"A Fresh Spirit" - Alfred Kubin and the Prinzhorn collection
2 March - 30 Juli 2017
Flyer (German / English)The Austrian graphic artist Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) visited the art collection assembled by Prinzhorn in 1920. He wrote a passionate account voicing his desire for these Heidelberg gems of art to have a venue, where they could be exhibited on a permanent basis, so that “a freshness of spirit would radiate from this place where art created by the mentally ill was being collected”. The artist published his fervent appeal in 1922 in the magazine Das Kunstblatt, shortly after Prinzhorn’s Artistry of the Mentally Ill (Bildnerei der Geisteskranken) appeared in print. Showing about one hundred works, our exhibition reconstructs Kubin’s opinion on the artists presented anonymously in his article. Information about the artists’ professions, as well as descriptions of their styles and works, provided by Kubin, enable us to clearly identify the works of art. Our selection of exhibits was made according to Kubin’s description, but also exceeds this set providing a more complete impression of the oeuvres of the artists described. It is a supplemented version of an exhibition held by the Linz State Museum.
The painter and architect Paul Goesch, considered by Kubin to be “the least interesting of them all”, was the first in a numerical listing followed by another twelve who were all self-taught artists. It was the paintings in oil and crayon by the locksmith Franz Karl Bühler, who lived in the Emmendingen asylum, which left the “strongest impression” on him. Bühler, whom Prinzhorn ranked alongside van Gogh, was also considered by Kubin to be a “master of the first order”. Oskar Herzberg’s little paintings reminded Kubin of Paul Klee, and, what is more, Herzberg’s “Collisions of heavenly bodies” bore a resemblance to Kubin’s earlier painting “Imminent collision” (1905) so striking that he suggested an exchange of works that he regarded as equally worthy: Kubin’s painting in tempera and another four works from his graphic arts collection thus went to Heidelberg. In return, Kubin obtained four drawings by Bühler, his favourite artist, and a watercolour by August Klett, whose “Friseurtyp” (fellow with a hair-do) and “Buffetdamen” (girls at the buffet) Kubin found “most inspiring”.
Apart from this juxtaposition of Kubin’s and Herzberg’s collisions of planets, the exhibition shows graphic art from Kubin’s collection that changed hands as mentioned above: a depiction of a mentally ill person by Max Mayrshofer and three anonymous drawings from the Eglfing asylum. Furthermore, we show a small selection of Kubin’s graphic art on the subject of madness, among others “Mad Van Gogh” (around 1910).
This exhibition was already held by the Upper Austrian State Museum in Linz in 2013. Curated by Gabriele Spindler, it was centred mainly around Kubin’s works, whereas now in Heidelberg, with twice as many exhibits from our own storage rooms, the focus has shifted rather to the artists of the Prinzhorn collection.