Laurence Jansen — Table Top Exercise (oil on linen, 2022)

Shara Hughes

Pop. 2021 

At a time when activism has become an increasingly relevant part of many an artist’s agenda it is valuable to tack a step back and look at those who came before. One of the early artists-activists in Germany was HAP Grieshaber (1909-81) whose work brings together the tradition of the woodcut with figurative abstractions and pointed commentaries on the world surrounding him.

As a trained typesetter who for many reasons never completed his formal artistic education Grieshaber had a natural affinity for woodcutting and already during the 1930s developed a significant body of work, even though the NS regime banned him from working or exhibiting. In 1940 Grieshaber was drafted and survived the war as radio operator in Alsace until he was taken POW and interned in Belgium. After his release he returned to Southern Germany and lived on a small cottage on the Achalm near Reutlingen where Grieshaber focused on large-format woodcuts in which he channeled the hardships of his internment but also the many travels he undertook in the postwar decades. In view of the German division Grieshaber in his art advocated a future reunification and rapprochement between the two Germanys. But he didn’t limit his activism to Germany alone since he equally addressed contemporary events like the Greek military junta, the ban on whale hunting, the Korean War or the military coup in Chile. In his impressive woodcuts Grieshaber combined word and art in order to stand up for the oppressed and those without a lobby, namely also nature and its increasing destruction.

In the exhibition „HAP Grieshaber - Form/Sprache“ (Form/Language) the Museum Wiesbaden until January 21, 2024 highlights the permanent juxtaposition of form and language in all of the artist’s artistic phases and the clear stand he took with regards to political and societal developments. In the accompanying catalogue, published by Hirmer Verlag, the editor Jörg Daur and curator Jana Dennhard, among others, shed further light on the personality and motivations of HAP Grieshaber and provide additional starting points for a rediscovery of this deeply humane artist.

Howard Hodgkin. Fresh Fruit Crumble, 2015-16.

hand-painted sugar-lift aquatint on Velin Cuve BFK Rives Tan paper

Eddie Martinez, Embarcadero 88, 2020

Oil, acrylic and sharpie on canvas

108 by 144 in., 274.3 by 365.8 cm

Courtesy Mitchell-Innes & Nash

“nude at the mirror”, 1990 by Norman Engel

Moments in the day. 🔷🔺

“nine of cups”, Jimmie James, 2023, Berlin, 50cm x 70cm (19.6” x 27.5”) acrylic painting with pencils on watercolor paper.

Rufino Tamayo 🎨

Rufino Tamayo - PALONIA, 1938

Rufino Tamayo - Personaje Sentado, 1976

Rufino Tamayo - Hombre feliz, 1947

Rufino Tamayo - Naturaleza muerta con niño, 1946

Rufino Tamayo - Sol Feliz (Happy Sun), 1983

Rufino Tamayo - Maestros cantores, 1949

Rufino Tamayo - Dos Figuras, 1976

Rufino Tamayo - Hombre, 1950

Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo ( 1899 – 1991) was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, painting figurative abstraction with surrealist influences

1964 mural

Finally Weightless

Self Portrait

2021

Adrian Ghenie — The Hotel Room (oil on canvas, 2023)

Henri Rousseau

La Charmeuse de Serpents. 1907

In the studio..

Laurence Young. 4 Winds, 2022.

oil on canvas

Matthew Marx - Foundling, 2020. Ink on paper, 25.5 x 20 cm.