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ofAndreas Hartmann
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shut down
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Rembrandt in the Städel, Paula Modersohn-Becker in the Schirn and Alexej von Jawlensky in Wiesbaden: After most exhibitions had to be canceled in 2020, there is a lot to catch up on.
Crowds crowd in front of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings and drawings in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, while enormous queues form in front of the art museum. Similar pictures in front of the Schirn exhibition hall, where the show “Fantastic Women” about female painters started in February 2020 with a similar amount of attention. The pictures of the scramble are barely a year old and seem almost unimaginable today. After the Corona outbreak and the first restrictions on public life, numerous elaborately planned exhibitions flopped, were postponed or canceled entirely.
Between Darmstadt and Kassel: Interesting exhibitions in 2021
Frankfurt: The Städel, Schaumainkai 63, owns a number of works by the once very famous artist Ottilie Roederstein, who lived in Frankfurt and Hofheim for a long time. From May 19th to September 5th, “Frei schaffend” shows an overview of the work of this extraordinary painter. The Städel is hoping for a great success with “Call me Rembrandt!”. Postponed by a year and currently shown in Ottawa, Canada, it should now be on view from October 6th to January 30th, 2022. The Schirn-Kunsthalle, Am Römerberg, will make up for an exhibition from February 5 to May 16, which should actually have accompanied the Frankfurt Book Fair, “Magnetic North. The Myth of Canada in Painting 1910 to 1940 ”. The retrospective “Gilbert & George. The Great Exhibition ”gives a comprehensive overview of the work of the once so scandalous couple, probably from February 12th to May 16th. The painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, who is still one of the most renowned artists of all, died 114 years ago. A large retrospective from October 8th to February 13th 2022 gives an insight into her work, which is still highly modern today. Almost at the same time, from October 15 to January 16, 2022, another great artist, Kara Walker, can be seen in the Schirn, “A Black Hole Is Everything a Star Longs to Be” shows drawings and films by the American.
Darmstadt: The exhibition “Songs for the Air” by the contemporary Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno can be seen in the Hessian State Museum on Friedensplatz until March 28th. From October 8th to January 9th, “Ich. Max Liebermann “probably the most famous German impressionist.
Wiesbaden: The State Museum, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 2, is putting on its August Macke exhibition “Paradise!” After the corona-related closure. Paradise? ”Until May 9th. From April 30th to September 19th, “News from the 19th Century” can be seen. After all, from September 17 to March 27, 2022, the museum is dedicated to the famous painter Alexej von Jawlenski, who moved to Wiesbaden exactly 100 years ago, where he is also buried.
Mainz: In the state museum, Große Bleiche 49-51, the current exhibition “The emperors and the pillars of their power. From Charlemagne to Frederick Barbarossa ”can be seen after the reopening until April 18, booking online at www.kaiser2020.de. From June 13th, until further notice, the museum will take over the outstanding Max Slevogt collection from the Museum Villa Ludwigshöhe, which needs to be renovated.
Bad Homburg: The current exhibition “What is nature?” In the Museum Sinclair-Haus, Löwengasse 15, will be extended until August 22nd. “Tempo” about physical, experienced and ecological time opens on September 26th.
Kassel: From May 16 to September 12, the Hessen-Kassel museum landscape is dedicated to the subject of water at a total of five locations in the city. The Hessian State Museum shows the everyday use of the element over time. The historic marble bathroom in Karlsaue is about the question of how afraid of water court society really was, the Neue Galerie makes water a symbol of desires and abysses, and in Wilhelmshöhe Palace the focus is on the subject of bathing in art. aph
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It may be a bit optimistic at the moment to take a return to normality for granted in the coming months, but the days are getting longer, the number of people vaccinated is increasing and the big museums have a lot to offer in 2021. They are all planning new potential crowd pullers for the second half of the year, but there is a lot that art lovers can look forward to. And in some museums the “old” exhibitions of the previous year still hang, which sometimes could only be viewed for a few days and whose duration has often been extended.
The spectacular medieval exhibition “The Emperors and the Pillars of their Power” in the Landesmuseum Mainz or the great August Macke show “Paradise! Paradies? ”In the Landesmuseum Wiesbaden – the extensive retrospective of the extremely popular artist should actually have opened on November 1st and has practically not been seen at all. When things get going again: Macke, a real visitor magnet, should then be able to be viewed by May 9th.
The large exhibition of Canadian art in the Frankfurt Schirn, which should have accompanied the book fair in autumn 2020, was postponed due to the pandemic. “Magnetic North” is supposed to show that the huge country has a lot to offer not only in literary terms, but also in the fine arts, in this case from the first half of the 20th century. In view of the current situation, it seems questionable whether it will really open on February 5th, but around 80 major works by Canadian artists will be on view, many of them in Germany for the first time, until May 16th.
2021 is a year of women artists in the Schirn. The American Kara Walker, born in 1969, can be seen there alongside the famous and popular paintings by Paula Modersohn-Becker, born in 1876. In normal years it would already be clear: a rush of visitors would actually be inevitable.
Hesse’s most important art museum, the Frankfurt Städel, actually wanted to build on its Van Gogh success last autumn and dedicate itself (once again) to another, possibly even more famous Dutch artist, Rembrandt van Rijn. This potential blockbuster has been postponed for almost exactly a year; The opening is now expected to be on October 6th.
Max Liebermann’s “Parrot Man” comes to Darmstadt.
© HLMD
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This year, the Städel is also showing an interesting artist in a solo exhibition. In contrast to Kara Walker or Paula Modersohn-Becker, Ottilie Roederstein is almost forgotten, although Frankfurt owes a lot to the outstanding painter. So it is to be hoped that the exhibition could bring the focus back to Roederstein and her work.
2021 is a year of water in Kassel. The baroque fountains in the Bergpark of Schloss Wilhelmshöhe have been part of the Unesco World Heritage since 2013. The palace also houses an outstanding collection of old masters and is a location for a total of five exhibitions spread across the city. The theme in the castle is bathing in art. The cultural-historical show on court society and its relationship to hygiene in the exquisitely restored baroque marble bathroom in the Karlsaue, which survived the Second World War almost miraculously unscathed, should be particularly attractive. Finally, the water can also be dangerous. In the Neue Galerie, this is symbolized by Romuald Hazoumé’s non-roadworthy boat, purchased after Documenta XII in 2007.
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