Maria, Adding some Lassnig-Glow to Edvard’s Gloom…
I was very sceptical of this “grand” exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, featuring two greats, the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) and the Austrian painter Maria Lassnig (1919–2014). Titled Flow of Paint = Flow of Life, it shows almost 200 paintings, works on paper, sculptures, films and photographs, which are presented on two floors of the Galerie der Gegenwart – the famous 1997 white cube extension of the Hamburger Kunsthalle by the architect Oswald Mathias Ungers (1926–2007).
Not only have most of the attempted “blockbuster” exhibitions in the past at the Kunsthalle been overwhelmingly commercially nuanced (like bringing Surrealism together with the German Romantics, that seemed like an excuse to yet again show –yawn– C.D. Friedrich and Runge), but they’ve simply been too full: Despite an amazing selection of rarely seem paintings, like from the Centre Pompodou in Paris, there were simply too many, all competing for attention, many in boxy galleries with too little breathing room and bad lighting.
But the Lassnig & Munch exhibition, I have to say, is delightfully spacious, the surrounding wall colours very complementary and neither distracting nor demanding. The individual chapters are imaginative, very thoughtfully structured, thus, quite educational. I was quite delighted to attend the press preview, and have to say, even though I initially thought that this was yet again an attempt to establish a prestigious association with a world-famous artist, like here, Edvard Munch with the (in Germany) lesser-known Lassnig, it became obvious that her paintings and drawings have been staged to show how most definitely, she stands her own grounds. Moreover, her artworks even enhance the perceived anxiety-riddled and tormented fin-de-siècle expressionist. Each artist stands in this show very much in their own right – and Lassnig even shines a light on Munch we may not have been aware of before.
