Skip to main content

Anita Rée (1885–1933)




In the autumn and winter of 2017/18, the Hamburger Kunsthalle will present the first extensive museum show of the work of the Hamburg-based painter Anita Rée (1885–1933). Featuring some 200 paintings, works on paper and art objects, the retrospective sheds light on an important and multifaceted oeuvre, ranging from Impressionist plein air painting to Mediterranean landscapes to portraits in the spirit of the New Objectivity. The Hamburger Kunsthalle’s rich holdings of works by Rée, comprising 13 paintings and 25 works on paper, will be supplemented by significant pieces from private and public collections in Germany, England, Switzerland and the USA.





Anita Rée took painting lessons from Arthur Siebelist in Hittfeld, did further training in Paris in the winter of 1912/13, and worked from 1922 to 1925 in Positano in southern Italy. After her return to Hamburg, Rée’s many portraits and public commissions brought her nationwide recognition, and she was able to make valuable contacts in the art world. She spent her last years living a reclusive life on the island of Sylt, where she took her own life in 1933.





The retrospective at the Hamburger Kunsthalle invites visitors to discover a great artist. Anita Rée grapples in her art with questions of identity, exploring the relationship of the individual to society and the feeling of belonging in a fast-changing world. As a painter straddling tradition and modernism, an independent woman on the art scene, as a regional artist with international aspirations and someone with South American and Jewish roots brought up in Protestant Hamburg, Rée lived in many senses between different worlds.




The exhibition stems from an interdisciplinary research project involving in-depth art-historical and art-technological studies. Archives in Hamburg, Germany and elsewhere in Europe were systematically searched for traces of Rée’s life and work. With the support of the ZEIT-Stiftung, her artistic methods and the materials she used in her paintings and works on paper were investigated scienti-ically. Thanks to the new insights thus gained, we are now able to appreciate Anita Rée as an active and self-assured artist and not view her merely as a victim of her times, gender or religion.

Anita Rée

A richly illustrated catalogue featuring scholarly essays in German and English accompanies the exhibition (Prestel Verlag, Munich), available in the Museum Shop for 29 euros or online at www.freunde-der-kunsthalle.de.


At the end of the exhibition, the Hamburger Kunsthalle will publish a new catalogue raisonné of Anita Rée’s work, compiled in collaboration with the art historian Maike Bruhns and funded by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vatican Micromosaic of Saints Valeria and Martial, Rediscovered Masterpiece

Vatican Micromosaic of Saints Valeria and Martial Everyone loves a good story. In the realm of fine art and antiques, a good story, or what we call “provenance”, has the power to take a work of art from exceptional to awe-inspiring. In terms of workmanship, subject matter and sheer size, this incredible micromosaic detailing the Biblical story of Saints Valeria and Martial has it all. Measuring over 10 feet tall, the precision and detail required to execute such a piece is baffling. Combined with the high cost of materials, micromosaics of this immense size and artistry are beyond rare. When you factor in its provenance of being crafted by the prestigious Vatican’s Mosaic Studio and displayed in St. Peter’s Basilica, you’re dealing with an undeniable masterpiece of historical significance. It took a team of seven skilled mosaicists over two and a half years to complete this majestic masterpiece. Given that Vatican relics, especially ones on such a grand scale as this, almost never lea...

Klimt and Schiele: Drawn

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston February 25 through May 28, 2018 Marking the centenary of the deaths of Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) and Egon Schiele (1890–1918), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), presents a special exhibition of drawings on loan from the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Klimt and Schiele: Drawn , on view from February 25 through May 28, 2018 in the Lois B. and Michael K. Torf Gallery, examines the separate, yet parallel experiences of the acclaimed Austrian modernists, as well as the compelling ways in which their work relates—particularly in their provocative depictions of the human body. Organized thematically, the selection of 60 works on paper extends from the artists’ early draftsmanship to explore how each shifted away from traditional training to more incisive and unconventional explorations of humanity over the course of their careers. The MFA is one of three museums—and the only U.S. venue—hosting exhibitions of the Albertina’s rarely loaned drawings b...

COLOURS OF IMPRESSIONISM MASTERPIECES FROM THE MUSÉE D'ORSAY

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide    29 March-29 July 2018 More than 65 Impressionist masterpieces from the renowned collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris feature in a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Colours of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay charts the revolution of colour that lies at the very heart of Impressionism and includes master works by Monet, Renoir, Manet, Morisot, Pissarro and Cézanne, among many others. From the dark tones of Manet's Spanish-influenced paintings, to the rich green and blue hues of the French countryside as painted by Cézanne, Monet and Pissarro, to the rosy pigments of Renoir's and Morisot's female figures, the exhibition traces the development of colour in the Impressionists' radical reshaping of painting in the nineteenth century. Boat In The Flood At Port-Marly by Alfred Sisley (1876   Although brightening the palette was the main concern of future Impressionists from the outs...