Previously on display in the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg, the show provides the first in-depth insight into the oeuvre of Else Blankenhorn (1873-1920), the best-known artist in the collection.
The retrospective features 135 exhibits from various subject areas, which clearly demonstrate the expressive, colorful diversity of Else Blankenhorn's pictorial worlds. Paintings, drawings as well as notebooks and drawing books with poems and compositions are presented.
Blankenhorn made music, composed, photographed, wrote, translated, knitted and embroidered before she began drawing and painting in 1908. Knowledge of Symbolism, Expressionism and Japanese art is recognizable in her work. Despite these echoes, she developed her own artistic pictorial language into an expressive style of painting with simplified forms, energetic brushstrokes and strong color contrasts.
A special feature of the much-praised exhibition are banknotes that she produced on behalf of her imaginary husband Kaiser Wilhelm II to finance the resurrection of lovers. She believed she had received this charitable task from Wilhelm II, her "husband in spirit".
Original quotes from Blankenhorn's diaries and notebooks accompany her symbolically charged and visionary visual cosmos in the exhibition.
April 12 to August 18, 2024
