Not all of the works came to the Bremen Art Collection as part of the social artist support between the 1980s and the early 2000s. Various works found their way to the Municipal Gallery earlier. This includes the work we are presenting today.
What does the picture show?
With few resources and in a very reduced way, the work succeeds in depicting an intense scene. In the foreground: the eponymous net-mender at work, surrounded by large nets. In the background you can see – at least vaguely – the harbor, ships and a quay wall. The print combines the maritime and the craft with the artistic, and this is reinforced by a still life that seems out of place in the front part of the work. Angela Tietze from the Municipal Gallery is reminded of the Arachne legend from Greek mythology, in which the arrogant weaver Arachne challenges the goddess Athena (goddess of art and crafts, among other things) to a weaving competition and wins. There is no exact year when the artist created the picture. According to experts, it was probably created in the early 1950s.
What is special about this picture?
The picture, emphasized Ingmar Lähnemann and Angela Tietze from the Municipal Gallery, presents them with challenges. And they are already starting with finding out when and how the work came into the collection. Like many other works, it has the inventory number 0, and that’s it. Another challenge is that the picture has suffered some damage to the edges over the years due to its framing. In general, graphics present the gallery with storage issues: framed pictures can be stored more safely, but at best they would need proper passe-partouts. For this, the gallery would have to acquire additional funds.
Who was the artist?
Gustava Tölken (full name: Therese Marie Gustava Tölken) lived from 1891 to 1983 and was, as Ingmar Lähnemann emphasizes, a “very, very exciting artist” who deserves to be looked at more closely from an art historical perspective here in Bremen. The collection contains 18 of her works. “The Net-Mender” is the only work by Tölken recorded in the inventory so far. The whereabouts of the other 17 works remain to be discovered. Tölken came from a middle-class home in Bremen, and art also played a role for other family members. Her mother drew, and one of her brothers is also no stranger to the art world: August Tölken became known in Bremen as a sculptor.
Why is Gustava Tölken special?
“She came from a generation in which women had the chance for the first time to really study art and find their way,” says Lähnemann. According to the Bremen Women’s Museum, she was trained in Paris in the studio of the painter Lovis Corinth. In the 1920s and 1930s, Tölken lived in Berlin. Her style was late expressionist, says Lähnemann, and the influence of Berlin realism can also be seen in her work. From today’s perspective, however, she is even more interesting as a graphic artist than as a painter, says the gallery director. Many of Tölken’s works have been lost to the art world: “Her studio in Berlin was hit by an incendiary bomb,” says Lähnemann. After the war, Tölken returned to Bremen and had to start all over again. She was never very successful, but in the 1950s she was represented with several works in two exhibitions at the Kunsthalle. She traveled a lot and created circus and everyday scenes, i.e. simplified depictions of “people and objects in a special environment,” as the Women’s Museum summarizes it. Three of Tölken’s prints are in the Grafothek of the Central Library on the Wall; one of them is currently on loan, the other two can be borrowed.
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