Page 55 - Studio International - February 1972

quantity of private wealth-but no existence. Failing purchasing-power pursued for its own sake but is at the incidentally very much to the
society. has not only worsened London's same time related to, or developed advantage of the region as a whole.
ROBERT KUDIELKA position but has also resulted in the out of, the environment. The Cologne Kunstmarkt every
Translated fom the German by John departure of numerous artists from The strength of this art scene lies year attracts large numbers of
Wheelwright and David Britt. Paris and Berlin, and one of the not just in its social commitment but visitors-as well as the ill-will of the
areas to profit from these emigrations also in the fact that it is young and press because it does not set out to
was the Rhine-Ruhr region, with its unencumbered. There is no long- provide what Prospect achieves in
competing cultural centres of hallowed academic or middle-class Düsseldorf without all the ballyhoo.
Cologne and Düsseldorf. From the intellectual tradition to constrict it. This competition ultimately makes
point of view of the art trade, the Dix and Klee have not left as great the two cities complementary. The
former might seem more an impression behind in Düsseldorf foundation in Düsseldorf of the Art
Rhine-Ruhr interesting, but (leaving aside as Hölzel has in Stuttgart, or Olbrich Collection of the Land Nordrhein-
musicians) greater numbers of in Darmstadt. Certainly in the 20S Westfalen did not correct the
The most active areas on the art important artists live in and around there was Neue Rheinland around imbalance created by Cologne's more
scene of West Germany today are the Düsseldorf-which, moreover, Mutter Ey, which opened up the numerous museums and galleries,
west (Cologne, Düsseldorf and the lying closer to the great catchment local situation but did not have a for the latter promptly and cunningly
Ruhr), the south-west (Frankfurt, area of the Ruhr, has acquired a permanent and definitive influence. countered by securing the permanent
Baden-Baden, Karlsruhe, pseudo-metropolitan status. But Karl Osthaus founded the Folkwang loan of the Ludwig Collection and
Mannheim and Stuttgart) and the while (thanks to the local in Hagen because he wanted it to providing yet another attraction in
north (Hamburg, Brunswick, Kunstverein paving the way) provide a cultural impetus for a the Galeriehaus. However,
Hanover and Berlin). It is Cologne and Düsseldorf acquired spiritually underdeveloped area, Schmela's new building in
interesting that cultural activities newly built art galleries as centres and with him Christian Rohlfs and Düsseldorf, the progressive activity
are not, as once they were, confined for the discussion of contemporary the Expressionists entered the of the Galerie Fischer there, and the
to individual cities, like Darmstadt, art, a number of other museums region. But an artist like Oskar arrival of Denise René have almost
Dresden, Berlin or Stuttgart, but initiated dialogues with present-day Schlemmer also, after his Bauhaus restored the equilibrium.
spread out over whole regions. This movements, among them the Kaiser period, received from Gosebruch In this neck-and-neck race the
can be ascribed partly to the Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, the one of the most important artists themselves have put their
increased mobility of artists and Schloss Morsbroich in Leverkusen commissions a museum has ever money on Düsseldorf. The activities
public and partly to the supra-local and, more tentatively, the given an artist: the Essen Folkwang of Schmela and Zero laid the
attraction and influence of cultural Lehmbruck-Museum in Duisburg, frescoes, later removed by the Nazis. groundwork here, and the Academy,
institutions and their programmes the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Josef Albers was born in Bottrop. its importance re-established by the
(still too little co-ordinated). But the Museum am Ostwall in His rational, completely appointments of Kricke, Geiger
while activity may be intense Dortmund, the Kunsthalle in unsentimental character, with its and Hoehme, has found a new
within a given region it hardly spills Recklingshausen, theStadtische emphasis on concrete objectives, is magnet in Josef Beuys. With an
over into the next at all; indeed one Museum in Bochum and the Von characteristic of the Ruhr region and almost unequalled psychological and
could say that these inward-looking der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal. typifies the basically Westphalian pedagogical armoury he has the
regions take very little interest in Nordrhein-Westfalen has one of attitudes of the artists who live there, ability to establish a successful
each other. This is of course the world's highest gallery like Grasel, Knubel or Spindel, or, dialogue directly with the young, and
because artists settle where they feel densities, with over forty to its going back a bit further, Schumacher, the moral weight to convince through
the ambience most suited to their name, and has also become one of Hermann or Werdehausen. The his absolute integrity and
work, with the result that, in time, the most interesting regions in the work of all of them contains unquestionable technical
each area tends to become more context of the theatre, though this references to this drained, torn apart competence. Beuys has decisively
homogeneous and its artistic has not always been so. An area and artificially reconstituted altered the cultural climate and
character more distinct from that of which once only produced coal and landscape. Schumacher's pictures unleashed the tremendous gifts of
others. Thus a colourful, geometric steel has turned into a cultural zone are as little intelligible without the pupils like Ruthenbeck and
art of clear outlines, sometimes shot which, though occasionally crusted screes of the region as Palermo. But for all the inspiration
with lyricism, has established itself hamstrung by local loyalties, Knubel's or Grasel's plastic objects Beuys provides, and for all his belief
in the south-west, while the north functions almost as one organism in without the anonymous sculpture in the power of individuality, his
favours a more surrealist and co-ordinating a variety of cultural latent in the industrial landscape or art-political actions sometimes seem
figurative approach. The west is functions. This is of course in factory scrap. A basically very unclear. Though he breaks the
more reserved in its use of colour necessary, since all this effort is constructive approach is necessary restrictive chains of institutionalized
and takes a more critical attitude directed at the same sort of public. before the chaotic environment can, thinking, he has not been able to
towards objectivization, or, rather, But the realization is growing that so to speak, be mastered in a prevent himself becoming an
towards rendering in terms of there is a new public to be opened productive act. institution and, as such, provoking
objects. These characterizations, of up : a public that is not by upbringing In Düsseldorf and Cologne, on the next assault. For sensitive
course, are not invariably valid, but, and education part of the privileged the other hand, the situation is quite teachers the tense atmosphere of the
as always, it is the exceptions that and cultural class on which it different. One goes to these towns to Academy has come to be heavy
prove the rule. Many different sorts depends. The Ruhr Festivals in stay-in the Ruhr one only works— going. A counter-attraction, though
of art are produced in Germany, and Recklinghausen were an early and and Düsseldorf, a small, light- not exactly an antithesis, is provided
a policy of encouraging cultural typical experiment in catering for hearted, up-and-coming city which by Gunther Uecker who sets calm,
activity has led not only to mutually this new audience. Through was once a princely capital, has made clear-headed thought against Beuys's
competitive activities but also to arresting exhibitions and exemplary the most of the great industrial area tendency towards mystification.
sharp interregional distinctions work in factories Thomas nearby. One lives in Düsseldorf While Beuys uses discussion,
—which in the context of present Grochowiak was able to arouse the because, as Uecker once said, it is so conversation and even direct action,
output is proving disastrous for an workers' initiative; and an artist like characterless; it is a sort of Paris and now produces only a small
old centre like Munich. the miner Erich Bödecker nearer at hand, a hand-to-mouth artistic output, Uecker lives a more
It is in the south-west and west exemplifies what creative recreation existence, more carefree than in the retired life and is more prolific; in
that museums and galleries are can achieve. But other things also Ruhr where one prudently puts this he is similar to Richter, Palermo
thickest on the ground, because of show the involvement of artists and something by for a rainy day. These and Ruthenbeck. Beside the action
the concentration of money there. municipal officials in changing dissimilar life-styles breed different artists, among them Rinke,
Newly formed after the war as a outdated structures and ideas and artistic outlooks. But, besides the Alvermann and (in the multi-media
result of changes in Land boundaries, enhancing the quality of life : the dichotomy between Rhineland and field) Kriwet, there is a meditative
the Lander of Baden-Wiirttemberg meditation rooms proposed by Zero Ruhr, there is also acute rivalry group, rooted in Zero. Nor should
and Nordrhein-Westfalen, with for the Ruhr, the work of Yves Klein within the Rhineland between we forget lone wolves like Klapheck,
their great Rhine-Main and in Gelsenkirchen, factory theatre, Düsseldorf and Cologne, a rivalry Rot, Gerstner and Thomkins, or the
Rhine-Ruhr industrial belts, were street theatre, literary workshops which not only breaks out at strongly committed film-makers
the most culturally open-minded and, finally, the suggestions of a Carnival time but consists, in the grouped around Lutz Mommartz,
and had the greatest density of group of artists for the `artscaping' of cultural field, in each city seeking to among them Tony Morgan. The
collectors. Both these factors are the BI, one of the area's main outdo the other in providing aims of these last are totally opposed
still necessary to the artists' arterial roads. Here art is not only attraction and entertainment— to the commercial film-makers', and

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