Expressive Arts Focusing - Creative Compassion Blog April 11, 2023 ©Freda Blob
Art Journal page January 5th, 2023, Intention Setting. With photo of artwork of ©Eric Isenburger (1902-1944), Portrait of a Dancer, 1928
To approach Museum art-based peacebuilding, we follow museum art of persected artists and museum art of artists who's work relate to artwork of persecuted artists. We want to see, feel and reflect on artists' work that had been degraded, banned and burned. Going into museums to see original artwork is more powerful than seeing art from digital sources for many reasons
A trip to the Center for Persecuted Arts Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany was our 2023 highlight. Here we got informed about a period in art history where artists experienced the most devastating environment
The permanent exhibition shows master pieces that have been labelled as degenerative art during the 1930s and 1940s. Although not all exhibits were touching (some of them did not resonate at all), we were deeply moved by the show as a whole. We were introduced to unknown or neglected stunning pieces of innovative persecuted Expressionists speaking to us:
'Keep up the positive and withdraw from despair having the last word!' - this is what we got from the exhibitors as timeless message
This art made us feel something polyphony inside sounding more than just one voice. From all the voices we got, the voice of compassion for creative life was the strongest
© Eric Isenburger (1902-1944), Portrait of a Dancer, 1928, Citizen Foundation, Center for Persecuted Arts, Solingen GER
Persecuted arts are witnessing the power of human creativity in the midst of destructive and life threatening circumstances. They document incredible resilience and hold a promise of hope
This promise makes us follow numerous artists whose work has been labled as degenerative. We come across the Art Museum Reutlingen GER where the art work of Adolf Hölzel (1853-1934) is exhibited
In Adolf Hölzel we find a progressive and innovative artist and art teacher, a pioneer of modern arts who strongly promoted artistic voices of female artists being persecuted for their art
In 1933 art work of Hölzel and his students (and later colleagues, The Hölzel Circle) was to be exhibited at the National Art Exhibition, but the exhibition was cancelled due to National Sozialist seizure of power.
In 1933 a small set of art works of Hölzel and an impressive number of pieces of his students 'The Hölzel Circle' was to be exhibited at the National Art Exhibition. The exhibition was cancelled due to National Sozialist seizure of power
The art work of three members of the Hölzel Circle was officially declared as degenerative:
- The art of Ida Kerkovius, master student and long time assistant of Hölzel (banned in 1933)
- The art of Lily Hildebrandt, also a master student who chronologically documented Hölzel's lectures (banned in 1935)
- The art of Max Ackermann (banned in 1936), a painter and designer who's artwork was already exhibited at the State Art Gallery Stuttart at that time
Another member of the Hölzel Circle, Maria Lemmé who had been studying with Adolf Hölzel and published his ideas in her book "Thoughts and Teachings", was deported to Terezín in 1942 (official date of death March 28, 1943). Almost all of the art of Maria Lemmé had been destroyed except pictures she privatley had given away
Finding out about the members of the Hölzel Circle we visit the Stuttgart Hölzel House. Here we find traces of their lives and their art presented in a permanent exhibition. We feel intrigued by their work and cannot other but hold up deep respect for their heritage
We are chosing Adolf Hölzel as artist of reference for Museum based Creative Compassion practice as his body of work of the 1920-30s is abstract, whereas the work of the Hölzel Circle is semi-abstract or figurative.
Abstracts offer freedom of expression for the practitioner using Fine Arts pieces and receptive-active arts engagement as tools to build Relational Empathy from aesthetic feeling. Abstracts are interactive: It is the viewer, not the artist, who gives meaning to them.
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