Grethe Jürgens

The comprehensive retrospective on Grethe Jürgens at the Sprengel Museum Hannover sheds light on an important representative of the New Objectivity of the 1920s. For the first time a part of her estate is being shown, comprising more than 370 works from the most varied phases of her career. For the New Objectivity anniversary year of 2025, the retrospective show and the catalogue present some 150 works, supplemented by the first publication of numerous documents. This is a rare opportunity to discover the artist Grethe Jürgens, who unfortunately long remained behind other representatives of the New Objectivity in public perception, in the full range of her work. With contributions by various authors, the catalogue offers insights into her work and life and pays tribute to her artistic importance. Grethe Jürgens was born in Osnabrück in 1899; she began studying graphic art in Hanover and at that time got to know artists who later became known as the protagonists of the „Neue Sachlichkeit in Hannover“. Early on she devoted herself to strongly characterised portraits and urban landscapes, and later established her typical visual language with matter-of-fact, detached depictions of workers and marginalised groups, a language determined by sober realism and an almost cool and unemotional view of the motifs. Her works are free of any accusation and free of prejudice, yet they attentively show social tensions as well as the challenges of life for the poor. Jürgens‘ artistic breakthrough came with her first exhibitions from 1928 onwards. After that she regularly took part in exhibitions in Hanover, and her works were acquired by public collections. After the Nazis came to power she had to register with the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste, but she was not a member of the NSDAP and thus escaped confiscations. She did, however, adapt to the changed conditions, turning to landscapes and plants and, with innocuous natural motifs, shaping her style of „Unkrautmalerei“. Her „Trümmerbilder“ from the destroyed city of Hanover are unique in their impressive depiction of ruins and of the beginnings of renewal. These works reflect both the horror of the war and the hopes raised by reconstruction. From the 1950s onwards she came to be esteemed once more and was increasingly recognised as an artist of the New Objectivity. Jürgens, however, now turned to abstract art and created series such as the „Linienkompositionen“ and the „Kaleidoskope“. Her delight in experimentation remained with her into old age, even though she increasingly oscillated between abstraction and figurative motifs.

Exhibition:
Sprengel Museum Hannover, 22/2 – 15/6/2025