Cézanne, van Gogh, Bonnard, Manguin… at Hamburger Kunsthalle

• Enchanted Times - Masterpieces from the Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler Collection
February 20 –August 16, 2015, Gallery of Contemporary Art, 3rd floor

Passing through Hamburg in the next six months? You should not miss a visit to the Hamburger Kunsthalle, for the exhibition Enchanted Times which features the historical art collection of Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler, a Swiss couple who between 1906 and 1936 amassed an impressive number of Post-Impressionist masterpieces at the Villa Flora in Winterthur. Having been introduced into leading artistic circles in Paris by the Swiss painter Félix Vallotton (1865–1925) in the early years of the twentieth century, the couple soon became friends with Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard and Henri Manguin, and later with Henri Matisse. Through close association and dialogue with these influential figures, Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler gained a profound understanding of the artists’ creative ambitions at an early stage of their development, and in this way became passionate and very knowledgeable collectors of their work. An unerring instinct for artistic quality also led them to acquire key works by the great pioneers of modernism, including paintings by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Auguste Renoir and Édouard Manet. The exhibition presents a selection of more than 200 works by 18 artists from this world-famous collection, on show in Germany for the very first time.
Inspired by Japanese woodcut prints, the Post-Impressionists created figurative works that were characterized by planar composition, vivid colouring and a new appreciation of ornament. In their interiors, still lifes and landscapes they strove to extend the moment of perception, as it were – to create enchanting depictions by imbuing what they saw with symbolic meaning and dreamlike qualities.
The Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler Collection is particularly notable for the harmony that exists between the artworks and their surroundings in the Villa Flora, the couple’s former residence. With selected items of furniture, photographs and original documents on display alongside the artworks, the exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of the Villa Flora and brings this unique location back to life as an ideal meeting place for art, artists and collectors. The selected works, which include 110 paintings, are drawn from the holdings of the Hahnloser/Jaeggli Foundation as well as from leading Swiss museums and private collections. Rounding off the presentation is a 78-minute film that has been created especially for the exhibition, and new contributions by the two contemporary artists Ursula Palla und Judith Albert from Switzerland.
A modified version of the exhibition will subsequently be shown at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, the Kunstmuseum Moritzburg in Halle/Saale and the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart.
The exhibition features the artists: Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Giovanni Giacometti, Vincent van Gogh, Ferdinand Hodler, Aristide Maillol, Edouard Manet, Henri Manguin, Marino Marini, Albert Marquet, Henri Matisse, Odilon Redon, Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, Georges Rouault, Félix Vallotton, Edouard Vuillard and Friedrich Wield, as well as the presence of contemporary artists Judith Albert and Ursula Palla.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, 144-page catalogue (Euro 17, 90) with essays by Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath, Margrit Hahnloser-Ingold and Daniel Koep on the artworks and the history of the collection at Villa Flora. The publication will be available from the museum shop in the Gallery of Contemporary Art. Curators: Prof Dr Hubertus Gaßner, Dr Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath and Dr Daniel Koep. Curatorial assistant: Anna Heinze.