Exhibitions 2
Kingdom of the Soul: Symbolist Art in Germany 1870-1920 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, till 30 July)
Emotional reactions
Angela Summerfield
Fighting shy of the perverse political overtones which were subsequently ascribed to much of the art on display, the organisers of this international exhibition, currently in Birmingham, have sought to explore the actual cultural context in which German Symbolist art developed. More than 180 paintings, drawings, prints, sculp- tures and books have been brought togeth- er from predominately public and private collections in Germany to represent artists from German-speaking countries, here lim- ited to Germany, Austria and Switzerland; France, Belgium and Russia, to name a few, are excluded. As the three co-exhibi- tion venues — Germany, Britain and Swe- den — make clear, this was a time of artistic cross-currents between countries in Northern Europe as artists sought out new ideas, training, exhibition venues and patronage. It was also a period which wit- nessed a developing rivalry between two artistic centres in Germany — Munich and Berlin — as well as the growth of alterna- tive Secession exhibiting forums, the group Die Elf and artists colonies such as Dachau in the South and Worpswede in the North. Britain's premier Symbolists were the Pre-Raphaelites, while Sweden's leading figure was the painter and writer August Strindberg, and at the Birmingham venue visitors are invited to explore for them- selves the 'British connection'. Historically, we know that German artists were aware of developments taking place in British art, particular the 'New Sculpture' epitomised by Sir Alfred Gilbert, and Lord Leighton received early art training from Edward Ritter von Steinle, and thus forged an influential link with the Deutschromer, the German artists who sought Arcadia in the warm glow of Italy and its classical past. Symbolism, however, has never been so Closely wedded to the British psyche as it was in Germany. To explain this phe- nomenon, the catalogue's authors put for- ward the argument that it was a reaction to both Germany's rapid industrialisation and its new national identity following Bismar- ck's ruthless unification policy. Against materialism, it proffered not so much escapism as different cyclical states of emo- tional existence — love, loneliness, nostal- gia, hope and spiritual renewal — which paralleled the natural world. As a reaction it covered all the visual arts (painting, sculpture, printmaking and book design are represented in the exhibition), music and poetry, a development known as Gesamtkunstwerk.
In stylistic terms, German Symbolism in the visual arts was diverse not to say blurred around the edges, as here it incor- porates the highly stylised work of Karl Strathmann, represented by the religious painting 'Maria'; Otto Modersohn's por- trayal of farming life in Northern Germany, 'Evening Landscape'; Hitler's favourite painter, Arnold Bocklin (who, we are reminded, was Swiss); the femmes fatales of the polymath Franz von Stuck, the mediae- valism of Melchoir Lechter, Kathe Kollwitz and Ernest Barlach (not included at Birm- ingham). Indeed the inclusion of the last two artists, alongside references in the cat- alogue to. German Expressionism in gener- al, die Neue Sachlichkeit and the Bauhaus aim to show that German Symbolism informed other subsequent developments. The inclusion of Georg Liihrig's sensitive interpretation of a Renaissance theme, 'Age and Youth', represented by two recognisably regional peasant types, also makes the intelligent point that German Symbolism was not just about athletic, flax- en-haired figures raising their arms as a hymn to the sun, typified by one of the few artists included, Hugo Hoppener, who lived long enough to make his political alle- giances clear.
This well-displayed and thought-provok- ing exhibition includes many paintings remarkable in their own right, such as Hans Unger's 'Fading', an impressive evocation of a woman's autumnal years and Franz von Stuck's stunning `Pieta'. For those unable to get to Birmingham, an impres- sive and copiously illustrated catalogue is available at the amazing price of £12.50.
Traume', 1911, by Heinrich Vogeler
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