The Kunsthalle Tübingen Celebrates its 40th Anniversary With "Cézanne Renoir Picasso & Co"

Written by Theodore Grunstrasse Sunday, 20 May 2012 21:08

Tübingen, Germany.- On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the Kunsthalle Tübingen looks back at its history in two successive exhibitions. The first anniversary exhibition, "Cézanne  Renoir  Picasso & Co" is currently on view and runs through January 29th 2012. Its theme is the development that commenced in 1982 and frequently referred to by the media as the “Miracle of Tübingen”: with an exhibition of watercolors by Paul Cézanne, founding director Götz Adriani succeeded for the first time in attracting more than 100,000 visitors to the museum. An exhibition of pastels and oil sketches by Edgar Degas two years later attracted an even larger crowd. In the years and decades that followed, a number of further successful shows ensued, for instance of Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec or Henri Rousseau.

The first anniversary exhibition is not only an extract from these great Tübingen events, but at the same time a uniquely concentrated presentation of major works of the classic modern period in France: Paul Cézanne is prominently represented by 18 works, paintings, watercolors, and drawings. Works by other artists who drew large numbers of visitors to the Kunsthalle will also be on display: Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Rousseau, Alberto Giacometti, and Pablo Picasso, whose 22 works present the largest group, none of which have never previously been shown in Tübingen.

His oil paintings and works on paper constitute a self-contained, independent small-scale retrospective that pays tribute to his special role within art history as a salient mediator between the 19th and 20th centuries. A selection of posters that provide an overview of the famous exhibition history of the Kunsthalle Tübingen as well as three oil paintings by the Württembergian painter Georg Friedrich Zundel are also part of the anniversary show. It was in his honor that his wife Paula Zundel and her sister Margarete Fischer-Bosch founded the Kunsthalle Tübingen, which opened in 1971. The paintings feature a self-portrait as well as the founders, both of whom were daughters of the Stuttgart industrialist Robert Bosch. The exhibition will be accompanied by a program that includes lectures and panel discussions.

The founding of the Kunsthalle in Tübingen is the result of the financial contribution of the sisters Paula Zundel and Dr. Margarethe Fischer. These daughters of Robert Bosch enabled the city of Tübingen in 1971 to begin the construction of a Kunsthalle dedicated to the memory of the painter Friedrich Zundel, as a permanent center for the enrichment of the local arts scene. The institution was built in an area of new construction at the northern edge of the university town and comprised a streamlined, one-storey building which made excellent use of natural light. Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Götz Adriani, the 1970's saw a succession of high quality exhibitions that established the international reputation of the Tübingen Kunsthalle. In addition to the high level of scholarship of these programs another of their main characteristics was the alternation between modern and contemporary art.  Important contemporary artists were often shown at an early stage in their international careers. Among them were such artists as: Franz Erhard Walter (1972), George Segal (1972), Ulrich Rückriem (1973), Joseph Kosuth (1973), Joseph Beuys (1973), Richard Hamilton (1974), Claes Oldenburg (1975), Sigmar Polke (1976), Frank Stella (1977), or Richard Serra (1978). Extraordinary interest was shown by the public in the single artist exhibitions devoted to the great forerunners of modern art such as Cézanne (1978, 1982, 1993), Degas (1984, 1995), Renoir (1996), Toulouse-Lautrec (1976, 1986, 2002), Picasso (1986, 2001) or Rousseau (2001). These exhibitions drew hundreds of thousands of visitors. The revenue generated by these exhibitions was used to improve the infrastructure of the Kunsthalle and enabled the construction of a separate building for the administrative offices. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.kunsthalle-tuebingen.de

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