Fritz Winter
Paths to documenta (1949-1955)

An exhibition to mark the 70th anniversary of documenta and the 120th birthday of Fritz Winter

With the exhibition “Fritz Winter: Paths to documenta (1949–1955),” the Galerie Henze & Ketterer shines a spotlight on Galerie Henze & Ketterer of the most influential artistic figures of postwar German modernism. Marking the 70th anniversary of the first documenta in 1955, the exhibition—curated by Patrick Urwyler—takes a close look at the pivotal years that propelled Fritz Winter (1905–1976) to the forefront of contemporary art.

His painting “Composition in Blue and Yellow” was the central work painting gallery of the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel in 1955—a symbol of the newfound self-confidence of German postwar abstraction. Displayed directly across from Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror,” Winter’s large-scale work became a symbol of West German painting’s successful integration into international art trends.

Two key figures instrumental in Fritz Winter’s success were the poet, intellectual, and life partner Dr. Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer (1890–1958) and the Bern-based gallery owner Hedwig Marbach. Their contributions in the postwar years deserve special attention—not least because they have a direct impact on today’s exhibition. But more on that later.

Three early works, displayed at the beginning of the exhibition, set the course for Winter’s artistic journey. They represent the period before World War II and are crucial for understanding his works from the 1950s. Looking back, Ingeborg Henze-Ketterer and Wolfgang Henze observe: “In a painting from the 1950s, the symbols, forms, and colors of his early years around 1930 are just as present as those of his later years, which are already foreshadowed.”

Dr. Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer
- the basis for Winter's career

After 1949, it was Dr. Margarete Schreiber-Rüffer in particular who played a key role in ensuring that Winters’ work did not fall into oblivion work his absence—on the contrary: she promoted his reputation both at home and abroad. During the war and in the years that followed, she organized exhibitions in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Switzerland. She maintained contacts with art historians, gallery owners, and collectors—including Ottomar Domnick, an important patron of abstract art in Germany.

In 1947, Schreiber-Rüffer published the groundbreaking essay “On Fritz Winter” in the book *The Creative Forces in Abstract Painting*—a work that, together with the accompanying exhibition of abstract artists (including Winter), contributed significantly to the establishment of abstraction in Germany. Her dedication laid the foundation for Winter’s later career. From 1952 onward, she operated under the name Schreiber-Winter and remained a shrewd and indispensable manager of Winter’s artistic endeavors until her death in 1958.

After 1949, Fritz Winter’s career took off rapidly: that same year, he co-founded the artist group Zen 49, and in 1950 he received second prize at the 25th Venice Biennale. This was followed by awards from the cities of Stuttgart and Darmstadt, as well as from the German Artists’ Association in Berlin. In 1955, he was appointed to the State Academy of Fine Arts in Kassel.

Hedwig Marbach
- Winters Bern gallery owner

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 made the decision to get to know this artist, perhaps to hire him for my gallery"

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". The result was not only a close collaboration, but also 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.

1954/1955
- "Alla Prima" for documenta I.

At the heart of the exhibition are twelve 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" - 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 half a decade's worth of experience is reflected in concentrated form and reduced to a common denominator.

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!"