Sprengel Museum opens 'Portfolios in the Kestner Society Collection'

Wednesday, 09 April 2008 00:55

Hanover, Germany - The Sprengel Museum opens the exhibit Portfolios in the Kestner Society Collection (Kaus, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, Schmidt-Rottluff and Schwichtenberg) through June 29. The year 1923 was a special year for Hanover as well as for the Kestner Society, which was founded a few years previously. The new director, Eckart von Sydow, took the initiative to organise El Lissitzky's first exhibition. Since Lissitzky's work sold exceptionally well during the show, the artist was asked to create a portfolio of lithographs as a special, annual edition for members of the society.
 
This “Proun-Portfolio” was intended to help fill the empty coffers of the poorly-funded Kestner Society. That same year, 5 additional portfolios were assembled comprised of works by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Kaus, Martel Schwichtenberg, Willy Robert Huth und László Moholy-Nagy as special editions for members. A seventh portfolio was in the planning stages, featuring Oskar Schlemmer's works, but then, when Eckart von Sydow left Sprengel, it was not brought to fruition. In 1923 El Lissitzky was asked by Leunis & Chapman Printmakers of Hanover, who had realised the existing Kestner Portfolios, to realise an additional one featuring 10 figurines from the electro-mechanical extravaganza ‘Sieg über die Sonne’ (Victory over the Sun), an opera by Alexei Krutshonych.
 
Sprengel Museum Hannover

Opened in 1979, the Sprengel Museum Hannover, with its comprehensive Collection and diverse programme of temporary exhibitions, ranks among the major art museums of the 20th and 21st century. Visit : www.sprengel-museum.de/v1/englisch/smhframes.html

The museum today builds on the original collection owned by Dr Bernhard Sprengel, who favoured German Expressionism and French Modern Art. The last 20 years have seen the Collection expand to include works from the most important epochs of contemporary art. Moreover, the Department of Photography and Media came into being in 1994. The museum holds on average 25 temporary exhibitions each year, numerous symposia and several different series of lectures. It also offers a comprehensive educational programme and since 1993 houses the Kurt Schwitters Archive. The Sprengel Museum thus provides a lively forum for art and art studies.