The 1920's in Hannover: An Exhibition in Hannover, Germany

Author(s): Dietrich Helms and Lydia Dorner

Source: Art Journal, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Spring, 1963), pp. 140-144
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/774437
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Dietrich Helms

Translated by Lydia Dorner

THE 1920'S IN HANNOVER

An Exhibition in Hannover, Germa

It apparently always takes a generation (which, according

to Wilhelm Pinder, means 30 years) to really appreciate the
intellectual and artistic accomplishments of a period. After
the popularization of Expressionism which has been brought
about in Germany during the past few years, a strong aware-
ness of the creativity of the 1920's is now evident. Many
artistic phenomena of the present have their roots in this
period, and it is amazing to see how many of today's ideas
had already been conceived and executed during those years.
In political and social aspects the legend of the "Golden
1920's" may not quite hold up to critical observation, but it
certainly is true for the artistic and spiritual life. It is peculiar
that particularly in politically and socially uncertain periods a
passionate dedication to the artistic-spiritual prevails.
It is well-known that Germany's cultural life culminated
in Berlin. This metropolis gathered all phenomena in a burning-
mirror, as it were. Here, one was active and open to the
world, here, one found decisive criticism and a receptive
public. In all the other German cities the modern movements
had to overcome the resistance of an indolent public and pio-
neering deeds met with great difficulties. But that they did
exist is proven anew by the big exhibition of the Hannover
Art Association "The 1920's in Hannover." (fig. Fig.
1) 1. View of the exhibition, "The 1920's in Hannover," shown in Hannover,
Germany, last year. The abstract montage in left foreground is by Vordemberge-
This exhibition tried to give a complex survey on the cul-
Gildewart. The sculpture is by Archipenko, the book cover (top left) by Kurt
tural life of the city in the 1920's. The visual arts, architecture,
Schwitters.
theatre, dance as well as literature were included, and the
economic and political conditions pointed out. The purpose
was to show what had been created in Hannover proper
However,and
after 1918 Hannover became one of the germ cells
at the same time how pioneering work outside of this
of Dadaismwas
city and, most important, of Constructivism. The fore-
received. We can only mention here the importantmost
events
artistsin
were Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky, Friedrich Vor-
Hannover. A new dance form (Mary Wigman, Max Terpis,
demberge-Gildewart and Carl Buchheister.
Yvonne Georgi, Harald Kreutzberg) was created, buildings of
Kurt Schwitters has in the meantime become world-re-
well-known architects (Poelzig, Hoeger, van de Velde)
nowned went
and found followers everywhere. Around 1919 he
up (figs. 2 & 3) and open-minded publishers (such as Steege-
created his own brand of Dadaism, the so-called Merz-art. The
mann-Verlag) established themselves successfully. Merz-art
The most creations were collages (fig. 4) and mountings of
important pioneering things, however, happened indifferent
the fields
kinds of refuse: pieces of paper, wood and cloth,
of the visual arts, art institutions and art education.
buttons, wire and glass. At first Schwitters used this banal
Hannover was artistically dead until the end ofmaterial
the First
with the intention of ridiculing the Philistine con-
World War. No Expressionistic art of any value was created.
ception of the sacredness of the work of art and to lead it
ad absurdum. However, in his hands the most insignificant
things
The author, a professor of art and art education in Hannover, Germany,gained
col- a peculiar poetry (fig. 5) and the refuse turned
laborated in the preparation of the exhibition "Die Zwanziger into
Jahresomething
in Han- important. The phrase has been coined: "Po-
nover" (see also the catalogue, bearing same title) which was heldetry out of the garbage can."
in Hannover Schwitters adhered first to
during August and September, 1962. The translator! is the widow of Alexander
Cubism. Later, in the course of the 1920's, his work gained
Dorner, former director of the Hannover Landes museum. It will be recalled
that in the United States Dorner became director of the Museum of the Rhode tranquillity and simplicity and a closeness to his constructivist
Island School of Design.
friends became evident.

ART JOURNAL XXII 3 140

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Fig. 2. Hans Poelzig, Warehouse in Vinnhorst, 1920-1921.

There was Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. Originally a

student of architecture and sculpture, he turned in 1919-
when only 20 years old-to painting. His working methods
were unconventional. He created compositions from simple
geometrical forms, also using applied color fields on the sur-
face, and mounted elements such as frames, pieces of wood
and glass. He aimed at the most exact and most daring balance Fig. 3. Fritz Hoeger, Gunther Building, Hannover, 1926.

of these simple elements, and thereby arrived at a free and

elegant solution. Vordemberge-Gildewart's work has by its
equilibrium and tendency towards dynamic formations (pref-
erence for diagonals) some similarity to El Lissitzky's work.
This Russian artist, whose constructivist beginnings lay also
around 1919, left Soviet Russia in 1921 after Lenin's ban of
modern art. Apart from the time he spent in Berlin and
Switzerland (where he worked with Jean Arp) Lissitzky lived
for many years as a guest of the Kestner Society in Hannover.
He was one of the most genial, many-sided and inspiring
artists of our time. He worked as an architect, designer,
painter and editor. He published two folders with lithographs
in Hannover: The Kestner folder No. 1 (fig. 8) and a figurine
folder for the futuristic opera "Victory Over The Sun" by
A. Kurtschonjch. His greatest achievement, however, was the
installation of a room in the Landes museum Hannover, at the
request of its director, Alexander Dorner. We shall discuss it
further below.
There was also Carl Buchheister. After a comparatively in-
formal beginning he turned to constructivist work. However,
it was rarely pure constructivism. Organic forms appeared
again and again. In his own peculiar, somewhat queer way, he
reminds one of Schwitters. However, in his working methods
he is not quite so free, but rather finically scrupulous. Buch-
heister was active in the Art Association, "The Abstract Artists
of Hannover". This group arranged exhibitions and lectures,
but most important of all established contact with similar
groups all over the world (Berlin, Zurich, Paris, New York).
The activities of the abstract artists were supported by
Alexander Dorner. He did not hesitate to use his official Fig. 4. Kurt Schwitters, Lady in Red, collage, 1921.

141 Helms: The 1920's in Hannover

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Fig. 6. The Abstract Cabinet." Installed by El Lissitzky in Hannover Landes museum in 1927. Destroyed by the Nazis in 1936. Photograph shows reconstruction for the
exhibition.

Fig. 7. A wall of "The Abstract Cabinet." Left to right: Moholy Nagy, Moholy Nagy, El Lissitzky, Schlemmer.

143 Helms: The 1920's in Hannover

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Fig. 8. El Lissitzky, Lithograph from the Kestner Folder, No. 1.
position as director at the Landes museum to fight for abstract
art and to make it victorious. From 1922 on he reorganized
step by step the galleries of the museum. His point of view
was that an art museum had to cover the whole stretch from
prehistoric art to the most modern movements, showing the
inner coherence and the growth of man's faculties. He, there-
fore, bought the contemporary art of those days: Lissitzky, Archi- lived in England. Vordemberge-Gildewart went to Switzerland
penko, Moholy-Nagy, Vordemberge-Gildewart, Schlemmer, and from there to Amsterdam.
Baumeister, Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Klee, Feininger, Delaunay,
Picasso, Gleizes, Marcoussis and as the first museum director,
a painting by Piet Mondrian and a sculpture by Naum Gabo.
Due to Dorner's purchasing policy the Hannover Museum tural achievements-conglobated in that period-are lacking.
had before 1937 probably the largest collection of modern art.
In the Nazi campaign against "degenerate art" it lost 250
works of art. But Dorner's activities went further. He re-
organized the wide-ranging museum collections in such planning
a of the new art museum in Hannover. It would be
manner that the works of art were liberated from their isola-
tion, making them a positive force in the nexus of public life.
He wanted to show every work of art in its historical context
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and thus create understanding for the reality concepts of its
period. Extensive labelling, texts, booklets, photographs, as
well as effective display of the collections in so-called Period
rooms-giving a sensory representation of art historical evolu-
tion and its inherent dynamism, served this purpose (fig. 7).
Dorner faced a particular problem in the installation of a
room for modern art. He invited Theo van Doesburg to solve
the problem, Doesburg added only one more work of art to
those already existing, namely stained glass windows. Dorner,
however, looked for a new milieu in which abstract compo-
sitions could function. El Lissitzky found the solution: The
walls of that room were sheathed with narrow tin strips set
at right angles to the wall plane (figs. 6 & 7). Since these strips
were painted black on one side, gray on the other, and white
on the edge, the wall changed its character with every move of
the spectator. The sequence of tones varied in different parts
of the room. This construction thus established a supraspatial
milieu for the frameless compositions. This visual mobility
was further increased by placing a sculpture by Archipenko in
front of a mirror. The mirror reflected the reversed side
of the metal strips, not the side seen by the spectator.
Thus the mirror effect extended the elusive wall construction in
such a way that that construction changed its identity in continu-
ing. All display cases and picture mounts were made movable
to reveal new compositions and diagrams. This room con-
tained many more sensory images than could have been ac-
commodated by a rigid room. Mobility exploded the room, as it
were, and the result was a spiritual intensification, proportion-
ate to the evolutionary content of the display cases, which
tried to demonstrate the growth of modern design in its
urgent transforming power.
This room, called "the Abstract Cabinet" and completed
in 1927, soon became known all over the world.
The Room of Our Time, which Dorner had planned in
collaboration with Moholy-Nagy, then teacher at the Bauhaus
(Dorner had strong ties to Gropius and the Bauhaus) was
never finished. The Nazi Government forbade the completion.
With great courage Dorner succeeded in saving the Abstract
Cabinet until 1936, when it was finally destroyed by the Nazis.
The displayed works of art were confiscated in 1937 and partly
destroyed, partly sold to foreign countries.
Dr. Dorner emigrated to the United States. El Lissitzky had
already left Hannover. Schwitters fled to Norway and later
After the barbarism of the Hitler times Hannover never
again reached the intensity of the 1920's. Probably more
people participate now in cultural events, but the decisive cul-
The exhibition "The 1920's in Hannover" should not only
be a pleasant memory of a brilliant epoch, but should clear
our past and give impetus to the present, in particular to the
unforgiveable not to make use of Dorner's fruitful piercing
advance towards a "living museum" and instead merely add
one more sterile museum to the others.
ART JOURNAL XXII 3 144