Making Modernism

First published on the occasion of the exhibition

‘Making Modernism:

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Käthe Kollwitz, Gabriele Münter, Marianne Werefkin’

Royal Academy of Arts, London 12 November 2022 – 12 February 2023

Supported by

With additional support from

This exhibition has been made possible by the provision of insurance through the Government Indemnity Scheme. The Royal Academy of Arts would like to thank HM Government for providing Government Indemnity and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity.

Any copy of this book issued by the publisher is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including these words being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

Catalogue supported by

EXHIBITION CURATORS

Dorothy Price Sarah Lea assisted by Rhiannon Hope and Sylvie Broussine

EXHIBITION MANAGEMENT

Rebecca Bailey assisted by Florence Mytum

PHOTOGRAPHIC AND COPYRIGHT CO-ORDINATION

Giulia Ariete and Susana Vázquez Fernández

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

Royal Academy Publications

Florence Dassonville, Production and Distribution Co-ordinator

Imogen Greenhalgh, Project Editor

Carola Krueger, Production and Distribution Manager

Peter Sawbridge, Head of Publishing and Editorial Director

Design: Kathrin Jacobsen

Colour origination and print: Gomer Press, Wales

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing-inPublication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-912520-90-9

Distributed outside the United States and Canada by ACC Art Books Ltd, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4SD

Distributed in the United States and Canada by ARTBOOK | D.A.P., 75 Broad Street, Suite 630, New York, NY 10004

EDITORIAL NOTE

Dimensions of all works of art are given in centimetres, height before width.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Front cover: Gabriele Münter, detail of cat. 46

Back cover: Paula Modersohn-Becker, detail of cat. 14

Pages 2–3: Marianne Werefkin, detail of cat. 54

Page 6: Käthe Kollwitz, detail of cat. 21

Page 9: Gabriele Münter, detail of cat. 44

Page 10: Paula Modersohn-Becker, detail of cat. 2

Page 13: Jacoba van Heemskerck, detail of cat. 65

Pages 42–43: Gabriele Münter, detail of cat. 42

Page 45: fig. 26

Page 69: fig. 27

Page 89: fig. 28

Page 109: fig. 29

Page 129: fig. 30

Page 135: fig. 31 Page 150: fig. 32

President’s Foreword

‘Making Modernism’ brings together the work of seven artists active in Germany during the first decades of the twentieth century: Paula Modersohn-Becker, Käthe Kollwitz, Gabriele Münter, Marianne Werefkin, Ottilie Reylaender, Erma Bossi and Jacoba van Heemskerck. Some knew one another as friends, others as co-exhibitors; some never met, but may have heard of each other through mutual acquaintances. They do not belong to a coherent artistic movement, but all are linked to the phenomenon we call Expressionism, which stems from an individualist philosophy. Each produced an oeuvre that warrants a monographic exhibition to explore it, and these seven represent only a tiny fraction of the women who were creating and exhibiting pioneering art around the turn of the century.

The Royal Academy has long had an interest in mounting exhibitions on German Expressionism. The often-fragile nature of this experimental work – greatly in demand for exhibition – means that survey shows are ever more difficult to achieve. Over the past decade, much energy has gone into projects that have regrettably remained unrealised, and we here acknowledge the expertise and commitment of the late Dr Frank Whitford and of Dr Jill Lloyd, who each conceived impressive visions for reassessing the period.

The Academy must also acknowledge that in the past it has overlooked women artists. Although Paula Modersohn-Becker and Käthe Kollwitz were represented in ‘German Art in the Twentieth Century’ (1985), Marianne Werefkin and Gabriele Münter were not: Münter’s presence in the catalogue is limited to her photographs of the artistic circle within which she and Werefkin were key players. Indeed, it was from Werefkin’s ‘pink salon’, where avant-garde artists, gallerists and patrons exchanged ideas when passing through Munich, that many currents of international modernism flowed.

We are delighted to have collaborated with lead curator and specialist Professor Dorothy Price to create ‘Making Modernism’, an exhibition that presents women artists on their own terms. We sincerely thank Professor Price for her rigorous concept, her insightful selection of works and her engaging catalogue essay, and we thank the University of Bristol and the Courtauld Institute of Art for supporting her commitment to the project.

The intent in bringing these particular stories into focus is to introduce the range and quality of these artists, whose work the UK public has had little opportunity to view, and to see familiar modernist subjects anew through a distinctly female gaze. Aesthetic innovations

and concepts, together with common themes and narratives hitherto submerged by a prevailing masculine tradition of modernism, can be appreciated as deliberate and self-determined. The 68 works gathered here – many presented in the UK for the first time – open a series of doors that we hope will lead to further exploration of these artists and their peers.

To share these exceptional works of art with visitors is an act of great generosity on the part of their owners. We thank all lenders to the exhibition, and we owe a special debt of gratitude to the Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung and the Kunsthalle Bremen, the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln, the Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich, and the Fondazione Marianne Werefkin, Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Ascona, and the Collection of the Municipality of Ascona, together with the Schloßmuseum Murnau, and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. We are immensely grateful for the support of many individuals, including Wolfgang Werner, Simone Ewald, Christoph Grunenberg, Hannelore Fischer, Katharina Koselleck, Isabelle Jansen, Matthias Mühling, Daniel Koep, Sandra Uhrig, Mara Folini and Martina Mazzotta.

We also thank Tim Marlow, former Artistic Director, and Axel Rüger, Secretary and Chief Executive, for programming the exhibition, and Andrea Tarsia, Director of Exhibitions, and Dr Adrian Locke, Chief Curator, for their unwavering support and guidance. The selection has been developed in close collaboration with Sarah Lea and Anna Testar, Curators, and Rhiannon Hope, Assistant Curator. We thank Rebecca Bailey and Florence Mytum, who have steered this project to success through their expert management despite changes wrought by Brexit and Covid, and Susana Vázquez Fernández and Giulia Ariete for overseeing photographic rights and reproduction.

We thank Dr Shulamith Behr for sharing her knowledge and expertise in this handsome exhibition catalogue, which has been produced by the Academy’s dedicated publishing department, and we are especially grateful to Chantal Joffe RA for taking time out from her studio to explore the importance of these artists.

The exhibition has been designed by Ian Gardner of ILK. Ltd with graphics by Natalia de Wilde and lighting designed by ZNA Studio.

We extend our deepest gratitude to our exhibition supporters BNP Paribas, and to the Huo Family Foundation, The Tavolozza Foundation, and the International Music and Art Foundation for their additional support.

Rebecca Salter PRA President, Royal Academy of Arts

8

Catalogue

2

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Girl with Child , 1902

Oil on cardboard, 45.3 x 50.5 cm

Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague. Inv. no. 0333459

3 (opposite)

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Seated Old Woman with a Cat, 1904

Oil tempera on cardboard, 73.3 x 57.8 cm

Kunsthalle Emden. Inv. no. 1986/57

48

Käthe Kollwitz, Love Scene I, c . 1909–10

Crayon on Ingres laid paper, 48.8 x 62 cm

Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln. Cat. Rais. NT 561

74 23

24

Käthe Kollwitz

Lovers Nestling Against Each Other, 1909–10 Charcoal on Ingres laid paper, 56 x 48.2 cm

Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln. Cat. Rais. NT 559

75

46

Gabriele Münter

Still-life on the Tram (After Shopping) c . 1912

Oil on cardboard, 50.2 x 34.3 cm

Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich Inv. no. S 44

104

47

Gabriele Münter

Still-life with Mirror, 1913 Oil on canvas, 60.9 x 45 cm

Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich Inv. no. S 113

105

Marianne Werefkin

Twins 1909 Tempera on paper, 27.5 x 36.5 cm

Fondazione Marianne Werefkin, Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Ascona. Inv. no. FMW 0-0-13

112 51

113

52

Marianne Werefkin

At the Café, 1909 Tempera, pencil and grease pencil on paper on cardboard, 54 x 72.2 cm

Fondazione Marianne Werefkin, Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Ascona. Inv. no. FMW 0-0-14

114

Marianne Werefkin, The Dancer Alexander Sacharoff, 1909 Tempera on paper on cardboard, 73.5 x 55 cm Fondazione Marianne Werefkin, Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Ascona. Inv. no. FMW 0-0-15

115 53

Spiritual in Art (1912) was an important text for Van Heemskerck, she was generally critical of attempts by modernists to set down rigid views on painting in words, feeling that this could curtail the ‘deep, glorious spontaneity of art’ as she wrote to Herwarth Walden in 1915. 3 Van Heemskerck did welcome the interest of Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven, who, in addition to his work as a doctor, followed the principles of anthroposophy and wrote on art; he dedicated essays to Van Heemskerck, one evoking the state of ‘enchantment’ he felt her works reflected. 4

Van Heemskerck exhibited with Der Sturm every year from 1913 until her death, and corresponded regularly with Walden, who, alongside Nell, became one of her greatest supporters. In 1914 Der Sturm showed a double exhibition of works by Marianne Werefkin and Van Heemskerck (see pages 34–41) and in 1915 the German Expressionist poet Adolf Behne (1885–1948), a long-established critic and contributor

to Walden’s associated journal, Der Sturm , included reference to her work in his book Towards a New Art. By 1916 Behne had purchased five of Van Heemskerck’s paintings. She also made a series of Expressionist woodcuts specifically for publication in the journal, representing motifs such as windmills and sailing boats, albeit in a highly stylised way, with a strong emphasis on visual rhythm.

Her use of the title ‘Composition’ or ‘Picture’ (‘Bild’) for an array of paintings indicates her allegiance to abstraction. Although the arrangements of her paintings do sometimes stem from observable motifs, the dominance of shape, colour and texture – such as in the trembling, thunderous vibrations of Composition (1917–20; cat. 66) or the fluid, sinuous strokes of Composition No. 84 (Portrait of a Child) (1918; cat. 65) –means the paintings are not restrained by any sense of perspectival recession or scale, the visual sensations fully autonomous.

From around 1916 Van Heemskerck

pursued mosaic, stained-glass painting and window design, finding in these mediums a way to engage with architecture, to design compositions on a larger, immersive scale, and to unite colour and light. In 1920 she produced ambitious works for the windows of a private villa in Wassenaar, a suburb of The Hague, including a continuous composition across eight stained-glass panels. Some of her glass pieces were exhibited with Der Sturm (although Walden did not encourage this direction in her work), while others were designed for public sites in Amsterdam, such as the stairwell of the naval barracks (now destroyed) and a new health centre.

Van Heemskerck died unexpectedly of angina at the age of 47. In the same year, Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven dedicated his doctoral thesis ‘The Effects of Colours on Emotions’ to the artist.

136

65

Jacoba van Heemskerck

Composition No. 84 (Portrait of a Child), 1918

Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 38.5 cm

Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague. Inv. no. 0332252

137

Chronology

Rhiannon Hope

1893

Paula Becker (8 February 1876 – 30 November 1907) undertakes teacher-training classes in Bremen, while pursuing her art studies simultaneously, with guidance from private tutors.

Käthe Kollwitz (8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) participates in exhibitions for the first time, with two etchings included in the ‘Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung’ (Great Berlin Art Exhibition), and three works in the ‘Freie Berliner Kunstausstellung’ (Free Berlin Art Exhibition), attracting praise from the critic and collector Julius Elias (1861–1927) in the magazine Die Nation.

Having been introduced the previous year, Marianne Werefkin (11 September 1860 – 6 February 1938) and the Russian painter Alexei Jawlensky (1864–1941) work together intensively during the summer months at Werefkin’s studio on a country estate near Kovno, Lithuania.

1895

In April, Becker visits an exhibition by the Worpsweder Künstlervereinigung (Artists’ Association) at the Kunsthalle Bremen, which includes paintings by Otto Modersohn (1865–1943). The group makes a public breakthrough shortly afterwards, when a room dedicated to the Worpswede artists receives acclaim at the international exhibition at the Munich Glaspalast held later that year.

1896

Becker attends the painting and drawing school of the Künstlerinnen-Verein (Association of Women Artists) in Berlin, where Kollwitz teaches etching and drawing between 1898 and 1903.

Werefkin’s father dies. As his orphaned daughter, Werefkin receives a generous pension from the Tsar, giving her financial independence. Werefkin and Jawlensky move from St Petersburg to Munich. Werefkin pauses her own artistic practice in order to prioritise Jawlensky’s painting. From her apartment on Giselastrasse, she establishes a circle of progressive artists, intellectuals and Russian acquaintances, known as the ‘Salon of the Giselists’ and the ‘pink salon’.

1897

Becker visits the Worpswede artists’ colony from July–August, meeting Otto Modersohn and Heinrich Vogeler (1872–1942) for the first time.

Werefkin creates a new, informal artists’ salon in Munich – the St Lukas Brotherhood – with Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944) among its members. In April several of them, including Werefkin, visit the second iteration of the Venice Biennale, an ambitious international art exhibition set up in 1895.

Jacoba van Heemskerck (4 January 1876 – 3 August 1923) attends the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague

Fig. 33 Hermine Rohte, Open-air painters in Worpswede, led by Fritz Overbeck, c. 1896. Photograph Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen

147

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