11 June – 17 September 2023
The exhibition August and Elisabeth Macke. The Painter and the Manageress, conceived by the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster, sheds light on the relationship between the painter and his wife. Elisabeth Macke’s importance in August Macke’s life – and after his death – goes far beyond the traditional role of an artist’s wife. Elisabeth was not only her husband’s preferred model, inspirational muse, congenial conversation partner and socially competent companion. She was the centre of his life. She established a sound framework for his art, both family-wise and materially, and through her ability to understand and support him as an artist.
Together with August Macke she kept in contact with the circle of people who were important to him, with artist friends and colleagues, with gallery owners and publishers, with writers and patrons.
This is shown in the exhibition through archival documents, letters, notes and photographs from the rich holdings of the Westfälisches Landesmuseum. In addition, through important paintings and works on paper, it provides an overview of August Macke’s artistic development and, as such, defines chapters drawing on the couple’s common interests and exchanges.
fig.: August Macke, The Artist’s Wife with Hat, 1909, Münster, LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, © LWL – MkuK – ARTOTHEK
1 October 2023 – March 2024
“I want to capture movement. I seek to give form to the entity of space and time.” (Norbert Kricke, 1954)
The work of the German sculptor Norbert Kricke is closely linked to the collection at the Franz Marc Museum, to whose creation the gallery owners Etta and Otto Stangl made a decisive contribution. Norbert Kricke belonged to the generation of German post-war artists – representatives of abstract art who were given a forum at the Galerie Stangl in Munich where they founded the group ZEN 49 in 1949. Norbert Kricke came into contact with artists in this circle in 1952 and was acquainted with Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages, Fritz Winter, K.R.H. Sonderborg, Emil Schumacher, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Willi Baumeister and Rupprecht Geiger, among others.
Accompanied by an exhibition of sculptures and drawings by the artist, the Raumplastik (spatial sculpture) Große F.II, 1980 (956 x 493 x 356 cm) by Norbert Kricke (1922–84) is to be installed in the park at the Franz Marc Museum in autumn 2023.
The steel sculpture, more than nine metres high, marks an imaginary space on the ground and in the air through the expansive lines it traces that change direction at right angles. It makes space palpable and, as the eye follows the sculptural lines, allows time to pass and be perceived.
The exhibition shows Kricke’s sculptures in dialogue with works of post-war abstraction, as well as selected works by Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. In this way the continuity and innovation in Norbert Kricke’s work is made visible within the context of the collection at the Franz Marc Museum.
fig.: Norbert Kricke, Raumplastik Blau-Weiß-Rot-Gelb (Spatial Sculpture Blue White Red Yellow), 1954 © The Norbert Kricke Estate