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10/3/2004

Inseln der Menschlichkeit

Museum Nikolaikirche - Stadtmuseum, Berlin

Roger Loewig - Stanislaw Kubicki

THE WORK OF STANISlAW KUBICKI

Stanislaw Kubicki belongs to the most eminent representatives of Expressionism and abstract art in Poland and in the international Avant-garde 1910-1930. For most of his life he was active in the art scene in Berlin.

His first linocut series Kirchturm vor aufgehender Sonne and Schömberger Landschaften were made in Schlesien in 1916/17. His subsequent work was an expression of his political engagements and the artistic Avant-garde. In 1917/18 he and his wife Margarete initiated contact between the expressionist group Bunt (Revolt) and the journal Zdrój (Source) in Posen and the leading art journal in Berlin, Die Aktion. In order to encourage the widespread interregional exchange of artistic ideas, Kubicki also published his literary and visual works in the journals Der Sturm, Der Weg und Die Bücherkiste. The publication of his poems, which were often composed in Polish and German, also transgressed borders.

It is characteristic of Kubicki's literary and visual works that they frequently employ the same motifs. However, while his poems, prose pieces and theoretical articles often represent a self-reflexive and ironic confrontation with his own work or a critical analysis of current events, his visual pieces have a more soothing and balancing effect. These clear, mathemati-cally conceived compositions are timeless, and they lay claim to universal themes.

In 1920 Kubicki exhibited several of his works in the galerie Der Sturm. These constellations of lines and geometric forms are accented by shades of color, shadow and light. Figures are still recognizable in the sketches, but in the oil paintings and pastels they are secondary to the abstract formal structures, which exist suspended in a timeless space.

Around 1919 Kubicki also began to engage creatively with themes from the natural sciences and philosphy. In works such as Erschaffung der Pflanzen (1925) and Erschaffung der Tiere (circa 1928), he analyzed particular natural phenomena and attempted to represent the processes by which they came into existence.

The works Madonna steht an jeder Straßenecke and Mutter mit totem Kind were made in the late 1920s. Like the earlier linocut Zusammen-bruch/ Wohnungssuchende Frau (1919) they are critical of the socio-economic situation at that time. And like the bilingual poems, which appeared under the title Irrenhaus (circa 1921), they also voice his feeling of solidarity towards those who were excluded from society or who lived on the borders of existence.

Kubicki's last pictures, Der Heilige und die Tiere (1932) and Moses vor dem brennenden Dornbusch (1933), represent two opposing concepts of religiousness as well as artistic reactions to political events. The former condenses Kubicki's cosmological ideas – the idyllic, escapist vision of a life in harmony with nature. The latter depicts the problem of the interconnections between politics, religion and art, as well as the dilemma of the artist in view of the impending crisis to civilization. Both works convey universal messages through the use of clear religious contexts, much like his most famous drawing Turmbau zu Babel (1917) or the sketch Wohin? (1919).

Faced with the rise of National Socialism, Kubicki stopped painting, as he recognized the failure and weakness of artistic forms of protest. Instead, he joined the Polish resistance movement and was eventually caught, arrested and tortured to death by the Gestapo.
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THE WORK OF ROGER LOEWIG

Borders represent the primary metaphor in Roger Loewig's visual language. The use of walls, rivers or destroyed bridges conveys a feeling of strangeness, homelessness, or imprisonment. His images and poems result from his own inner struggles with political and historical events. They refer to the missing connections between the past and the present in postwar Germany, as well as the rift between its two populations. The border remained a scar of this separation, yet Loewig lived to witness its collapse.

His work is largely determined by autobiographical elements. The anthro-pomorphic beings depicted in his sketches and lithographs often carry his own face or the face of his life partner. They transform into trees, parts of landscapes, birds or mechanical insects. In this way the artist expresses the eternal rhythm of nature and its inseparability from human existence. The tension between city and country, culture and nature, is ubiquitous. And Loewig's city, populated by sick, lonely and lost people (Nachtwandler, 1959; Armloser Blinder im Stadtrandviertel, 1961; Gefangener; 1971), can be interpreted as a self-portrait of the artist.

The strong visual language of his early images and sketches was inspired by Edvard Munch and the artists of Die Brücke, among others. Nevertheless, Loewig broke away from their use of full, intense colors through the effects of dull tones. Vitality was mixed with pessimism, as can be seen by the influence of the 1956 Hungarian uprising on his work or the series Bilder aus meinem Leben (1961/63). Loewig also worked through his own experiences of destruction, death and flight during and after the war in the cycle Aus deutscher Geschichte und Gegenwart (1962). The attitudes expressed in these images led to his arrest by East German authorities in 1963.

The period after his release from prison is documented in numerous landscape images, which he created in the peaceful seclusion of Fläming, southwest of Berlin. Since the mid-1960s the mythological figure of Icarus has also surfaced in his work as a symbol of the tragic existence of the artist, whose exhilarating highs are bound together with the experience of failure and isolation. This basic emotion also corresponds to another of Loewig's favorite motifs – the fallen, wounded bird.

Color gradually disappears from his images. His last oil paintings and gouaches were done in 1965/66. He later chose smaller formats. The wide, impetuous stroke of the brush is relieved by the fine precision of the feather. Lithography becomes one of his favorite mediums. The beginning of this period is marked by the work Jüdische Zyklus (1965), which illustrates his early engagement with the Holocaust, and it continues in the series Wehende (1966) and Ödland (1966), among others. Loewig's sense of resignation, reinforced by the bloody suppression of the Prague Spring, is expressed stylistically in his series Insekten (1968/69) through the increasing demands of filigree patterns, which he favors because of their solidifying and darkening effects.

Loewig's thematic compilation of cycles and series is peculiar to both his visual and literary work. The artist's late work is characterized by romantic poetry and etchings, which were done in connection with his trip to the Masuren in 1976. He finds in this medium a compact, clear form.

Loewig's lifework documents his fundamental rejection of the lurid aesthetics and ostentatiousness in art, a conviction that only grew over the course of time. It remains a testament to his struggle for truth and human dignity.

Opening: 11. März 2004 | 11 Uhr

MUSEUM NIKOLAIKIRCHE | Stadtmuseum Berlin
Nikolaikirchplatz | 10178 Berlin-Mitte
Telefon: (030) 24 724529

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