EXHIBITION AT BUSCH-REISINGER CELEBRATES THE PUBLICATION OF OUTSTANDING GIFT OF GERMAN POSTWAR DRAWINGS AND PRINTS
Contact: Kate McShea Ewen (617) 495-2397
Release: June 25, 1998
Cambridge, MassachusettsæThe special exhibition German Marks: Postwar Drawings and Prints Donated to the Busch-Reisinger Museum through the German Art Dealers Association will be on display at the Busch-Reisinger Museum from July 18 through September 27, 1998 to celebrate the Harvard University Art Museums' publication of a new catalogue by the same name. The catalogue, which will be available in August, was prompted by a gift to the Busch-Reisinger of over 200 drawings and prints by East and West German artists, some completed as recently as 1993. Arranged through the German Art Dealers Association, the donation of drawings and prints came not only from the dealers but from artists, artists' estates and private collectors. The gift greatly enhanced the Busch-Reisinger's collection of German postwar drawings and prints by artists born before 1945. Approximately forty drawings and prints will be on display in the exhibition, organized by Emilie Norris, assistant curator, Busch-Reisinger Museum, which will provide a historical overview of the period considered in the catalogue and focus on the international emergence of contemporary German art in the 1960s.
The catalogue will be published in English and will be approximately 200 pages with 31 color illustrations and 215 black and white illustrations. The text was written by Erika Koeltzsch, former curatorial intern at the Busch-Reisinger Museum and currently director of the Michael Werner Gallery in Cologne, Germany, with contributions by Yule Heibel, an independent art historian, and Emilie Norris. Divided into five sections, the catalogue will consider key trends in German art during the decisive decades of that country's cultural revitalization from the end of World War II up to the 1990s. There are sections on realism, the Informel (the German version of Abstract Expressionism), the search for aesthetic clarity, art from the German Democratic Republic, and prints and drawings by sculptors. Seventy-two artists will be featured with entries that include photographs of the artists and reproductions of their work. The catalogue will also include a select bibliography of publications in English.
Professor Reinhold Heller, Department of Art History, University of Chicago, who reviewed the manuscript for the catalogue had this to say: "With this wealth of varied information, the catalogue will certainly become a much needed, standard and fundamental reference - the work to which one would point students and other scholars as the definite first step in their research æin the area of German post-World War II art, otherwise so impoverished in terms of English-language studies devoted to it. I earnestly urge you to go ahead with publication plans certain that the catalogue will fill a major gap in the art historical literature and offer materials otherwise largely unknown or relatively inaccessible to an English-speaking audience...you can be confident of its scholarly significance."
The exhibition will include works by Horst Janssen, Richard Oelze, Willi Baumeister, Karl Otto Goetz, Gotthard Graubner, Otto Piene, Werner Tubke and Gerhard Marcks. The prints will range from small, delicate etchings to a very large 35-color silkscreen and the drawings will range from tiny silverpoints to large gouaches.
RELATED EVENTS
Gallery talks Gallery talks are free with the price of admission to
the Art Museums. Hearing assists are available for gallery talks; arrangements
should be made beforehand by phoning (617) 495-8286. To request a sign
language interpreter, the public should call (617) 495-2397 using Massachusetts
Telephone Relay Service 1-800-439-2370 three weeks in advance of the
gallery talk.
Saturday, August 1, 11:30 a.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
with Emilie Norris, assistant curator, Busch-Reisinger Museum.
Sunday, August 2, 2:00 p.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
with Emilie Norris, assistant curator, Busch-Reisinger Museum.
Saturday, September 5, 11:30 a.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
with Emilie Norris, assistant curator, Busch-Reisinger Museum.
Sunday, September 6, 2:00 p.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
with Emilie Norris, assistant curator, Busch-Reisinger Museum.
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The Harvard University Art Museums' facilities are wheelchair accessible.
For general information, please call (617) 495-9400. For press information
or photographs, please contact Kate McShea Ewen at (617) 495-2397. For
more information on events, please contact the Friends, Fellows, and Special
Programs Office at (617) 495-4544. World Wide Web: www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.
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The Harvard University Art Museums comprise three museums (Busch-Reisinger
Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum), all located on the
Harvard University campus in Cambridge, MA, at the intersection of Quincy
Street and Broadway, adjacent to Harvard Yard. The Art Museums are open
Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 p.m.-5:00
p.m. Closed holidays. Admission is $5.00; $4.00 for senior citizens; $3.00
for students; free under 18, on Saturday mornings and, beginning July
1, 1998, on Wednesdays. For special tour reservations, please call (617)
496-8576. General tours are offered Monday through Friday from September
through June; July and August, Wednesdays only. The Fogg tour is at 11:00
a.m.; the Busch-Reisinger tour is at 1:00 p.m.; and the Sackler is at
2:00 p.m. The Harvard University Art Museums is supported in part by the
Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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