The Städel Museum is devoting a comprehensive exhibition to the painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) from 23 October 2019 to 16 February 2020. The focus is on the emergence of the "van Gogh myth" around 1900 and the significance of his art for modernism in Germany. With 50 central works by van Gogh, the exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of the painter's works in Germany for almost 20 years.
MAKING VAN GOGH addresses the special role that gallery owners, museums, private collectors and art critics played in early 20th-century Germany in the posthumous reception of van Gogh as the "father of modernism." Barely 15 years after his death, the Dutch artist was perceived in this country as one of the most important pioneers of modern painting. Van Gogh's life and work met with widespread and sustained public interest; his art was collected in Germany at an unusually early date. As early as 1914, the enormous number of around 150 works by Van Gogh were in German private and public collections. At the same time, German artists began to engage intensively with his works. For the young Expressionists in particular, van Gogh's painting became a model and a decisive source of inspiration - without his art, the emergence of Modernism in Germany would be almost inconceivable.
The success story of van Gogh is closely linked to the Städel. In 1908, the Frankfurt museum was one of the first to acquire the painting Bauernhaus in Nuenen (1885) and the drawing Kartoffelpflanzerin (1885) for the purpose of building a modern art collection through the Städelscher Museums-Verein. Three years later, one of van Gogh's most famous paintings entered the museum, Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1890).
In three major chapters, the exhibition recounts the genesis and impact of the "van Gogh myth" in Germany. How did it come about that van Gogh became so immensely popular in Germany in particular? Who was committed to his work and how did artists react to him? The exhibition shows van Gogh as a key figure for the art of the German avant-garde and thus makes a decisive contribution to understanding the development of art in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Städel brings together more than 120 paintings and works on paper in the exhibition. The core is formed by 50 central works by Vincent van Gogh from all creative phases. On view are outstanding loans from private collections and leading museums worldwide. The influence and impact of van Gogh on the following generation is illustrated in the exhibition by 70 works by German artists, including well-known names such as Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alexej von Jawlensky, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Gabriele Münter as well as rediscovered positions by, for example, Peter August Böckstiegel, Theo von Brockhusen, Heinrich Nauen and Elsa Tischner-von Durant.