New exhibitions in
September 2011:
Samurai, Stars of the Stage and Beautiful Women
World Class. The Düsseldorf School of Painting 1819–1918
Ehrenhof 4-5
40479 Düsseldorf/Germany
T 0049/211/8990200
F 0049/211/8929307
info [at] smkp.de
www.smkp.de
SAMURAI, STARS OF THE STAGE AND BEAUTIFUL WOMEN.
Japanese colour woodblock prints by Kunisada and Kuniyoshi
The exhibition is organised under the patronage of the Japanese Consulate General in Düsseldorf.
The exhibition presents a selection of some 80 prints of the artists who competed with each other for the favour of the public during their lifetimes. The Collection consists in a large donation of Japanese colour woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), especially 220 works by Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865) and Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861) alone.
Kuniyoshi’s ink and brush drawings, which are similarly part of the prints and drawings collection, will now be shown to a broader public for the first time. The subject repertoire of the exhibited works includes pictures of beautiful women, famous actors from the traditional Kabuki Theatre, theatre scenes and portrayals of heroes by the two colour woodblock print masters who were both very popular in the 19th century. A few of Kuniyoshi’s beloved whimsical and feline pictures will also be shown.
24 September 2011–22 January 2012
WORLD CLASS. THE DÜSSELDORF SCHOOL OF PAINTING 1819–1918
The exhibition will be held under the patronage of the German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, and the United States Ambassador to Germany, Philip D. Murphy
For half a century the Düsseldorf School of Painting was amongst the leading European schools of painting in the 19th Century. Museum Kunstpalast possesses a unique collection of works by the Düsseldorf School of Painting, and after more than 30 years it is again showing a large-scale survey exhibition concerning this subject, highlighting results of recent research and supplemented by works from internationally renowned collections. The international influence of Düsseldorf’s art of the 19th and early 20th Century will be on display for the first time.
Approx. 450 important paintings of scenes from history and literature, landscapes and seascapes, genre scenes, still lives and portraits will be presented. The exhibition will show also the variety of the School’s graphic work, from preliminary sketches through to book illustrations, as well as sculptures.
When Wilhelm von Schadow moved from Berlin in 1826, his best students, Theodor Hildebrandt, Julius Hübner the Elder, Christian Köhler, Carl Friedrich Lessing, Heinrich Mücke, and Carl Ferdinand Sohn, followed him to Düsseldorf. Under Schadow the Düsseldorf Art Academy developed itself into an international hub for new artistic ideas and inspiration.
Artists from across the world were drawn to the Rhine to study either at the Academy or privately, examples being Hans Frederik Gude from Norway, Fanny Churberg from Finland, the US Americans Emanuel Leutze and Albert Bierstadt, both of German descent, Arnold Böcklin from Switzerland, and Ivan Shishkin from Russia.
Under the guidance of the Baltic German Eugène Dücker who was a teacher of landscape painting at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1872, the Düsseldorf School found its way towards Modernism at the end of the 19th Century.
The monumental history painting by Emanuel Leutze “Storming of the Teocalli by Cortez and His Troops” from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, which was painted in Düsseldorf, is returning to Europe for the first time for this exhibition. Additionally Albert Bierstadt’s painting “El Capitan. Yosemite Valley, California” from the Toledo Museum of Art is amongst works never before exhibited in Germany.
A broad ranging accompanying program on the Düsseldorf School of Painting developed in cooperation with various institutions will complete the exhibition program.
*Image above:
Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago
Photo: © Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago.
