A new sculpture park on the Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt

• fromJens Joachim

  –

  shut down

–

The exhibition in the new green area at the Spanish Tower is reminiscent of the Darmstadt sculptor Wilhelm Loth, who would have been 100 years old this year.

The area on the eastern edge of Darmstädter Rosenhöhe has awakened from its slumber and now offers culture for everyone in the open air. It is thanks to the BS Culture Foundation, which Brigitte and Ulrich Scheinert founded only two years ago, that a new sculpture park has been created around the Spanish Tower in recent months. The redevelopment of the tower in accordance with listed buildings will also be completed in a few weeks.

The first exhibition that can currently be seen in the new park commemorates the sculptor Wilhelm Loth, who died in 1993 and would have turned 100 on September 24th. Loth is regarded as a formative and central representative of the Darmstadt art scene of the post-war period. The artist, best known for his characteristic female torsos, is still present in the cultural life of his hometown today – for example as the initiator of the Darmstadt Art Prize, which he himself received together with the graphic artist Helmut Lortz in 1955. The award, endowed with 12,000 euros and named after Loth since 1995, is given by the city of Darmstadt to renowned national and international artists.

The BS Kulturstiftung has supported the award ceremony since it was founded. The Scheinert couple also feel a special bond with the artist. To underline this solidarity, the Loths Foundation is now commemorating Loths with a retrospective on the Rosenhöhe. On view are 18 sculptures from all of Loth’s creative phases, most of which come from his estate. One visitor on Sunday found the sculptures, which depict large women’s breasts, legs and female genitals, to be “too frivolous and sexist”.

As the first purely open-air exhibition, the exhibition offers fascinating insights into and outlooks into the new park and the neighboring Oberfeld, where many people go for a walk, especially on Sundays.

The exhibition “An Act of Freedom – 100 Years of Wilhelm Loth” in the new sculpture garden at the Spanish Tower, Park Rosenhöhe, Ludwig-Engel-Weg 60, can be opened until May 2, 2021 on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (from November only Sundays) with free admission. Further information – including the accompanying program – is available on the Internet at: www.bs-kulturstiftung.de.

–