Seeing With The Inner Eye
Masterpieces from the Hegewisch Collection
18 Sep 2016 - 01 Jan 2017
SEEING WITH THE INNER EYE
Masterpieces from the Hegewisch Collection
18 September 2016 - 1 January 2017
CURATOR
Dr Jonas Beyer
Paying tribute to his exquisite selection of drawings and prints, herewith the Kunsthalle is dedicating a memorial exhibition to the deceased Hamburg collector Klaus Hegewisch (1919-2014). Under the title Seeing with the Inner Eye, the show compiles highlights of his activities as a collector in the Harzen Cabinet, our new gallery for the presentation of drawings and graphic works.
As suggested in the title, the topic of immersion into the inner world serves as a reference point, a notion subtly touched upon in self-portraits from Rembrandt to Beckmann, or more explicitly expressed in master engravings such as Dürer’s Melencolia (1514). A separate section is devoted to the motif of the blind Minotaur, a subject repeatedly taken up by Picasso. Blindness, coinciding introspection and, inevitably, the creation of fantastic worlds are the guiding themes of the exhibition, emphasising a unique characteristic of this exceptional collection.
At the latest with the exhibition Obscur (2009/2010), also arranged by the Hamburger Kunsthalle, it became evident that the collector Klaus Hegewisch was primarily concerned with the fantasy worlds arising from artistic imagination, with phantasms created by our inner vision, as abysmal and “obscure” as the results at times may turn out to be. Not least, the title Seeing with the Inner Eye also alludes to the collector’s quasi somnambulistic certainty allowing him to recognise the quality of outstanding graphic works and to integrate them into his collection. Klaus Hegewisch let himself be guided intuitively by his impressions time and again and based his decisions less on market prices or expert opinions. In this sense, the exhibition will also provide insight into a distinct chapter in the history of collecting, enriching our understanding of this unusual enthusiast of historical drawings.
Masterpieces from the Hegewisch Collection
18 September 2016 - 1 January 2017
CURATOR
Dr Jonas Beyer
Paying tribute to his exquisite selection of drawings and prints, herewith the Kunsthalle is dedicating a memorial exhibition to the deceased Hamburg collector Klaus Hegewisch (1919-2014). Under the title Seeing with the Inner Eye, the show compiles highlights of his activities as a collector in the Harzen Cabinet, our new gallery for the presentation of drawings and graphic works.
As suggested in the title, the topic of immersion into the inner world serves as a reference point, a notion subtly touched upon in self-portraits from Rembrandt to Beckmann, or more explicitly expressed in master engravings such as Dürer’s Melencolia (1514). A separate section is devoted to the motif of the blind Minotaur, a subject repeatedly taken up by Picasso. Blindness, coinciding introspection and, inevitably, the creation of fantastic worlds are the guiding themes of the exhibition, emphasising a unique characteristic of this exceptional collection.
At the latest with the exhibition Obscur (2009/2010), also arranged by the Hamburger Kunsthalle, it became evident that the collector Klaus Hegewisch was primarily concerned with the fantasy worlds arising from artistic imagination, with phantasms created by our inner vision, as abysmal and “obscure” as the results at times may turn out to be. Not least, the title Seeing with the Inner Eye also alludes to the collector’s quasi somnambulistic certainty allowing him to recognise the quality of outstanding graphic works and to integrate them into his collection. Klaus Hegewisch let himself be guided intuitively by his impressions time and again and based his decisions less on market prices or expert opinions. In this sense, the exhibition will also provide insight into a distinct chapter in the history of collecting, enriching our understanding of this unusual enthusiast of historical drawings.