Phänomen Großmann trifft auf künstlerische Fotografie

Rescuing from oblivion

Rudolf Großmann (1882-1941) was a renowned painter and graphic artist and also a feared chronicler due to his sharp pen. In portraits and café and street scenes, he depicted life in the big city in a very multifaceted way, publishing texts and illustrations in magazines such as Simplicissimus in the 1910s and 20s; he also illustrated books for authors such as Joachim Ringelnatz and Erich Kästner. Today, Rudolf Großmann is only known to those interested in and specialised in the 1920s. Against the background of the question of why he has been largely forgotten, the exhibition and book juxtapose his work with photographic works by contemporary artists. His graphic and painterly works from the collection of the Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg are combined with photographic positions from the collection of the DZ BANK Art Foundation. Rudolf Großmann's portrait drawings in particular, which are characterised by a photographic gaze, prove to be useful counterparts to the works of Wolfgang Tillmans, Sven Johne, Nan Goldin or Gisèle Freund, for example. The multi-perspective view of Barbara Probst or the spatial constructions of Beate Gütschow also show, when they meet Rudolf Großmann's graphic scenes, that despite the leap in time of over 100 years, there is an enormous atmospheric closeness. Rudolf Großmann possessed a certain equidistance to the familiar styles of his time, which makes his work incomparable and at the same time creates a proximity to photography. However, this could not protect him from persecution under National Socialism, so that his art was also branded as degenerate and he increasingly withdrew from his native Freiburg.

Exhibition:
Museum of Contemporary Art Freiburg, 28/10/2022 - 19/2/2023