Haus der Universität
Schadowplatz 14
40212 Düsseldorf
22. – 24.05.2019
Deadline: Oct 21, 2018
Das Junge Rheinland – founded, failed, forgotten?
Das Junge Rheinland – gegründet, gescheitert, vergessen?
Das Junge Rheinland was one of the first artists’ associations founded in Germany after the First World War. Between 1919 and 1932, around 400 artists gathered around the association, which pursued the goal of creating exhibition opportunities and “visibility” for young Rhenish art locally and nationwide. Das Junge Rheinland became a rallying point for artists and intellectuals of various tendencies and disciplines – painters, graphic artists, architects, designers, poets and actors – who wanted to promote both the Rhenish cultural scene and networking with artists in other regions. Among the most important protagonists were the painters Gert Wollheim, Arthur Kaufmann, Adolf Uzarski and Max Ernst, the poets Herbert Eulenberg and Theodor Däubler, art historians such as Karl Koetschau and Walter Cohen, directors of the municipal art collections, and the art dealers Alfred Flechtheim and Johanna Ey.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its foundation in 2019, an international symposium on Das Junge Rheinland shall give new impulses for research on the network of the artists’ association; the conference will take place from May 22nd to 24nd, 2019, while the exhibition “Too good to be true – Das Junge Rheinland” (Museum Kunstpalast, February 7th – June 2nd, 2019) will still be open. The conference intends to give room for an in-depth examination of the extensive network of artists in Das Junge Rheinland, shedding light on all phases of the artists’ association, from its foundation in spring 1919 to the spin-off of the Rhine Group (1923) and its reunion to the Rhenish Secession (1928).
The aim of the conference is to present new research results on this important chapter of modernity in the Rhineland and to stimulate further discussion of the topic. The following questions are of particular interest: How can the political circumstances that contributed to the foundation of the Young Rhineland in 1919 be evaluated? What role did the association’s or its members’ own political orientation play? What significance did Das Junge Rheinland have in comparison to other artist groups of the interwar period? Which art dealers and collectors were important for Das Junge Rheinland? How has the group been received over the past 100 years?
Contributions to the following topics are welcome, too:
- Das Junge Rheinland in comparison to other networks of artists in the 1920s and 30s
- Female artists among Das Junge Rheinland
- Exhibition systems of the 1920s and 30s
- Arts and Crafts in Das Junge Rheinland
- Schools of Arts and Crafts in the Rhineland and their impetus on the Rhenish art scene
- Relations with institutions (galleries, art associations, museums, etc.)
- Religious tendencies in Das Junge Rheinland
- Architects, writers, stage designers in Das Junge Rheinland
- art criticism
Please send abstracts of up to 2500 characters to Prof. Dr. Andrea von Hülsen-Esch (huelsen-esch@phil.hhu.de) by October, 21, 2018. The presentations should not exceed 20-25 minutes, leaving enough time for discussion.
Organizer:
Univ. Prof. Dr. Andrea von Hülsen-Esch
Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Institute for Art History
Universitätsstraße 1, Geb. 23.32
40225 Düsseldorf
Germany
Reference: CFP: Das Junge Rheinland (Düsseldorf, 22-24 May 19). In: ArtHist.net, Sep 15, 2018. <https://arthist.net/archive/18867>.