Penck's Passage (Sources) , 2024
80 x 75 x 2 in (h x w x d)
digital images

1. Karin Mamma Andresson, Night Guest, 2011, oil on panel, 110 x 110 cm. © The George Economou Collection. "Swedish artist Karin Mamma Andersson’s paintings are good examples of work covering more than one theme. In Night Guest (2011) an electric storm is brewing with monster-shaped clouds looming over a farmhouse and a small group of people." – Emese Krunák-Hajagos

2. A.R. Penck, Der Übergang (Passage), 1963, oil on canvas, 37 x 47-1/4”. Sammlung Ludwig, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen © A.R. Penck. "In A.R. Penck’s Passage (1963) a stick figure is crossing over a narrow bridge engulfed in flames while a fire burns in the background. The man seems to go willingly into this situation, showing that one must face the abyss of history regardless of the outcome." – Emese Krunák-Hajagos

3. and 4. German artists from Berlin, Cologne and Hanover are represented at their best here; many of them came with revolutionary experience from the New Objectivity movement during the Weimer Republic. Here are George Grosz, Otto Dix, Christian Schad and the principal Uber-Dada instigators Max Ernst, Hans Arp, Sophie Tauber, Hanna Hoch, John Heartfield, J.Baargeld and Raoul Hausmann, whose collages are still the best examples of the “challenge to painting” that German Dada-artists had to offer. And, happily, Kurt Schwitters has had his crown of Avant God fully restored. Unfortunately, the Nazi regime burned some of these artists’ works. That they did not destroy all is thanks to Hanna Hoch, who buried the “degenerate” artworks in her garden and stood vigil over hundreds of collages for many years, when they were forbidden to be exhibited in Berlin. –Valery Oisteanu

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