The Hall Art Foundation is pleased to announce an exhibition by German artist, Karl Horst Hödicke to be held at its Schloss Derneburg location.

 

A native of Nuremberg (b. 1938), Hödicke moved to Berlin in the 1950s, where he continues to live and work today. A pioneering figure of 1980s neo-expressionism and an important inspiration for the Neue Wilde painters, Hödicke is best known for his variegated depictions of Berlin, where people, landscapes, and architecture take on an almost folkloric quality. This exhibition comprises approximately 40 paintings and sculptures produced between the mid-1960s and the mid-1990s, including works in which Hödicke portrays West Berlin during the separation.

 

Commenting on the historical influences that have shaped Berlin’s culture and sense of design, Hödicke’s broad brushstrokes and emotive color palette imbue his works with a blurred, as-seen-through-memory quality. In an early painting like Passage (1964), for example, the textured surface and fluid contours instill Hödicke’s subject-matter with a psychedelic sheen. Reflecting the period in which it was made, Passage showcases modern conveniences against an Impressionistic backdrop.

 

Despite his references to tradition, Hödicke’s work is always documentarian in intent. Without any trace of nostalgia, a work from the late 1970s like Potsdamer Straße (1979) conveys a self-assured sensuality. The viewer looks onto two elegantly dressed women sitting on cement steps. The distance between them suggests that they are not on good terms. Holding a cigarette, the Picassoid face of the woman on the left gives her an air of disassociation from the scene. On the other hand, the nightshade coloration of her counterpart’s face communicates speed, self-possession, and, in the manner of a character study, just a hint of self-indulgence.

 

In later works like Trichter-Teppich (1995), the viewer looks directly onto a Berlin which is constantly renovating itself after the fall of the Berlin wall. Looking out onto the city directly, rather than observing someone else observe it, the viewer shares in the unsettling anxiety of not knowing where reconstruction will lead. Between these two extremes of direct and mediated observation, Hödicke also depicts domestic interiors, urban signage, and characters drawn from all walks of life.

 

While Hödicke’s paintings have a directness suited to the scenes he depicts, his sculptures communicate an idiosyncratic monumentality. In Hödicke’s sculptural work, the most delicate and unlikely poses are reified in bronze. Not wholly anonymous, the personages he constructs bear traces of their social class through the way they comport themselves, wearing their casting like a garment plucked from the ever-changing landscape of Berlin.

 

Born in Nuremberg in 1938, K. H. Hödicke moved to Berlin at the age of nineteen to pursue his studies at the Hochschule der Künste (now the Universität der Künste), where he would later teach as a professor from 1974 until 2006. A co-founder, in 1964, of Großgörschen 35, a revolutionary cooperative gallery in West Berlin, Hödicke has continued to make a profound mark on the Berlin art scene. His prolific body of work includes paintings, sculptures, and films. His work has been exhibited in many group exhibitions and solo exhibitions. Important solo shows include: K.H. Hödicke – Eine Retrospektive, Pinakothek der Moderne Munich, Germany (2020), Frühe Objekte – späte Bilder, selected by René Block, KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, Germany (2018), KARL HORST HÖDICKE, Ich Bin Ein Berliner, Tajan, Paris, France (2017), K. H. Hödicke Malerei, Skulptur, Film, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2013), Der Traum, Kunstmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria (1999), K.H. Hödicke Havapaintamilkaday Bilder von der Westküste Irlands 1981 – 1996, Kunsthalle in Emden, Emden, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Daniel-Pöppelmann-Haus, Herford, Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg v.d. Hohe, Germany (1997), K. H. Hödicke. Berliner Ring, Orangerie Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin / Kunstpalast, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf im Ehrenhof, Düsseldorf, Germany (1993), Im 20. Jahrhundert, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin | K.H. Hödicke, Kunst in Berlin, Berlin, Germany (1988), K.H. Hödicke, Gemälde Skulpturen Objekte Filme, K20 Grabbeplatz, Dusseldorf, Germany and  Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany (1986), Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY, USA (1983 and 1981), K. H. Hödicke Bilder 1962 - 1980, Haus am Waldsee, Der Ort internationaler Gegenwartskunst in Berlin, Berlin, Germany (1981), Filme 1968-71, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany (1972), Passagen, Verzerrungen, Galerie René Block, Berlin, Germany (1965). Concurrently to this exhibition at Schloss Derneburg Museum, Karl Horst Hödicke is honored with a retrospective at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

 

His work is represented in numerous private and public collections, such as: 33 Art Center, Guangzhou, China, Bayrische Staatsgemäldesammlung: Staatsgalerie Moderne Kunst, Munich, Germany, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany, Busch Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, USA, Hall Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, Kunstsammlung des Bundes, Bonn, Germany, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA, Museum Würth, Künzelsau, Germany, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany, Sprengelmuseum, Hannover, Germany, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, and ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, among others.

 

Karl Horst Hödicke is represented by KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin/London/Tokyo.

 

 

Karl Horst Hödicke is part of Berlin kommt nach Niedersachsen, a series of four exhibitions centered around the works of artists living and working in Berlin. Karl Horst Hödicke is presented concurrently with solo exhibitions of work by Katharina Grosse, Johannes Kahrs and Szene Berlin, a group show including approximately 30 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and videos by over two dozen Berlin-based artists, created from the early 1990s to works completed this year.