2020-09-14
Abstraction in a Square to open the exhibition
The wooden fence that surrounds the construction site of the Reinhard Ernst Museum measures 114 linear metres. An empty, unused area in front of a museum, which will present large, vividly coloured paintings. Hence, the idea arose to use this construction site fence and arouse curiosity about abstract art.
In the spring, the team of the Reinhard & Sonja Ernst Foundation looked for and found 11 educational institutions in Wiesbaden that wished to take part in a construction fence gallery project. The foundation provided painting utensils and boards measuring one square metre; the only formal stipulation for the theme was “abstraction”. The paintings were completed in the summer. The opening of the exhibition took place under stringent conditions (masks, social distancing, limited guest list, strict hygiene regime). In addition to the artists and their educational supervisors, numerous journalists and representatives of the state capital Wiesbaden also attended, including Lord Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende, the head of Cultural Affairs Axel Imholz and the head of the Cultural Office Jörg-Uwe Funk. Elke Gruhn, director of the neighbouring Nassau Art Association, did not miss the event either.
In his speech, Reinhard Ernst expressed his enthusiasm for the 76 works of art that were created in ten Wiesbaden schools and the cultural workshop at the Johannesstift youth welfare centre. He thanked everyone who had shown such great commitment to make the construction fence exhibition possible – meanwhile, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, it was not even clear whether the project could even be implemented at all. He pointed out that introducing children to abstract art is a matter close to his heart and that particular attention would be paid to this in the design of the new museum, for example with special digital features. He said he wanted to build on the relationships established with the educational facilities in connection with the Abstraction in the Square exhibition.
Gert-Uwe Mende, Wiesbaden’s Lord Mayor, also praised the young artists. He was pleased that the building is already attracting citizens of the state capital today and that an introduction to the museum’s work as a facilitator has already been found. Mende pointed to the catalogue that has been published for the exhibition; the fact that such a high-quality publication was issued even for the work of schoolchildren is proof of the seriousness of the foundation’s attention to children and young people. The mayor repeated his assessment that the Reinhard Ernst Museum was a real stroke of luck for Wiesbaden and that this was obvious long before its completion.
Carolin Langer, art historian and employee of the Reinhard & Sonja Ernst Foundation, explained the essential starting point of the exhibition once again by suggesting the reference to the square could be found in the museum architecture as a rectangular, glazed inner courtyard that would extend over all floors. Langer found it particularly exciting to see how artists of different age groups and from different institutions had dealt with the theme of abstraction. In addition to geometric, systematic approaches, these works also included examples of action painting, in which actual colour explosions were juxtaposed with conceptual works that dealt with schematic arguments.
When Zahra and Aron from the IGS Alexej von Jawlensky school hung the picture The Wave, the exhibition was completed and officially opened. Click on the image in the following gallery to get further impressions of the opening.
The construction fence is currently open on the Rheinstrasse side because heavy drilling gear is in use there. However, this section will be closed again in a few weeks, so the paintings presented on mobile construction fences can be set up along Rheinstrasse on the opening day. Then, the entire open-air gallery can be appreciated again as it was on opening day. Hopefully, people will be able to experience it until the new museum starts operating.
The (German) Hessenschau report item on the event can be found here.