THANK YOU!
Artists, friends, collectors,
museums, colleagues, family and staff
29 May – 25 September 2021
Only recently we realised that this year marks 20 years since the opening of our gallery here in the centre of Riehen. Through the Corona turmoil of the now almost one and a half years, we had completely forgotten about this anniversary.
These were exciting days for us in 2001, as we had only just discovered the gallery rooms by chance through a newspaper advertisement, visited and rented them in a quick decision. We were attracted by Riehen's advantageous location in every respect, its proximity to the borders with Germany and France, to the motorway, railway and Basel airport and, above all, the few steps to the Fondation Beyeler. The possibility for our visitors to combine a visit to the museum with a detour to our rooms seemed very promising to us. The opportunity of accompanying some of the exhibitions at the Fondation with thematic exhibitions of our own in the gallery also seemed exciting and reasonable to us. Our first exhibition was dedicated to Nunzio (di Stefano), one of the protagonists of the "Nuova Scuola Romana". The success of this exhibition should confirm our decision to move to Riehen with the gallery, a decision we have never regretted since. We didn't know at the time that Ernst Beyeler would visit us and give us friendly advice, both in this first exhibition and in numerous subsequent ones, when he was on his way to "his" Fondation on foot, but it was a wonderful sign of welcome to Riehen and honoured us tremendously. Many more unforgettably exciting and enriching encounters with other personalities who today have legendary status were to follow.
In 2001, Marc Triebold already had some experience in the gallery business and the art trade, having worked in the Triebold Gallery of his parents, Delia and Othmar Triebold-Donati, from 1986 onwards, where he learned all the basics about the activities of a gallery, in keeping with the motto "working by doing". Likewise, Alexandra Henze Triebold had already worked in the gallery of her parents, Ingeborg Henze-Ketterer and Dr. Wolfgang Henze, while studying art history. We both now dared to take the step into something own and new here in the small town of Riehen just outside Basel, which became world-famous among art connoisseurs and art lovers thanks to the Fondation Beyeler.
For our programme, it seemed logical and desirable to bring together the artists our parents already represented. These were the positions of Expressionism, especially "Brücke", with a focus on Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's work. Alexandra Henze Triebold's grandfather, Roman Norbert Ketterer, had predetermined this central field of work for our programme, through his very successful art dealing activities from 1946 onwards, including as trustee of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's estate. Abstraction after the Second World War, Nouvelle Figuration with some masters who are fortunately still alive today, furthermore the collaboration with a number of internationally important contemporary artists, most of whom we know well personally and with whom we are still in close, friendly contact today, make up another important part of our activities that we would not want to miss. In all matters, we have always been able to count on the full support of our parents and grandparents, for whose trust and support we are still deeply indebted to today.
In the beginning, we benefited primarily from already existing collector contacts of our parents and grandparents, but soon we also built up new collector relationships, not at least through participation in international fairs, which often led to close friendships. The location in Riehen never disappointed us; even random "walk-in customers", wonderful people we would never have met without the local conditions, found their way to us here. Today, although many of the first contacts take place via internet, the moment of decision usually still takes place physically in front of the work, especially when it concerns important works. This is a moment that will never lose any of its fascination for us: putting people in front of "their work of art", observing its immediate effect on the viewer, is an indispensable building block for success in our incomparably fulfilling profession.
Much would never have been possible without the often selfless and unbureaucratic support and the intensive cooperation by a number of important colleagues, artists' estates and museums who work together with us to promote the artists we represent. Today, it fills us with great satisfaction that we, as the already third or second generation of dealers, have more and more often been allowed to become the direct contact for the currently responsible museum directors. Alexandra Henze Triebold, in particular, is devoting more and more of her time to organising and accompanying museum exhibitions, especially on Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and his work.
This scientific commitment of Alexandra Henze Triebold to the work of the artists we represent is always carried out with the highest degree of respect and appreciation for their œuvre, entirely in the tradition of her paternal grandfather, Dr Anton Henze, who, as an important art historian, wrote numerous texts as a journalist and author on the art and works of a wide variety of artists. She owes her love for this written examination of art to him and her father, who serve as role models for her.
A small number of staff members have actively supported us in these last two decades in the always exciting and challenging gallery work. They have been and still are of great help to us in preparing and carrying out the organisation of exhibitions, participation in art fairs, sales, writing texts, research on "all and sundry", artist support and so much more. Day after day, they cheerfully commit themselves to the gallery's activities, do their best to welcome our visitors in the friendliest way and guide them competently through the exhibitions. In particular, the current team with Ms Katharina Sagel M.A. and Ms Susanne Kirchner M.A. comes close to the perfection we strive for, and we are infinitely grateful to these two ladies for the support and solidarity that only make it possible for us to do justice to the relentless pressures of our time.
We would like to express our gratitude to all these very special people mentioned above with the equally special work by Giovanni Manfredini, which is depicted on the invitation card. The "Stabat Mater Dolorosa", a homage by the artist to his deceased mother, is conceived as a symbol of selfless gratitude. It is a crown of thorns in gilded sterling silver, created from the rose branches of the mother's garden. The work - accompanied by music composed especially for it by the great master Ennio Morricone and the recited prayer "Stabat Mater" - was exhibited in Rome in the Basilica of Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio. We think humbly, but also joyfully, of all the dear people who have supported us during these two decades, whose friendship we have been able to enjoy, whose help we have received and who have shown us their loyalty.
We are all united by the unconditional love of life and art and the work of the artists who are important to us, which creates a kindred spirit and welds us together. This love alone motivates us every day, satisfies us and gives us moments of the greatest happiness. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for accompanying us on our way through these first 20 years in Riehen. Keep enjoying the beautiful things and take good care of yourself and your loved ones.
Yours Dr. Alexandra Henze Triebold and Marc Triebold
(Translated by Uli Nickel)
Two decades of exhibition history from Modern Art to the present: together with artists, friends, collectors, museums, colleagues, family and staff, we have been able to enjoy over 100 exhibitions in the gallery spaces of Wettsteinstrasse, a coming together through the love of art that makes us extremely happy. To celebrate two decades of shows and exciting exchanges, we would like to present selected works from exhibitions from the early 2000s until our last one so far in 2021. You are cordially invited to join us in this retrospective through time, exploring the artistic positions from Expressionism, Abstraction, New Figuration and Contemporary Art that we, as a gallery, are happy to represent and show then and now.
Already in our third generation, one of the main focuses of our work is on building up and completing museum and private collections of Expressionist art, which we approach with conviction as the custodians of the estate and archive of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. With the art movement of "Expressionism", German artists succeeded in assuming a significant position in European art at the beginning of the 20th century, even forming a new counterweight to the French Impressionists and thus gaining worldwide recognition for their work.
The upsurge of expressive art in Germany is inescapably linked to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, one of its most important representatives. As early as the summer of 1905, Kirchner founded the artists' association "Brücke" together with his fellow students Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Far away from social and academic doctrines, they developed a pictorial language whose revolutionary approach recommended a free creation that emphasised one's own sensibility: Everyone belongs to us who reflects directly and unadulterated what urges them to create.[1]
A distinctive shaping of the forms, a colouring rich in contrast, the spontaneous brushwork as well as abstracting simplification of the representational reflect the subjective feeling of the artist. Themes and motifs were found in nudes, street scenes and big city scenes; nature or the countless stages of vaudeville, cabarets and circuses in cities such as Dresden and Berlin all too often served as his "studio". Human movement, in dance and acrobatics, was an especially popular motif, as it offered a momentary quality that could only too well be captured in striking, spontaneous brushstrokes inspired by the Expressionist world view. Even after the dissolution of the "Brücke" and Kirchner's move to Davos in Switzerland, artistic perfection and uninhibited movement run like a thread through his work, exemplified in one of our main works in the exhibition, “Artisten an Ringen (und Trapez)“ ("Artists on Rings (and Trapeze)") from 1923/29. With the intention of "recreating the inner image with abstract forms",[2] the so-called "New Style" in Kirchner's late work is evident here. With their dynamic colour palette and playful subjects, the compositions of that period radiate an overwhelming joie de vivre, as in “Drei nackte junge Männer“ ("Three Nude Young Men") from 1932/36, which is now part of our anniversary show as an excerpt from our last exhibition in 2021.
With works such as Erich Heckel's painting "Alsterlandschaft (Die Alster bei der Mellingburger Schleuse)" (“Alster Landscape (Alster at the Mellingburg Water Lock)”) from 1913, Max Pechstein's oil painting "Walliser Hütten (bei Saas Almagell)" (“Valais Huts (at Saas Almagell)”) from 1923, or Christian Rohlf's tempera-on-canvas "Sängerin I (Vier Menschen)" ("Singer I (Four People)”), c. 1921), further Expressionist positions are presented that exemplify the multitude of exhibitions and works shown there in the gallery's last 20 years.
Already in Expressionism, strong tendencies against naturalistic depictions can be seen. Thus, the complete renunciation of representationalism in the art of the 1940s marks a break with the conventions of the time; it was the rediscovered freedom after the suppression by the National Socialists and the disturbing war. This gave rise to the so-called "Art Informel", a term that was coined by the art historian Michel Tapié in 1951 to summarise various abstract art styles of the post-war period.[3] The term does not describe a uniform style of art but rather an artistic attitude and the rendering visible of the artistic process. "Informal art" is today considered one of the most important innovations of post-war art. Its works form an point of intersection between Modernism and Postmodernism, and continue to have a great influence to the present day.
In the exhibition, works of the Informel are represented by Francis Bott, Fred Thieler and Bernard Schultze. The latter is one of the central protagonists of gestural-abstract art of the second half of the 20th century. Schultze's works evoke the most diverse associations in the viewer and usually contain allusions to and quotations from nature, reminiscent of roots, forests and other plants. In the 1960s, he created the so-called "Migofs", artistic creatures with which he extended abstraction into the spatial and which grew out of his canvases and paper works to become independent, room-filling sculptures. The artist's working method can always be described as a conceptless, free run of his hand with partly impasto, partly glazing application of paint.
As a departure from the abstract approach of Informel, the "Neue Figuration" ("New Figuration") emerged, which describes figurative painting after the Second World War and is derived from the book title of the same name by the painter and critic Hans Platschek.[4] The style of painting here tied in with pre-war tendencies and again attached more value to figurative representation.
In 1959, Jürgen Brodwolf literally clung to the only concrete object in his "abstract" studio, namely a paint tube made of lead, and playfully deformed it. It became a human-like figure. This tube figure became his theme, which he has since varied endlessly in all techniques, dimensions and meanings: Pure figure. This is how he uses the tube figure in his work to date, such as in "Figurengruppe vor Gotthardwelt" ("Group of Figures in Front of Gotthard World") from 2019.
A representative of the contemporary position and important artist of the gallery is Giovanni Manfredini, whose "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" adorns the invitation card. The work of the Italian artist, born in 1963, is characterised by his special technique, which he developed himself. Manfredini uses fire to blacken surfaces that he previously covers with a mixture of shell flour and resin. He then presses parts of his body, among other things, onto the image carrier. In this way, bright spots reflecting the light are created, which form a strong contrast to the sooty image carrier and create a fascinating chiaroscuro.
The Spanish artist Darío Basso, who is three years younger, has also discovered his own pictorial language and, above all, technique for himself, while his work is mainly concerned with nature. The self-taught artist uses completely unconventional means, paints, often casts his pictures outdoors in nature horizontally on the ground, incorporates the surroundings and also the weather as well as direct or indirect forces of nature or the genius loci in myth or history, too. On many works, it has rained or hailed, some he submerged in rivers.
In this presentation celebrating the gallery's anniversary, please join us not only on a journey through the exhibitions of the last 20 years of the gallery's history, but also on a journey through the 20th and 21st centuries of art history and the many exciting art movements and attitudes that it has created.
Susanne Kirchner and Katharina Sagel
(Translated by Uli Nickel)
[1] Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, “Programm der Brücke” (“Programme of Brücke”), woodcut in black on vergé paper, folded in the centre, monogrammed in the printing block of the text upper left: ELK, 1906.
[2] Exhib. cat. “’Der Neue Stil’. Ernst Ludwig Kirchners Spätwerk“ ("'The New Style'. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Late Work"), Lyonel Feininger Gallery, Kirchner Museum, ed. by Björn Egging, Karin Schick, Quedlinburg/Davos 2008/2009, p. 6.
[3] Cf. Michel Tapié, „Un art autre: où il s'agit de nouveaux dévidages du réel“, Paris 1952. [4] Cf. Hans Platschek, “Neue Figurationen: Aus der Werkstatt der heutigen Malerei“ ("New Figurations: From the Workshop of Contemporary Painting"), Munich 1959.
