AUGUST MACKE

LONGING FOR PARADISE LOST

To mark the centenary of the death of August Macke (1887–1914), the Ahlers Pro Arte Foundation is joining forces with the Stiftung Sammlung Ziegler at the Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr to present an exhibition giving an overview of the Rhineland expressionist’s work. For the very first time, the main focus of Nobel prizewinner Karl Ziegler’s collection will occupy centre stage.

Though limited in number, August Macke’s years of artistic production were fast-paced; the artist’s ambitious nature led him to cast aside anything that did not contribute to his development as an artist. He left school early, started, then abandoned, a course of study at the academy of art, and later terminated his lessons with Lovis Corinth. He travelled all over Europe, even as far as North Africa, constantly seeking inspiration and exploring artistically. In 1911, he joined the Blauer Reiter group in Munich and became part of the Cologne-based Gereonsclub, and also contributed his ideas to the circle of Rhineland expressionists, despite always feeling that his artistic loyalty lay more with French than German painting.

‘He made you live twice over; his joyfulness even spread to strangers’, recalled the author Wilhelm Schmidtbonn about his friend and coeval. Macke’s life-affirming process of creation revolved around one simple formula: ‘I see my work as suffusing nature with joy.’ The artwork itself was a ‘song about the beauty of things’. He filtered his everyday observations to describe a peaceful existence, expressing his ‘longing for paradise lost’ and maintaining a positive take on life in times of great uncertainty. The many facets of his work show his constant play with idyllic motifs and ideal roles, for example depicting his wife, Elisabeth, as either contemplative Beauty, the Madonna or Venus.

The exhibition is supported by loans from Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunsthalle Bremen, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, the Kunstsammlung NRW in Düsseldorf, the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kunsthalle Emden and Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, alongside loans from private collections. Around sixty paintings, watercolours and drawings link themes with initial studies and variations, in order to give visitors insight into the artist’s ‘workshop’ and his process of artistic creation, starting with the initial idea stage. In addition, the exhibition will also shed light on connections between Macke’s use of form and content and that of his contemporaries in the German avant-garde