund.
REMIX. 800 Years of Discovering Art presents the treasures of the MKK in a completely new way and invites you on an impressive journey through the centuries. On 800 square meters, paintings and sculptures from 800 years of fine art come together - from the medieval Romanesque period to Art Nouveau and reflect the profound social upheavals that shaped people's lives over a period of 800 years (1120 to 1926). Highlights include works by Conrad von Soest, Caspar David Friedrich, Constantin Meunier, Anselm Feuerbach and Lovis Corinth.
The new collection presentation opens up fresh approaches to the works of art in a variety of formats, illustrates the relationships between the works and conveys new findings from collection research. The backs of canvases and object labels are sometimes the focus of attention, and the provenance of individual works is examined by way of example. To this end, the exhibition will regularly change its face in parts.
The Middle Ages - emotion and intimacy
There is not just one Middle Ages. The span between antiquity and modern times is very long, lasting from the 6th to the 16th century. A lot happened during this time. A comparison between the Romanesque, rather static-looking bronze crucifix from 1120 and the late Gothic wooden angel with instruments of suffering from the end of the 15th century shows how the image of man has changed radically in three centuries alone - from a rigid figure to a moving gesture. Yet the themes remain largely the same throughout the ages: pain, heart and community. The art of the European Middle Ages is largely Christian. It mostly revolves around the suffering of Jesus, the sensitive relationship of his mother and others to him (compassion and care) and the relationships between Christians (communion with their saints as role models). This art tells stories full of human abysses and is strongly emotional and intimate.
Adriaen Isenbrandt, Prayer on the Mount of Olives, c. 1530/40 © Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Joana Maibach
The early modern period to classicism - the discovery of the world
The long period from the early modern era in the 16th century through the Baroque and Rococo periods to Classicism around 1800 encompasses numerous very different stylistic epochs. Nevertheless, art has one thing in common: between the spiritual Middle Ages and Romanticism, which was also largely inward-looking, art was created in a social climate of discovery. Europe's elite and intellectuals turned to the outside world. It is a time of scientific discoveries - right up to the colonization and exploitation of the rest of the world.
During the Enlightenment, people increasingly demand their rights. As a result of global influences and increased interest in things, art becomes more diverse and its content more profane. In the Netherlands and Flanders in particular, completely new pictorial themes developed, such as still lifes, landscapes and everyday scenes. The types of representation became more varied, more experimental and - especially in the Baroque period - more dynamic.
Pieter Clean, Still life with ham, around 1635 © Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte
Romanticism and Biedermeier - a backward roll forward
At the beginning of the 19th century, the political climate in Europe also shaped cultural development - especially German art. Many people felt that their own time was very uncertain. Frightened by years of violence following the revolution in France, the German elite turned away from revolutionary ideas. Many also felt that the classicist ideals of serene art forms were too distant.
Intellectuals turned back to religion and increasingly searched for feelings and community that they could not find in the Enlightenment with its demands for more individual freedom. Romanticism and Biedermeier, with their retreat into the interior and the family, are political and artistic reactions to this anxiety-ridden period. The landscape now became the central backdrop through which longing and emotion could be expressed in painting. It is less an image than a utopia.
Attributed to Friedrich Wasmann, The Sisters, 19th century, © Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Madeleine-Annette Albrecht,
The Düsseldorf School of Painting - between ideal and reality
The Düsseldorf Academy under the direction of Wilhelm von Schadow stands for the transition from emotional Romanticism to objective realism. Artists of the Düsseldorf School of Painting were often still imbued with idealism, inwardness and religious fervor, but increasingly sought to study external reality. The landscape as an independent painterly theme moved further and further into the foreground.
German art around 1830 is characterized by classicist, romantic and realistic elements that exist side by side and intertwine with one another - a confusing situation that corresponds to the political situation: the emerging anti-feudal opposition is opposed to a reactionary authority, which, unsurprisingly, is more likely to be found in the religious art of the Nazarenes. The developments towards realism were also due to a completely new competitor in art with which to compete: photography, invented in 1826 by Joseph Niépce.
Realism - the discovery of everyday life
European art underwent two revolutions in the 19th century: firstly, with Realism around 1850, primarily in terms of content, and subsequently, with Impressionism, in terms of painterly means. Realist art is characterized by an emancipation of pictorial motifs. Whereas previously there had been a very different evaluation of pictorial themes (a Christian scene was always considered more important than a portrait and the latter more important than a landscape), the motifs now became equal.
Realism is also called this because the things of the world are depicted more realistically. The art of realism thus aims for everydayness and objectivity. The emerging photography is a model, competition and incentive here. If we look at the relationships to the world that were typical of the time behind the development of art, we see that in the mid-19th century, after the inwardness of Romanticism, there was a desire to open up again to the external things of the world.
Impressionism - art as art
After the opening up of pictorial content in Realism, Impressionism in France in the 1870s saw the liberation of creative means. The best-known German representatives are Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt. Impressionism is characterized by so-called colorism: the paint is sometimes applied thickly so that the painting remains recognizable as such and we can follow the painting process. This gives the paintings a dynamic effect.
Broad brushstrokes prevent clear demarcations and detailed formulations. This ambiguity stimulates our brain to complete it, and as this depends on our mood at the time, the works appear so lively and subjective. Impressionist painters no longer compete with photography and make a virtue of necessity: they now paint in a completely different way. The strong subjectivity of their paintings, which arises from the negation of photographic accuracy, is the cornerstone of modernism.
Art Nouveau - art and life
Art Nouveau, the defining artistic ideal from the 1890s until the First World War, is a radical movement of renewal. Its proponents wanted to bring aesthetics into people's everyday lives. In the firm conviction that a beautiful world promotes peace and civilization, beauty is the most important goal in all areas of life. Art Nouveau is an international phenomenon, even if it has very different national characteristics.
The common features are ornamentation (nature as a model), the pursuit of functionality, the design of objects from all areas of life (buildings, furniture, glassware, cutlery) and the reform of life in the spirit of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, for whom art represents the true form and purpose of life. In the visual arts, these ideals are expressed in the dignified movement of her figures and the noble portrayal of her subjects.
From February 24, 2023
www.remix-dortmund.de
