Abstracts englisch

Jan von Bonsdorff: Die Rolle Münchens für skandinavische Malerinnen und Maler am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts – ein Blick von außen, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

In the end of the 1880s almost all of the Scandinavian avant-garde artists resided abroad. Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe and Copenhagen were popular destinations in the beginning of the century. A whole generation of especially Norwegian painters flocked to Munich in the 1870s. The registers archived in Munich's Academy of Fine Arts – an invaluable source for biographical explorations – document around 70 Norwegian artists who studied there between 1870 and 1890. Norwegian artists tended to work in the field of genre and landscape painting, omitting official history painting, and it is worth recalling that Munich's art life was quite differentiated: It included an ambitious scene of history painting, which was officially sanctioned and important for the creation of a national identity; a more commercially oriented genre painting (both within the academy); and landscape painting (outside the academy).

Frank Büttner: Die Akademie und das Renommee Münchens als Kunststadt, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

At the end of the 19th century, Munich enjoyed the reputation to be the most important "art city" of Europe next to Paris. In this essay I would like to explain which factors contributed to this exceptional position as an art city. One of these factors was the high esteem art held in the policy of the Bavarian kings. Thanks to their art commissions numerous artists found occupation. This esteem was shared by the members of the educated classes even if there were some opposition in the years before the 1848 revolution. The public sphere was no less important: The increasing exhibition possibilities (Art association building, 1838; Glass palace, 1854) guaranteed a broad audience that opened commercial opportunities for freelance artists. Furthermore, art criticism and art reproduction – by means of lithography and photography, as used by the firms of Piloty and Hanfstaengl – enhanced chances at the art market. Thanks to this cultural environment, the study of art at the Munich academy was especially attractive. Later on, the situation changed. Although the Bavarian capital was still extremely popular among artists as a place for studying, "Munich's downfall as art city" was widely discussed after 1900. However, the crisis which was diagnosed in these discussions had emerged much earlier. As a matter of fact, the Bavarian art policy had misjudged the modern trends, and the academy adhered to formulas which were outdated for a long time. Nevertheless, in spite of the conservative Bavarian art policy Munich could claim an important place in the history of the modern art due to the artists of the 'Blauer Reiter'. This is proof of a still favourable cultural climate – a climate that should change thoroughly, however, after the First World War.

Barbara Ciciora: Jan Matejko in München – Ein Überblick über die Ausbildung des Künstlers, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

Jan Matejko, one of the most famous and eminent Polish artists, is also found to be the most talented among Polish history painters. After finishing the School of Fine Arts in Krakow he received a 2-years scholarship to study abroad, which he used for further training at the Munich academy from 1858 to 1859. During this period he visited the highlights of Munich and the best museums and art collections. He concentrated on contemporary history painting and old architecture, clothes, furniture, and arms that he used throughout his life as accessories in his paintings. Works by Wilhelm Kaulbach, Carl Theodor Piloty and Paul Delaroche were most important for the process of Matejko's education in this period. Piloty's technique of painting and his topics made a great impression on the young artist, e.g. his 'Death of Wallenstein'. Kaulbach's "symbolic and historical style" convinced Matejko that the historical event does not have to be presented as it really happened. The great historical painting should rather present the whole knowledge about the event according to the interpretation suggested by the artist. A "suspense effect" recognized by Matejko in paintings by Delaroche (seen on photographs and graphics) was repeated in Matejko's paintings just after coming back from the scholarship. Matejko returned to Munich in 1870, on his way to Paris. Then he saw the newly opened Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. The wall paintings, especially those depicting wars, made a great impression on him and inspired one of his greatest paintings, 'The Battle of Grunwald'.

Vessela Christova-Radoeva: European Art – Common Routes and Area. Die Beziehungen zwischen München und der bulgarischen Kunst, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

More than sixty Bulgarian artists studied and worked in Munich between the 1850s and the 1940s. The first to arrive here (via Vienna academy) was Nikolai Pavlovitsch (1835-1894), who after his return to Bulgaria fostered the foundation of an academy of fine arts in Sofia, that opened two years after his death. As the Sofia academy followed patterns of art education at least partly influenced by the Munich experience, it was no surprise that around the turn of the century Sofia graduates tended to leave for Munich for advanced training. While the first Bulgarian students arrived in the heyday of history painting, the influence of modern tendencies was decisive for the second generation mostly dealing with genre and portraits. The essay focuses on three artists and their oeuvres: Nikola Michailov (1876-1960), Kiril Zonev (1896-1961) and Konstantin (Kotscho) Garnev (1894 – 1966), including bi-national exhibitions and mutual cultural exchange.

Walter Grasskamp: Das Europa der Kunst. Zwei Jahrhunderte Akademie der Bildenden Künste München oder: Vier Jubiläen und eine Utopie, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

The introduction considers how the Munich Academy, officially founded in 1808, celebrated its jubilees, and stresses the chances the forthcoming bicentennial in 2008 offers: In 1858 an important exhibition took place, introducing artists from all over Germany. The centennial "festschrift" covered only the first fifty years, never to be continued. In 1958 the academy's fatal role during the national-socialist period could have been dealt with, but that only happened twenty-five years later with the book 'Tradition und Widerspruch' (Tradition and Contradiction). As a step towards the bicentennial, an international conference reconstructed the outstanding importance Munich had for European art in the second half of the 19th and the first two decades of the 20th century, the score reaching from the export of history painting to middle and Eastern Europe to the international avant-garde of the 'Blauer Reiter'. As the first European conference on the history of artists' education it was also planned as a start for a network of art historians establishing a European art history.

Ágnes Kovács: Facetten der Akademie der Bildenden Künste München in der ungarischen Kunstgeschichtsschreibung, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

Almost 500 Hungarian students learned their art at the Royal Academy in Munich in the course of the 19th century. As a consequence, the so called "Munich realism", the style adopted at the academy, and further orientations preferred in Bavaria's capital, also found a home in Hungary's artistic life. Hungarian modernity, the first generation of the Nagybánya school, consisted of artists educated in Munich. Following this conclusion, Hungarian art history would have had reason enough to make a research topic of artistic relationships between Hungary and Bavaria. This has not been done, on the contrary, Munich and its academy played a negative role until the end of the 1980s as far as the development of Hungarian art was concerned. Why that? Hoping that Hungarian art history can take part in a publication on Munich academy's bicentenary in the spirit of a free approach, this essay tries to find an answer to the question.

Stelian Mândruţ: Die Ausbildung der Künstler aus Rumänien an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste in München, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

From Romania, seen in its actual territory of state, altogether 108 students studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts during her first 130 years. Most of them went there in the second half of the 19th century and around the turn of the century, corresponding to a general increase of students at the prospering Munich academy at that time. In comparison with the number of students from other nations and countries from middle and south-eastern Europe, the percentage of Romanian students appears rather small, due to a number of different causes. Most of the Romanian students applied for painting (1838-1935: 81), a few for sculpture (1860-1928: 15) or for architecture (1824–1883: 12). While Munich attracted the Romanian students in concurrence to Vienna and Budapest during the second half of the 19th century, interest of the Romanian students in Rome and Paris increased around the turn of the century.

Donovan Pavlinec: Slowenische Maler und München, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

Munich was one of the most important cultural centres for Slovenian artists in the late 19th and early 20th century, for it was there that they became aware of the modern avant-garde movements by studying and visiting exhibitions. Realist painters of the younger generation chose Munich Academy instead of going to Venice, Rome, Prague or Vienna. Ferdo Vesel, Jožef Petkovšek, Anton Ažbe and Ivana Kobilca came to Munich in the eighties of the 19th century since the prevailing realism at the Academy suited their creative aims. Anton Ažbe was the most outstanding among them, being the founder and leader of the school named after him, which allured students mostly from Slavic countries for fourteen years (1891-1905). Among them were painters of great significance such as Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Hofmann and the so called Slovenian impressionists. Rihard Jakopič, Matija Jama, Ivan Grohar and Matej Sternen met in Ažbe's School and discovered Impressionism in exhibitions in Munich and Vienna, which came to be crucial for their further development.

Roman Prahl: München und die Anfänge des Modernismus in der tschechischen Kunst, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

'Škréta' and 'Mánes' are essential movements of Czech Modernism. This paper sketches the history of the association 'Škréta', founded by Czech art students in Munich in 1885 (until 1888), and its continuation 'Mánes' in Prague (since 1887). The portfolios of student drawings and texts created the basis for the first Czech art periodical. Working between academic traditions and popular visual imagery, the students looked for a position independent of art authorities and general taste. In the artists' association, the autonomy of art was considered similar to national self-determination. Therefore, 'Mánes' played a "positive" role in Prague's art scene, different to both radical Modernism and to populist art. An important basis for this development was the former experience of a common identity in Munich, the international art centre.

Aušrinė Slavinskienė: Litauische Maler in München, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

Close artistic relationships between Munich and Lithuania sprang up in the second half of the XIXth century. Lithuanian painters chose to study in Munich for a variety of reasons. First of all, there wasn't any school of higher education in fine arts in Lithuania; secondly, they were attracted by the Polish artists' community, which was very large and consolidated in Munich; and finally, it was Munich's democratic atmosphere which enabled Lithuanian painters to feel free in their creation, to resist russification, and to express ideas which could evoke national consciousness and hope to regain independence of Lithuania. The article analyses some of the creations of the most eminent Lithuanian painters, whose artistic style matured in Munich. Most of them accepted realism and supplemented it by neo-romantic nuance. It is important to stress that these painters actively participated in forming the physiognomy of Lithuanian fine art in the end of the XIXth and the beginning of the XXth century. In this way the main bridge from Munich to Lithuanian art was created.

Halina Stępień: Die polnische Künstlerenklave in München (1828-1914), in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

Poland's loss of independence for more than 100 years – from the end of the 18th century to the end of the first world war –, its splitting into different parts occupied by Russia, Austria and Prussia, and reprisals against the Polish population were reason enough for young Poles to go abroad in droves, a lot of them to study the arts. Munich was a favourite place for them: 322 Poles were inscribed in the academy's registers between 1828 and 1914, 150 of them became members of Munich's association of artists. Artists from Poland constituted one of the most numerous groups of foreigners in Munich. Unmolested by censorship, they created works which had a national flavour in several regards, thematically and emotionally. They took part in exhibitions and were quickly noticed and appreciated by critics and the general public. Polish art was virtually en vogue in these years. The idea of being something special which was current in the Polish enclave was promoted by narrow relations to Poland and its artistic scene.

Jindřich Vybíral: Prager Architekten in München – Bayerische Architekten in Prag, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

In the 19th century, neither the city of Munich nor the Munich Academy of Fine Arts had as great an impact on Czech architecture as did Vienna and the Viennese Academy. The work of Munich architects active in Bohemia, however, constitutes an important chapter in the architectural history of the Bohemian Lands. Johann Gottfried Gutensohn (1729-1851) and Theodor Fischer (1862-1938) were among the most influential of these. The Bavarian architect Bernhard Grueber (1806-1883) also worked for many years in Prague. He taught at the Prague Academy, designed many pioneering works of Neo-Gothic architecture and studied the history of medieval art in Bohemia. Grueber's German sensibility aggravated his Czech contemporaries. His life story vividly demonstrates the role of national prejudices in the intellectual climate of Bohemia in the second half of the 19th century.

Annika Waenerberg: Vom Sprungbrett zur Brücke. Münchens Bedeutung für die finnische Kunst, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

In the 1840s Munich became for Finnish art an extension of the art scene in Italy. At the same time Munich gave with its art collections an example for the Finnish nation state to be constructed, delivered through the commentaries of the statesman and philosopher J. V. Snellman from his journey to Germany 1840-41. A dictionary by A. Paischeff (published in 1943) was used to produce a general survey of Munich as travel goal of Finnish artists. Of all the 696 entries on painters, sculptors and graphic artists 64 entries mention a longer stay in Munich. Six art students spent some time at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts; eight private academies are mentioned. During the first decades of the 20th century Munich played a role as a bridge to Finnish modernism, carried on by E. Lydén and the group of ‘Red Chamber’ in Turku. Also the Finnish modern stained glass art gained its inspiration from Munich.

András Zwickl: "Hauptschauplatz München". Ungarische Künstler und Künstlerinnen in München – Kunst aus München in Ungarn, in: zeitenblicke 5 (2006), Nr. 2.

In the history of modern Hungarian art no other town played a role as important as Munich. In its permanent exhibition of 19th century painting the Hungarian National Gallery until today predominantly shows works of artists who studied at Munich's academy since the middle of the 19th century. In my essay I focus on the 1880s and 90s, and especially on those who founded the colony of artists of Nagybánya. I examine how their sojourn, their studies and their exhibitions in Munich influenced their art. I also discuss the activities of art historians and critics who made an important contribution in disseminating modern ideas and aspirations in Hungary. I mainly concentrate on Károly Lyka, who propagated the art of the artists of Nagybánya after his studies in Munich and who even wrote a book on Munich's role in Hungarian art several decades later. I also describe Munich's repercussions on the artistic scene in Budapest, in how far artists living in Munich determined the appearance of the exhibitions taking place in Budapest's exhibition hall, and which was the role Munich's art trade played in the development of an art market in Hungary's capital.