Hildegard Domizlaff: Hommage zum 100sten Geburtstag
1998 Hildegard Domizlaff
25 January to 31 March 1998
Hildegard Domizlaff
On Occasion of her 100th Birthday
During the first three months of this year for the first time ever we are presenting a female artist in a monographic exposition. Hildegard Domizlaff (1898-1987) lived and worked in Cologne – the city of her choice – for more than sixty years. After the war, she belonged to a colony of artists near the Belvedere in Müngersdorf together with Gerhard Marcks. From her extensive oeuvres we are showing four groups – some of the works have never been shown before. Of her early works watercolours from 1921/22 with nudes in different perspectives and facially characteristic portraits can be seen. A key work of the artistic problem she was dealing with in this time is a small torso standing in the middle of the room. The 45 woodcuts with scenes from the Old and New Testament convey a narrative concentration. They stem from an iconographically rich series, a project Hildegard Domizlaff worked on from 1938-52 to illustrate the Bible with woodcuts. The Way to the Cross as a woodcut from 1952 captivates us with its formal reduction and simplicity.
Hildegard Domizlaff has become known mostly through the artistic sensibility she displayed in designing twelve crosiers since 1942. Seven of them are presented here. The drawings from nature (1964-1974), taken from among an extensive collection of such works, are a surprise. Leaves, blades of grass, bushes, trees, crustaceans, insects and birds attest to Domizlaff’s interest in the creative aspect of all things natural. These are preparatory studies for small-scale sculptures in stone carving and ivory. These make up some of the later works, of which we are showing ivory carvings which reveal their special individuality in such a small format: Carved in this medium, ginkgo, herons, sandpipers and cranes, snakes and laurel appeal to the sensitivity of our perception.
(Book publication)
Hildegard Domizlaff
On Occasion of her 100th Birthday
During the first three months of this year for the first time ever we are presenting a female artist in a monographic exposition. Hildegard Domizlaff (1898-1987) lived and worked in Cologne – the city of her choice – for more than sixty years. After the war, she belonged to a colony of artists near the Belvedere in Müngersdorf together with Gerhard Marcks. From her extensive oeuvres we are showing four groups – some of the works have never been shown before. Of her early works watercolours from 1921/22 with nudes in different perspectives and facially characteristic portraits can be seen. A key work of the artistic problem she was dealing with in this time is a small torso standing in the middle of the room. The 45 woodcuts with scenes from the Old and New Testament convey a narrative concentration. They stem from an iconographically rich series, a project Hildegard Domizlaff worked on from 1938-52 to illustrate the Bible with woodcuts. The Way to the Cross as a woodcut from 1952 captivates us with its formal reduction and simplicity.
Hildegard Domizlaff has become known mostly through the artistic sensibility she displayed in designing twelve crosiers since 1942. Seven of them are presented here. The drawings from nature (1964-1974), taken from among an extensive collection of such works, are a surprise. Leaves, blades of grass, bushes, trees, crustaceans, insects and birds attest to Domizlaff’s interest in the creative aspect of all things natural. These are preparatory studies for small-scale sculptures in stone carving and ivory. These make up some of the later works, of which we are showing ivory carvings which reveal their special individuality in such a small format: Carved in this medium, ginkgo, herons, sandpipers and cranes, snakes and laurel appeal to the sensitivity of our perception.
(Book publication)