«Association of proletarian art» reborn in the Hermitage
ARTinvestment.RU   18 марта 2009

The Hermitage an exhibition of works from the collection of the founder of the German «Association of proletarian art» Friedrich Brass

«" The Order of proletarian art "Friedrich Brass. Collection of German avant-garde in Soviet Russia ». It is called the exhibition, which runs now Dvenadtsatikolonnom Hall New Hermitage. It is dedicated to the history of the first collection of contemporary European art, brought to Soviet Russia after the revolution. The exhibition, comprising approximately 170 drawings, prepared by the State Hermitage Museum jointly with the Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts and Science Library of the Russian Academy of Arts.

«Association of proletarian art» (Genossenschaft fur proletarische Kunst), founded in Berlin in early 1920, combined the objectives of the business (ie, it was actually a cooperative, bringing together artists who work together on the sale of their works) and the purely social and political nature. Among the members of the Association was already known as a master of German expressionism - Erich Hekkel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluf, Otto Muller, Christian Rolfs, and artists of the younger generation, beginning a creative career that is related to time after the First World War. Among them Berliners George Gross, Ludwig Maydner, Max Kaus, and Erich Year, Conrad Feliksmyuller and Walter Jacob from Dresden, Rüdiger Burleigh of Leipzig, Gustav Heinrich Wolff, and Karl Walter Gramatte Opferman from Hamburg, Franz Zayvert from Cologne, Arnold Schmidt-Nihiol of Vorpsvede, Max Burharts and Reinhard Hilker of Hagen, Rudolf Хайниш from Frankfurt-am-Main, and others. Of particular value attached to diversity represent a collection of names representing a cross section of modern living German art in 1920, which coexist with the phenomenon of different artistic and aesthetic merits.

In the Association of the latest currents of modern German art from the art nouveau (Siegfried Berndt), and early expressionism artists group «bridge» (Schmidt-Rottluf, Hekkel) and Dada (George Gross). With all the differences of artistic opinion in a short time, these artists managed to combine the idea of «proletarian» Art.

founder of «Association of proletarian art» Brass was Frederick William (Friedrich Wilhelm Brass). He was born in Rhine Province of Prussia in the city of Krefeld in 1873 in a working family. In the surviving documents, he called himself the artistic craftsmen or art dealers. For some time he worked in Krefeld in lithographic shop and, apparently, by profession a printer. In the years 1905-1908 contained in Krefeld Brass Art Salon, selling old and new works of art, books and magazines on art. This is a commercial enterprise rather quickly collapsed.

Brass venture in 1920 in Berlin was to combine commerce and politics; calculation seems, was the fact that the rise of a revolutionary situation, the new art can be the greatest demand in workers quarters. Trading Brass met mostly inexpensive pieces of printed graphics, much of which was political, propagandistic character. However, the lack of Brass effect any substantive material. Private exhibition room at the Association was not. Brass founder and publisher partnerships, but only managed to publish a series of lithographs Erich Godana «revolution» and the portraits of Karl Liebknecht executed Arnold Schmidt-Nihiolom. This enterprise lasted long, had been eliminated, all that was then in partnership with Brass, was sold in October 1920 in Russia.

History acquiring collections

Collection Genossenschaft fur proletarische Kunst was brought to Russia in November 1920, when the Petrograd delegation returned from Germany, led by the chairman of the Comintern Executive GE Zinoviev, who went onto the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. This was the first official check-out Soviet leaders abroad after the revolution.

Zinovyeva of the trip accompanied by Ilya Ionov Ionovich (1887-1942), a professional revolutionary, many years spent in prison and exile. Ionov was fond of literature, wrote poetry. In early youth, worked in the short-printing. After the revolution, Ilya Ionov was appointed head of the State Publishing House in St. Petersburg, organized the publishing house, printing a political, scientific, educational and fiction, oversaw the activities of all printers in the city, private publishers and even some time censorship function. During a brief visit to Germany Ionov bought a large quantity of goods that arrived in Petrograd sea. Among the inventory Ionova acquired the property in the ship's cargo inventory referred to «the premise of Brass 4 a box, a roll and packing the books». Thus the collection Genossenschaft fur proletarische Kunst was in Russia.

Perhaps Ionov, having access to money Comintern, bought from the Brass All that was then in possession Genossenschaft. All works from this collection are on the back of a stamp and inscription Genossenschaft made by hand Brass. Detect to work with such a stamp museum collections in Germany were unable to.

In Petrograd originally kept in the collection Gosizdate, located in the House of Books on Nevsky Prospect. Since no inventory in 1920, apparently has not been compiled, the composition of the collection, got in Russia, is not known. We found 260 works in St. Petersburg - the State Hermitage Museum, the Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts and Science Library of the Russian Academy of Arts.

In addition, with a collection of Brass in Petrograd reached rare complete sets of art books Wartime - «Krigstsayt» and «Bilderman», as well as notebooks «Shaffenden» for 1919-1920 years, which worked most significant German charts that time (about four hundred etchings and lithographs). Thus, at the end of 1920 in Petrograd was the most representative collection of contemporary German charts outside of Germany, showing the arts of this country in the first decades of the twentieth century works at the highest level.

In the early 1920's a lot of work into the hands of the largest collectors of contemporary graphics Petrogradsky I. Rybakova, Vsevolod V. Voinova , J. M. Kaplan, GS Vereyskaya . Sooner or later the work of German artists from the collection of the Association, were in private collections in 1920-30-s (and even later - until the 1980's), get to the Hermitage. Since the 1920's the museum considers the formation of a collection of modern Western art one of his priorities. Brass Works from the collection became the basis of the collection of contemporary German art in the Hermitage.

However, the recent fall of 1920 in Petrograd, the collection was for the unfavorable perception of the soil most. For the Soviet avant-garde works of German masters, after the creative experiments , Tatlin , Filonov , were not revolutionary. For artists realistic for any requirements of the German revolutionary pathetics was not.

Selected works from the collection for several years has been a huge exhibit of prints XV-XX centuries, arranged in the Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1927-1929 years. Then they found themselves in a long time and the Hermitage storerooms Academy. In the pre-pore and later German expressionism was actually banned. Only in the second half of 1950 pieces from the collection of Brass again to be shown at an exhibition of German graphic late XIX - early XX century in the Hermitage. But by this time the history of origin of the work was already completely forgotten, but the German expressionism, deprived once so irritated spectators political overtones seen in the broader context of artistic transformation of European art of the twentieth century.

Forgotten proved «Association of proletarian art» Friedrich Brass and Germany. During the fight «degenerative» art the Nazis had destroyed most of the expressionists works, preserved in museums in Germany. Now the German art collections survived only a few sheets of printed published Brass. Equally cruel was the history and to those young artists who worked in the company. Their biographies, the fate of their work is closely intertwined with the devastating events of fascist terror in the field of art and war. They were banned, persecuted, their legacy of ruthlessly destroying fires and bombings. Hence the high value preserved in the collections of the Association of Russia, which is exclusive to the completeness and variety of colorful and interesting picture of the artistic life of Berlin in 1920.

exhibition at the Hermitage for the first time the newly collected works, place of Genossenschaft fur proletarische Kunst, and has to draw attention to this episode interesting Russian-German relations and the forgotten art, even in the German Art of Brass.

The exhibition is open until June 21.

Source: hermitagemuseum.org