Phänomen Grossmann trifft auf Fotografie

Ripping the city out of oblivionRudolf Großmann (1882-1941) was a renowned painter and graphic artist and also a feared chronicler because of his sharp pen. In portraits and café and street scenes, he portrayed life in the big city in a multifaceted way. In the 1910s and 20s, he published texts and illustrations in magazines such as Simplicissimus and illustrated books for authors such as Joachim Ringelnatz and Erich Kästner. Today, Rudolf Großmann is only known to those interested in and specialising in the 1920s. Against the background of the question why he has been largely forgotten, the exhibition and book juxtapose his work with photographic works by contemporary artists. His graphic and painterly works from the collection of the Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg are combined with photographic positions from the collection of the Kunststiftung DZ BANK. Above all, Rudolf Großmann's portrait drawings, which are characterised by a photographic gaze, prove to be meaningful counterparts to the works of Wolfgang Tillmans, Sven Johne, Nan Goldin or Gisèle Freund, for example. Moreover, the multi-perspective view of Barbara Probst or the spatial constructions of Beate Gütschow show, when they meet Rudolf Großmann's graphic scenes, that despite the leap in time of over 100 years, there is a tremendous atmospheric proximity. Rudolf Großmann possessed a certain equidistance from the familiar styles of his time, which makes his work incomparable and at the same time establishes a proximity to photography. However, this could not protect him from the persecution of National Socialism, so that his art was also branded as degenerate and he increasingly withdrew from his birthplace Freiburg.Exhibition: Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg, 28/10/2022 - 19/2/2023.