With the exhibition "Fritz Winter. Paths to documenta (1949-1955)", Galerie Henze & Ketterer is paying tribute to one of the most important representatives of German post-war modernism. Curated by Patrick Urwyler, the show highlights key creative years of the artist, whose work "Composition in front of Blue and Yellow" caused a sensation in 1955 as the central exhibit of the first documenta I and represented the preliminary highlight of Winter's remarkable career.
The exhibition traces Winter's artistic path from the Bauhaus period through the trauma of war to his international breakthrough - accompanied by key figures such as Winter's "master" Paul Klee, his manager Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer and his Bernese gallery owner Hedwig Marbach.
At the heart of the exhibition are 12 paintings from 1954/55, complemented by rarely shown works on paper, which vividly demonstrate the important artistic developments of this period. Fritz Winter's works are an expression of an unshakeable artistic will, borne by a deep connection to nature, form and creative energy.
The exhibition celebrates Fritz Winter's work as a symbolic figure of the new beginning that marked documenta I and provides a fascinating insight into the genesis of abstraction after 1945.
With the exhibition "Fritz Winter. Paths to documenta (1949-1955)", the Galerie Henze & Ketterer focuses on one of the most influential artistic personalities of German post-war modernism. To mark the 70th anniversary of the first documenta in 1955, the show, curated by Patrick Urwyler, takes a concentrated look at the decisive years that were to place Fritz Winter (1905-1976) at the forefront of contemporary art.
His painting "Composition in front of Blue and Yellow "1 was the central work in the painting hall of the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel in 1955 - a symbol of the new self-confidence of German post-war abstraction. Presented directly opposite Picasso's "Girl in Front of a Mirror "2, Winter's large-format work became a symbol of West German painting's successful connection to international art developments.
Two key pioneers of Fritz Winter's success were the poet, intellectual and life partner Dr. Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer (1890-1958) and the Bernese gallery owner Hedwig Marbach. Their work in the years after the war deserves special attention - not least because it has a direct impact on today's exhibition. But more on this later.
Three early works, which are shown at the beginning of the exhibition, point the way for Winter's artistic path. They represent the phase before the Second World War and are crucial for understanding his works of the 1950s. Looking back, Ingeborg Henze-Ketterer and Wolfgang Henze state: "In a painting from the 1950s, the signs, forms and colors of the early years around 1930 are just as present as those of later years are already discernible "3.
It begins with the painting "Untitled "4 from 1930 - a work that refers directly to Winter's artistic beginnings in terms of time, form and content. His training at the Bauhaus in Dessau (1927-1930) was particularly formative for him, especially the free painting classes with Paul Klee. In Klee, who paid him great attention, Winter found his "master. "5 Alongside Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Oskar Schlemmer were also important influences, but it was Klee in particular who gave him key impulses - including the idea of genesis: the process of creating a work is of fundamental importance to Winter. "The act of painting is not understood as a means of visualizing certain ideas, but is the painting itself in its execution. The painting is the static result of painting [...]. "6 Natural growth was the model for artistic creation: an artist should not work according to nature, but like nature.
Nature forms the basis for Winter's abstract work. This approach is also reflected in Kandinsky's conviction that it is not about depicting external phenomena, but about representing inner forces. Movement, energy and rhythm are expressed through abstract means such as line, point, surface and color. An additional expressive moment came into Winter's work through Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - an artist whom Winter visited several times during and after his Bauhaus period in Switzerland.
The exhibition continues Winter's journey with the painting "K III 100"7 from 1939. The thirties were behind him, with a dynamic development of his own abstract formal language and a budding career. However, the National Socialists' seizure of power and his retreat to the Ammersee put the brakes on this development. In 1937, Winter was defamed as a "degenerate artist" and banned from painting. The final turning point came in 1939 when he was called up for military service.
The work "K III 100" already heralds the series of small-format sheets created in 1944 during a furlough at the front: "Triebkräfte der Erde" - a group of around 50 drawings that are now considered key works of German post-war abstraction. The artist's inner strength remained unbroken despite the war. This phase is often described as Winter's "inner emigration" - a retreat into a spiritual confrontation with nature and creation:
"Nothing can shake you more deeply than when you encounter a blossom, a leaf, so completely without possessions, so completely without being a civilian human being, and the greatness of creation is bestowed upon you. [...] The fact that war gives me this opportunity makes me endure it."8
"Im Unendlichen "9 is the title of the painting from 1949, the year that marked Winter's return from the war and Soviet captivity. "It is no longer the driving forces of the earth, but the elementary forces of our concept of nature, which has become indescribable, that urge us to create a pictorial form. "10 The painting belongs to the smaller work phase of energetic paintings, floating forms that appear like force fields and testify to a search for new forms of expression and design. These paintings are also an expression of unprecedented continuity. Within a very short space of time, Winter succeeded in seamlessly reconnecting with the national and international art world.
After 1949, it was Dr. Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer11 in particular who played a key role in ensuring that Winter's work was not forgotten during his absence - on the contrary: she promoted his fame at home and abroad12. During the war and in the years that followed, she organized exhibitions in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Paris and Switzerland. She cultivated contacts with art historians, gallery owners and collectors - including Ottomar Domnick, an important promoter of abstract art in Germany.
In 1947, Schreiber-Rüffer published the groundbreaking essay "Über Fritz Winter "13 in the book "Die schöpferischen Kräfte in der abstrakten Malerei "14 - a work that, together with the accompanying exhibition of abstract artists (including Winter), contributed significantly to the establishment of abstraction in Germany. Her commitment was the basis for Winter's later career. From 1952, she traded as Schreiber-Winter and remained a clever and indispensable manager of Winter's artistic work until her death in 1958.
Fritz Winter's career took off rapidly after 1949: In the same year, he co-founded the Zen 49 artists' group, and in 1950 he was awarded 2nd prize at the 25th Venice Biennale. This was followed by awards from the cities of Stuttgart and Darmstadt as well as from the Deutscher Künstlerbund in Berlin. In 1955 he was appointed to the Staatliche Werkakademie in Kassel.
The art market also responded to Winter's growing success - particularly through the Marbach Gallery in Bern. The Bernese gallery owner Hedwig Marbach remembers 1968:
"I saw the first originals at the Venice Biennale in 1950 [...] there were two paintings there [...] they spoke of a mature personality, a gifted artist who had gone through a good school. I decided to get to know this artist, perhaps to hire him for my gallery."15
On her first visit to Winter's studio in Dießen am Ammersee, she met Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer, who showed her a selection of newly created works - three of which she purchased immediately. Shortly afterwards, Marbach signed a contract with Winter and secured a right of first refusal: "For five years, I made the trip to the Ammersee every month to make my choice from the newly created works. "16 This not only led to a close collaboration, but also to the largest and probably most exclusive collection of Fritz Winter's works at the time, which is part of the provenance of key works in our current exhibition.
At the heart of the exhibition are fourteen paintings from 1954/1955, all measuring 75 x 100 cm and all from Marbach's collection. The art historian Karlheinz Gabler assigns them to the work phase of the "notation paintings "17 - paintings that seem like notes turned into images. The term "notation" refers to the recording of fleeting processes such as music, movement or language - a fitting comparison in view of Winter's creative process.
The group of works is complemented by colored and black-and-white chalk and charcoal drawings, which can be read as studies or preliminary stages of these notations. They provide an insight into the artist's formal repertoire and reveal the diversity of his abstract language.
What all the works on display have in common is a consistent reduction to the simplest formal elements. They were created "alla prima", i.e. without subsequent corrections, in free handwriting. They reveal not only Winter's inexhaustible imagination, but also a psychographic quality - as if the experiences of half a decade are reflected in concentrated form and reduced to a common denominator.18
A monumental expression of this "great denominator" reached its temporary climax in the work "Composition in front of blue and yellow". Presented as a mural, it served documenta initiator Arnold Bode as a highly symbolic backdrop for the ceremonial opening of documenta I on July 15, 1955 - a powerful setting for Werner Haftmann's programmatic exclamation: "Art of the 20th century!"
The exhibition with 12 paintings, plus a selection of color and black and white drawings, opens up a unique access to Fritz Winter's cosmos - and thus to an artist who became a key figure in post-war abstract art in Germany in 1955.
Patrick Urwyler
---
1 Fritz Winter, Composition in front of blue and yellow, 1955, oil on canvas, 381 × 615 cm (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel)
2 Picasso, Girl in front of the mirror, 1932, oil on canvas, 162.3 x 130.2 cm (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
3 Fritz Winter, Works from the years 1929-1959, catalogue 50, Galerie Henze, Campione D'Italia, 1992, p. 5.
4 Fritz Winter, Untitled, 1930, oil on satinized cardboard, 50 x 65 cm, Lohberg 79.
5. cf. Lohberg, Gabriele, "Fritz Winter am Bauhaus in Dessau", in: Klee Winter Kirchner, 1927-1934, catalogue of the exhibition, Westfälisches Landesmuseum Münster; Pinakothek
6 Lohberg, Gabriele, Fritz Winter - Leben und Werk: mit Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Munich: Bruckmann, 1986, p.78.pp. 25-42.
7 Fritz Winter, K III 101, 1939, oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm, Lohberg 746.
8. from a letter by Fritz Winter (no year), in: Schreiber-Rüffer, Margarete, "Über Fritz Winter", in: Die schöpferischen Kräfte der abstrakten Malerei, Ein Zyklus, ed. by Ottomar Domnick, Bergen: Müller & Kiepenheur, 1947, pp.30-40.
9 Fritz Winter, Im Unendlichen, 1949, oil on laid paper, mounted on cardboard, 50 X 70 cm, Lohberg 865.
10 Gabler Karlheinz, "Fritz Winter, Werke aus den Jahren 1949 bis 1956, Einführung Karlheinz Gabler", in: catalogue Marbach Nr. 147-581, Bern: Marbach-Verlag, 1968, p.3.
11. cf. essay: Ossowski Christina, Muse - Manager - Lebensgefährtin. Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer and the painter Fritz Winter, in: Schwäbische Heimat, Magazin für Geschichte, Landeskultur, Naturschutz und Denkmalpflege, 2023/1, 42-48.
12. See a detailed description of Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer's activities in Ossowski 2023, p. 45 and Lohberg 1986, pp. 24-25.
13 Schreiber-Rüffer, Margarete, "Über Fritz Winter", in: Die schöpferischen Kräfte der abstrakten Malerei, Ein Zyklus, ed. by Ottomar Domnick, Bergen: Müller & Kiepenheur, 1947, pp.30-40.
14 Die schöpferischen Kräfte der abstrakten Malerei, Ein Zyklus, edited by Ottomar Domnick, Bergen: Müller & Kiepenheur, 1947.
15 Marbach Hedwig, "Wie ich zu Fritz Winter kam", in: catalogue Marbach No. 147-581, Bern: Marbach-Verlag, 1968, p.7.
16 Marbach 1968, p.7.
17. cf. phase table by Karlheinz Gabler, in: catalogue Marbach No. 147-581, Bern: Marbach-Verlag, 1968, p.6.
18 Marbach 1968, p.5.
