Beasts of the Times - Lynn Chadwick, Katja Strunz, Hans Uhlmann

Lynn Chadwick – Beasts of the Times Lynn Chadwick, #katjastrunz, Hans Uhlmann 

Georg Kolbe Museum: 18 May - 15 September 2019
#hausamwaldsee: 18 May - 25 August 2019

Curated by: Dr. Julia Wallner with Dr. Elisa Tamaschke (Georg Kolbe Museum), Dr. Katja Blomberg with Natalie Weiland M.A. (Haus am Waldsee) 

Haus am Waldsee and Georg Kolbe Museum have prepared an exhibition in two parts. It will be on view from May to September 2019 in both of the former residential buildings and gardens. Lynn Chadwick – Beasts of the Times will reintroduce the British sculptor #lynnchadwick (1914 – 2003) as one of the leading artists of the post-war period by way of a retrospective and in a charged relationship with two German positions in sculpture. This first museum exhibition of Chadwick in Germany gathers around sixty sculptures, a range of drawings and graphic works as well as an extensive amount of archive materials. 

Georg Kolbe Museum presents the œuvre of #lynnchadwick, which has won numerous awards since the 1950, in a broad, chronological spectrum with thematic focuses. In relation to this, #hausamwaldsee traces a motif-oriented arc offering works by #hansuhlmann (1900 – 1975) and #katjastrunz (*1970) as interlocutors in a dialogue with the British sculptor. While the show at Georg Kolbe Museum is an in-depth retrospective, the counterpart at #hausamwaldsee addresses the aspect of folding and fragmentation that defines Chadwick’s work from a present-day perspective. 

When #lynnchadwick received the prize for International Sculpture at the 1956 Venice Biennale, the art world was surprised. Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier had been regarded as the clear favourites. Now a hitherto unknown Brit was awarded the highly coveted prize. As a sculptor, Chadwick was self-taught. Before the Second World War, 

he had trained as an architect and worked as a draftsman for various London Architec- tural firms. It was only at the beginning of the 1950s that Chadwick decided to dedicate himself exclusively to his art. It took him only a brief time to develop his very own image- ry. His vocabulary is based on a weariness of civilisation, a utopian faith in progress and existential Angst. By 1955, Chadwick had participated, among other important exhibiti- ons, in documenta I in Kassel. Later he was mainly successful in the Anglophone world. Chadwick’s only institutional show in Germany until now was a double exhibition with his sculptor-friend Kenneth Armitage that took place in 1960. It was organised by the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover and toured, among other places, to Städtische Galerie Duisburg (today Lehmbruck Museum) and #hausamwaldsee in #berlin. 

At the time Chadwick already lived West of London, in Gloucestershire, in a neo-Gothic manor house with vast estates. He was able to purchase Lypiatt Park at a favourable price following his success in Venice. He went on to refurbish it according to his own ideas, in which architecture, sculpture and landscape complement each other. Until his death in 2003 he developed an expressive, creatural œuvre that draws both on constructivist-ar- chitectural approaches and on his intense contemplation of nature. 

A recurring motif in Chadwick’s work are the beasts, hybrid creatures assembled from animal, human and architectonic elements that reflect both space and time and never 

lack for his typically subtle humour. Georg Kolbe Museum will unfold the genesis of the beasts and other dominant themes of his work in a survey consisting of larger groups, from playful work models through to the complex sculptural-architectural form as well as indicating the significant role played by the drawings. 

At #hausamwaldsee, Chadwick’s practice is examined in terms of weightlessness and spatial folding. In a dialogue with his senior colleague, the first German steel sculptor #hansuhlmann (1900 - 1975), as well as works by our contemporary #katjastrunz (*1970) commonalities and differences regarding form and content are rendered visible in the conversation between three successful sculptors who did not know each other personally. 

Like Chadwick, #hansuhlmann worked in the technical field before World War II. He had studied in #berlin to become an engineer. Only after 1945 the self-taught artist dedicates himself completely to sculpture, launching an international career in the recently foun- ded Federal Republic of Germany. #katjastrunz belongs to the generation that could be the grandchildren of these acclaimed sculptors-engineers. She studied art history and philosophy before completing a degree course in sculpture in Karlsruhe in the 1990s. The motif of folding, which Strunz has produced since the early 2000s in metal and found objects, appears to comparable with the works of Chadwick and Uhlmann. She translates citations from post-war Modernism into new frames of reference, fragmenting lost uto- pias in order to reassemble them. 

The catalogue accompanying the exhibition is the first comprehensive publication on the œuvre of #lynnchadwick in the German-speaking world. Moreover, it places Chadwick’s work in relation to German sculpture after the Second World War by way of two promi- nent examples. The team of curators is convinced that the shows and the catalogue re- present an essential contribution to the rediscovery of #lynnchadwick as one of the most internationally acclaimed sculptors from around the middle of the twentieth century. 

The exhibition has been developed in close cooperation with The Estate of Lynn Chad- wick in Lypiatt Park. The estate is also the main lender to the double exhibition and we are exceedingly grateful for that. Likewise, we are indebted to the institutional and private lenders who have made works by #katjastrunz and #hansuhlmann available to us. The overall project is financed by Deutsche Klassenlotterie and private donations as well as the friends and supporters associations of both houses. The exhibition will travel to Wil- helm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg in 2020. 

Information about events and mediation can be found on the websites of the houses: georg-kolbe-museum.de
#hausamwaldsee.de