login   password  artist portfolio  gallery portfolio  MYabsolutearts 
absolutearts.com
 
help   |  media kit   |  about us   |  services   |  contact  
  NEWEST TRENDS                .   SEARCH   .   BUY   .   JOIN   .   COLLECT   .   RESEARCH   .   READ  .   DISCUSS  
Indepth Arts News:

"Visions from the Soul: Woodcuts by Hans Friedrich Grohs"
2004-08-18 until 2004-10-08
University of Richmond Museums, Marsh Gallery
Richmond, VA, USA United States of America

The exhibition Visions from the Soul: Woodcuts by Hans Friedrich Grohs presents more than 100 powerful woodcuts by Hans Friedrich Grohs (German, 1892-1981). Grohs produced art between 1913 and 1964, and his work reflects his experiences serving in the military in both world wars as well as the sufferings of humankind during this turbulent era. Linked with the Bauhaus as well as German Expressionism, Grohs’ striking imagery explores themes of death, war, religion, and landscape.  

As a young master student at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Grohs studied under Lyonel Feininger but he left the academy in 1919 following a controversial dispute with founder Walter Gropius regarding the sacrifice of German “identity” for the increasing internationalism of the institution’s mission. The Northern Gothic arts as well German literature, history, and religion (Grohs was a devout Lutheran) clearly informed his work, as exemplified by his religious prints depicting the life of Christ and images of the rugged beauty of his native Dithmarschen region in northern Germany.

Despite his allegiance to Germanic themes, in 1937 Grohs’ expressionist style was targeted by the Nazi party and labeled “degenerate art.” With his creations banned from public exhibition, confiscated, and then burned, Grohs was forbidden to create art and was drafted into the army at the age of 50 and in poor health. Following the war, the instability and repression in Germany brought hardship for the artist, and consequently his art took on a tragic and escapist tone for the remainder of his life.  

In his woodcuts such as “Death Over the Trenches” (1918) and “I Bear My Cross and Find My Peace” (1964), Grohs utilized the stark contrast of the black ink on paper to enhance dramatic and sometimes claustrophobic compositions. In doing so, his work balances between the nihilism spawned by the social and political conditions of his environment and his deep respect for German history as well as his religious faith.

The exhibition was organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art and curated by Daniel Piersol, The Doris Zemurrary Stone Curator of Prints and Drawings. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue published by the New Orleans Museum of Art and available at the University Museums. At the Marsh Art Gallery, University Museums, the exhibition is made possible in part with the generous support of the University’s Cultural Affairs Committee and the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and with funds from the Louis S. Booth Arts Fund.


Related Links:


 
Jeff Ramirez : This is the life - These are the real things - Cella Gallery


Call for Artists : LIQUID CITIES - International Video Art Limousine Festival . London, April 2010 - International ArtExpo


Rita Kashap Homage to Friedrich S. - Galerie Vinogrado


Romance, Passion, Eroticism : The Art of Love to Feature Work by Walter King - Galleria Evangelia


The Thoughts Series by D. Lammie-Hanson - Big Top Art Gallery


Call for Artists : Seeking 300 Glass Pieces - Saco Msueum


EDGE OF INDONESIA - Edge Gallery


Suzi Evalenko - What Mattered Most : A Life in Art and Letters - First Street Gallery


Wayne Quilliam : Photography in Context of Indiginous Australian Culture - Art Place Berlin - The Forum for Contemporary Art and Intercultural Project at Park Inn


Tim Etchells : A Solo Exhibition - Gasworks Gallery


Alberto Giacomett i: Woman with Chariot. Triumph and Death - Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum


Street Seen : The Psychological Gesture in American Photography, 1940-1959 - Milwaukee Art Museum


Tino Sehgal - Guggenheim Museum


Donnie 2010 : Contest and Exhibit - Karin Kuhlmann Earns Honorable Metion - MOCA, the Museum of Computer Art


 

indepth arts search:     
 
Free Arts News Subscription | Browse the Arts | Artist Portfolios | International Arts News | Arts News Archive | Privacy Policy