Berlin's Museum of Prints & Drawings opens Works by renowned German artist Emil Nolde |
 |
 |
| Written by rubin |
| Friday, 03 July 2009 03:56 |
|
 In the numerous Nolde
exhibitions that have come to be held both at home and abroad, the spotlight is
usually placed on the artist's paintings above all else. Nolde appears to be
somewhat lesser known as the creator of exceptional printed works which take
profound themes as their subject and which are executed with brilliant technical
skill. The graphics also reveal Nolde's distinctly painterly temperament,
something which often came to the fore in his technical experimentation (etching
technique) and variegation. As a printmaker, for instance, Nolde was to have a
decisive influence on the ‘Brücke' artists, and on their etchings in particular.
All key aspects of Nolde's work are depicted in the exhibition and are spread across six thematic areas: Joie de vivre and the Existential - Portraits - Pictures of the Sea and Ports - Cities and Landscapes - Biblical Pictures - Journey to the South Seas. Of all the works on display, the 26 watercolours detail the journey to the South Seas, which formed part of a bundle of some 50 sheets which were presented as a gift in 1919 from the Reich Colonial Office to the National Gallery and which mark a highpoint in Nolde's oeuvre (in 1937, twenty-four of the watercolours were confiscated for being ‘degenerate'). Museum of Prints and Drawings The collection dates back to 1652, when the Great Elector bought around 2,500 drawings and water colours for the royal court library of Brandenburg-Prussia. The official foundation year of the Kupferstichkabinett – Museum of Prints and Drawings is 1831, the date which marks the beginning of a systematic extension of the collection. The 19th century was characterised by the acquisition of a number of high-quality private collections. The world renown of the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett is based on one such acquisition: the 1835 purchase of the Nagler collection with 50,000 works, mainly early prints of the 15th to 17th centuries and old German drawings (such as by Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grünewald). A few years later, the Pacetti collection was purchased, comprising nearly 10,000 Italian drawings. Significant extensions can also be listed for the years 1874 and 1877, especially in the area of Dutch and German drawings. In 1882, Sandro Botticelli's famous drawings illustrating Dante’s "Divine Comedy" entered the Kabinett, as well as numerous illuminated manuscripts from the collection of the Duke of Hamilton. In 1902, the Berlin collection of Adolf von Beckerath was purchased, with around 3,500 old master drawings of the highest quality. While the Kabinett has at all times purchased contemporary prints, for many years the collecting and keeping of 19th and 20th century drawings (particularly German) fell within the responsibility of the National Gallery. In 1906, around 6,000 drawings and coloured works on paper by Adolph von Menzel entered the gallery’s collection. Since 1986, the drawings formerly at the National Gallery have been kept at the Kupferstichkabinett – Museum of Prints and Drawings. Visit : www.smb.museum/smb/sammlungen/ Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
Related Articles :
