Ein kristallner Tag
A Crystal Day
Winter pictures from snow white to misty gray
17/11/24—02/02/25
Gerhard Altenbourg, Ines Arnemann, Jochen Aue, Rudolf Austen, Eugen Bracht, Günter Brendel, Heinrich Burkhardt, Sabine Curio, Kate Diehn-Bitt, Sieghard Dittner, Dieter Goltzsche, Gerhard Goßmann, Lea Grundig, Herta Günther, Hildegard Hakenbeck, Klaus Hartmann, Walter Heinrich, Wilhelm Höpfner, Werner Hofmann, Eberhard Hückstädt, Renate Jaeger, Joachim Jansong, Petra Kasten, Gregor-Torsten Kozik, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Bernhard Kretzschmar, Heide-Marlis Lautenschläger, Max Lingner, Heinz Mäde, Ruth Meier, Michael Morgner, Günter Neubauer, Olaf Nicolai, Otto Niemeyer-Holstein, Otto Paetz, A. R. Penck, Curt Querner, Karl Hermann Roehricht, Leonie Roehricht, Theodor Rosenhauer, Wilhelm Rudolph, Jutta Schlichting, Wilhelm Schmied, Gottfried Schüler, Kurt Heinz Sieger, Elisabeth Sittig, Friedrich Stachat, Erika Stürmer-Alex, Fritz Tröger, Angelika Tübke, Werner Tübke, Max Uhlig, Wilhelm Wagner, Wolfgang Wegener, Karlheinz Wenzel, Paul Wilhelm, Fritz Winkler, Sepp Womser, Dieter Zimmermann
Our coldest season can score points with astonishing aesthetics. The diffuse gray winter light and nature frozen in frost demand to be captured precisely. It can be assumed that the seasonal images mostly appear frosty, barren and desolate, but the exhibition also pays homage to the beauty of winter with powerful colors. It offers all kinds of advantages for high-spirited joie de vivre: mountains become sled runs, lakes turn into ice skating arenas, sports such as ice hockey flourish.
The depiction of winter has a long tradition in art history. Snow has been a popular motif for centuries. Artists search for texture and color for it as an untouched carpet, as a powdery layer, as a wild snowstorm or as thawing mud. Life freezes into immobility under the purifying white. Animals have holed up or are hibernating and people become thickly wrapped figures.
This exhibition brings together works by 59 artists from our collection. The paintings, hand drawings, prints and one object were created between 1921 and 2002. Snow-covered winter landscapes, rivers frozen in frost, mysterious forests, frozen fields and field edges, gardens covered in deep snow, but also nature tamed by man can be seen. It shows how the cold has a firm grip on villages and towns. It goes to the coast as well as to the mountains. A snowman is waiting to be discovered. Imaginative winter signs want to be deciphered and abstract winter images follow the artists’ free associations. Industry also seems to be coming to rest under the bed of snow. Coal mines and waste dump landscapes are romanticized. The dramatic forces of nature are also shown: the hardship caused by relentless cold, isolation and loneliness, the struggle for survival and death. Of course, historic events also took place in winter: battles and wars were fought in icy cold, revolutions took their course in the snow.