At the 20th international art KARLSRUHE we presented successfull new discoveries of classical modernism and post-war modernism from 4 to 7 May. Attracted by the motto of our fair presentation "When KNOWN meets FORGOTTEN", large numbers of art lovers and collectors came to our stand, eager to see noteworthy rediscoveries and interested in revealing connections between almost forgotten artists and their well known contemporaries.
The public therefore paid great attention to the recently rediscovered Munich painter Joseph Mader, to whom the Lehnbachhaus is currently devoting a research project. Mader's paintings and drawings from around 1930 were shown together with prints by his artistic model, the expressionist Max Beckmann. For on the occasion of Mader's first exhibition in Munich in 1932, the press had praised the quality of his paintings and his engagement with Beckmann's art.
Works by three artist friends formed a separate group: the Jewish painter Katja Meirowsky, the sculptor Waldemar Grzimek and the painter Heinz Trökes. These three belonged to the innovative art scene in Berlin after 1945 and also performed in the legendary artist cabaret "Die Badewanne". Last year, we contributed to the rediscovery of Katja Meirowsky, who lived and worked on Ibiza from 1953 to 2002, with a representative exhibition. Her early graphic works and large-format, subliminally luminous paintings captivated the fair visitors just as much as the poetic colour fantasies created in Paris by Heinz Trökes, who is now one of the most important representatives of German post-war modernism. Waldemar Grzimek, one of the great realist sculptors of the 20th century, complemented the pictorial world of his friends, which oscillates between representationalism and abstraction, with his virtuoso bronze "Schwebende" (Floating) from 1966, which gives expression to the beauty, liveliness and radiance of the human body.
The colour explosions of Gerhart Hein, who owed his artistic career to the former Brücke member Otto Mueller, occupied a special place in the presentation. Hein dissolved figuration in his paintings in the mid-1950s. In the years that followed, he created abstract structures that fascinated viewers with their almost magical colour intensity.
The One Artist Show at our stand [in cooperation with the WOLFRAM BECK Foundation] was dedicated to the Berlin sculptor Wolfram Beck. Aesthetic rigour and precision craftsmanship, coupled with a high sensitivity for the treatment of the respective material, such as wood, steel, bronze, acrylic and stone, characterise his multifaceted oeuvre, which includes sculptures, assemblages, drawings and paintings.
