When a museum reflects on its gift
This is normally the last series of exhibition dedicated to the gift and the legacy of Cornelius Gurlitt (1932 – 2014) in November 2014. Almost eight years later, and since December 2021, 1 600 works of art from the estate of Gurlitt have move physically to the Kunstmuseum Bern.
The history of a man
The story of Hildebrand Gurlitt (1895–1956) start out in his family, an upper middle-class family who all came from the art: artists, art dealers, and academic who all grew up in Dresden. During his first years, he became influences by his father, Cornelius Gurlitt (1850–1938) who taught as a professor at the technical University of Dresden. He and Hildebrand Gurlitt will go to exhibitions in the museum of Dresden and all over Germany, and particularly the shows of the Brücke artists.
At the start of his adulthood, the First World War started, and he volunteered for military service. In September 1914, he was accepted by the military and a few weeks after, he was sent to the Western Front. His experience will be described by Hildebrand in his journal as "You are afraid of being shot dead at the very time when you are in grave doubt [...] and another thing that is dangerous is that you could start thinking in a way that doesn’t concur with your current circumstances. That’s what you’re most afraid of, how should you live".
A few years later, Hildebrand was transferred to the military administration on the Eastern Front at the end of 1917.
During the war, Hildebrand became an art professional due to the creation and organisation of exhibition and museum. During the last year of the war, he was posted to the Eastern Front supreme command press department in Vilnius in 1917, where he met the journalist Paul Fechter. They both started studying art history following the war. They also work during their studies at the newspaper Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten.
In 1925, he became director of the König-Albert-Museum in Zwickau. One of his goal while being the director of the museum is to convert the museum into a museum of his time, focusing on contemporary art, modern design and works or art which are important for the history of the city and the region.
The design of the museum was transformed with a modern design, and works of art were presented chronologically according to the differing areas of the collection.
He will also create a varied program of exhibition of contemporary art and artist, historic exhibition and exhibition around modern subjects. In 1933, all of his goal will be stopped. In January 1933, the Nazis came to power and political opponents and Jewish people were arrested and professionally dismissed. Thus, the 1933 exhibition of the Hamburg Secession at the Kunstverein was closed by order of the chief of police at the end of March 1933.
This was only the start of the decision. The board of directors of the Hamburger Kunstverein were forced to resign from their posts in July 1933.
The man of degenerate art
Adolf Hitler announced a war against Modern Art. In July 1937, the Nazi started the degenerate art campaign, as a result of which more than 20,000 works of art were confiscated from 101 German museums. Most of the works are from expressionism and abstraction, as well as anti-war imagery and works by socialist, communist, and Jewish artists.
And, NOW?
Now, in November 2014, the museum Bern accepted the bequest from Cornelius Gurlitt, which means many surprises, and responsibility around the 1 600 works of art.
Seven years later, the Kunstmuseum Bern assimilated more than 1 600 works from the Gurlitt into its collection. But five works had previously been handed over to the Federal Republic of Germany, nine works of art have been returned to their rightful owners since 2011 and two works were passed on to the descendants of two families, as a “just and fair solution” according to the 1998 Washington Principles.
But nothing was easy, between the history of the Kunstmuseum Bern, the collection of the museum and how the collection of Gurlitt can complement the collection. But also how the gift of Gurlitt needs a lot of work, conservation, frame photographs, research of provenance and a lot of deal with the rightful owner.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Kunstmuseum Bern
Date: 16.9.2022 – 15.1.2023
Curators: Nikola Doll & Anne-Christine Strobel
Ticket: Available online OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Kunstmuseum Bern
Holderstrasse 12
CH-3011 Bern
Phone: +41 31 328 09 44
Mail: info@kunstmuseumbern.ch