In 2013, the Kunstfonds remembered the important Dresden artist with the exhibition “Herbert Kunze – for his 100th birthday” at the Volksbank Raiffeisenbank (Dresden). Now, the exhibition travels with an enlarged version to Kunze’s birthtown Chemnitz.
Herbert Kunze (1913-1981) created an oeuvre that is characterized by its diversity and that has been shaping Dresden’s art until today. The Kunstfonds has with more than 350 works the largest collection of works by the artist in a public museum. The holdings primarily derive from a 1996 donation from the artist’s heritage.
Showing nearly 100 works, the exhibition traces Kunze’s stylistic development from early to late works. The diversity of objects – paintings, drawings and watercolours, as well as material prints, ink drawings, calligraphies and collages – illustrates his experimenting with the “maniera” of intentional inspiration.
At the same time, his work stand as an example for interesting, high quality oeuvres that were created in the former GDR and that more or less were seldom noticed by the broad public. Starting from figurative painting, his work had been influenced by abstract and informal trends since the 1960s. Herbert Kunze developed formally esthetic approaches of cubistic, abstract and informal modernity into a work of his own.
In doing so, he positioned himself outside the politically supported and demanded art and had to face major difficulties in his lecturing at the Hochschule für Bildene Künste Dresden where he had worked since the early 1950s. Being close to his students was always important for him. He made them aware of trends of international modernism and trusted for instance Eberhard Göschel, Veit Hofmann, Gerda Lepke, Sigrid Noack und Stefan Plenkers especially. In this way, Kunze contributed to a modern style, which has formed the character of Dresden art until today.
in Schloss Pillnitz
