Home sweet Home

Home life from 1900 to today

21 April to 30 June 2024
Kunstforum Ingelheim – Altes Rathaus

Kunstforum Ingelheim – Altes Rathaus →

Fides Becker, Bettfrühstück, 2024
Acryl auf Japanpapier, 19 × 25 cm
Courtesy of the artist
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
Foto: Katrin Hammer

Eleanor Macnair
Nan, one month after being battered (1984 by Nan Goldin)
Giclée Print, 2015/Photograph rendered in Play-Doh
32,9 × 40,6 cm, Privatsammlung

Home sweet Home    In five themed rooms, this exhibition explores both the light and dark sides of the day-to-day activities, goings-on, and experiences that take place in the home – home as a place of privacy, family and safety, threats and violence, leisure and idleness, and work.

The exhibition offers a number of opportunities to explore the different subjects and motifs of a familiar theme, to discover or rediscover artists from different generations, and to learn about various techniques as an artistic means of expression.

Ruprecht von Kaufmann
You never know, 2019
Öl auf Linoleum, 122,5 × 153 cm
Sammlung Heilmann/Stuttgart

Almut Heise, Mädchen vor Toilettenspiegel
(rosa-grüne Kacheln), 2006
Öl auf Leinwand, 100 × 60 cm
Privatsammlung, courtesy of Kunsthandel
Wolfgang Werner, Bremen/Berlin
Foto: Jürgen Nogai

Privacy   Men, women, and couples grooming themselves, dressing, getting ready, and showing off for the mirror are just some of the motifs that exemplify the theme of private life. In our private sphere, we can be and behave as we wish, free and away from prying eyes. Works by Edgar Degas, Pierre Bonnard, and other members of the artists’ group known as Die Brücke, as well as contemporary artists, represent home as a place where we can move about naked and uninhibited, devoted entirely to caring for ourselves.

Erich Heckel, Mutter mit Kind, 1905
Holzschnitt, 15,6 × 15,8 cm,
Brücke-Museum
© Nachlass Erich Heckel, Hemmenhofen
Foto: Roman März, Berlin

Beate Höing, Über Erden, 2012
Öl auf Baumwolle, 40 × 50 cm
Courtesy of the artist
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Family and safety    Nothing shapes us as profoundly as our families. No other social environment has such a lasting impact on our personality and our behavior toward other people. This is where we learn how to interact with one another, and how to be there and care for one another. At home with family, most people learn from a very young age how to love, how to be close, how to pay attention to and take care of each other – traits they ultimately pass on to others. In this vein, works by Paula Modersohn-Becker, Conrad Felixmüller, artist couple Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, and Beate Höing explore aspects of security and comfort.

Anja Niedringhaus
Maniküre auf dem Balkon,
Sarajevo, Bosnien, 3. Juli 1995, 1995
Fotografie, 38 × 23 cm
Art Collection Deutsche Börse
Leihgabe der Deutsche Börse
Photography Foundation
© Museum MMK für moderne Kunst

Max Beckmann
Der Hunger (Blatt 5 aus »Die Hölle«), 1919
Lithografie auf limitiertem Japanpapier
87 × 61 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett
Foto: Jörg P. Anders

Threat    There is almost no other place where we feel as protected as we do in our own home. Yet works by Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, Herlinde Koelbl, Patricia Waller, Eleanor Macnair, and Csaba Nemes show just the opposite. Home can become a place where economic circumstances or violence may make it difficult or impossible to live. And external factors can also pose a significant threat that forces one to leave their home.

Paul Kayser, Schachspiel, um 1916
Öl auf Leinwand, 78,4 × 86 cm
Hamburger Kunsthalle, erworben 1925
© Hamburger Kunsthalle/bpk
Foto: Christoph Irrgang

Ulrike Theusner, Alexis, 2019
Pastell auf Papier, 70 × 50 cm
DROEGE ART COLLECTION
© Ulrike Theusner

Leisure and Idleness    The word “idleness” has long held negative connotations, viewed as the epitome of laziness. But idleness can also result in trailblazing ideas, insights, or creative impulses. It also goes hand in hand with leisure activities like socializing, exercising, and self-improvement. Works by James McNeill Whistler, Paul Kayser, August Macke, Walter Gramatté, and Ulrike Theusner focus on activities that we engage in at home, like performing music, playing, reading, being together, and napping.

André Villers
Picasso, im Atelier, 1955
Fotografie, 30,3 × 39,3
Privatbesitz

Johannes Hüppi
Man Ray, 2023
Öl auf Karton, 29,8 × 36,8 cm
Courtesy of the artist
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Work    The work we do at home is changing. While it still shapes our daily lives, with its familiar demands and comforting routine, work is now encroaching on our home lives. Most people are able to separate work life from private life. But creativity is fueled by life experience, which is why the boundary between work space and living space is fluid and often inseparable for artists. The work of Corinna Schnitt, Erich Hartmann, Thomas Wrede, Johannes Hüppi, Maurice Denis, Fritz Nölken, and André Villers gives us a glimpse into household work, desk work, and work in the studio.