GROUP EXHIBITION

Objectivity means holding back one’s own self to turn to an object or a person and portray it realistically. The artists of New Objectivity chose portraits, still lifes, and urban environments as well as industrial plants, which they depicted either with a political stance, idyllically, or in a form of magical realism. This choice of motifs is also reflected in the exhibition.

Kate Diehn-Bitt turns her attention above all to humans, whom she portrays with great empathy. The paintings in this exhibition deal with situations of loving attention, for example in the portrait of a woman holding a white dove protectively in her hand, the painting of a young man putting a veil on a bride’s head, or the depiction of a dentist treating a patient empathetically.

Michael Langer (1929–2022), in addition to his paintings of human beings, dedicated a series of paintings and drawings to automobiles. He alienates this motif – just as the human figure – and depicts it unrealistically. That is reminis-cent of works by Pablo Picasso. Is it still objective? Is it a caricature or already Pop Art? The multi-layered works elude any clear categorization. They depict people and things in surprising new ways.

Rafael Cidoncha (born in 1952) devotes great attention to his motifs, down to the smallest detail. The special vibe of his works originates from his choice of colours. Different shades of grey turn a curtain into an almost monochrome painting, while a cityscape in the morning light is depicted in delicate pastel colours. It is the colours that lend the cool, objective gaze an empathetic dimension.

In the work by Emese Kazár (born in 1971), the colour red expresses her empathetic solidarity with Princess Margarita, depicted by Diego Velázquez in her childlike beauty. She was married at fifteen, and died aged just 21, after having given birth six times. Kazár compares these women’s lives, determined by their families, with the silkworms that are bred just for the silk – their existence seems purely utilitarian.

Sabine Herrmann (born in 1961) links objectivity with poetry and dreams, ­realism with emotion. In the painting Abendlied, a woman bends down as if to put on socks. Her light figure is surrounded by dark colours that lend the depiction a slight sense of melancholia. The early, delicately painted self-portrait, reminiscent of Paula Modersohn-Becker, largely foregoes colour and limits itself to differentiated shades of brown, thus stressing the young face’s serious expression.