Over the course of their history and as a result of eminent teaching staff whose significance extends well beyond the region, the art schools in Saxony have developed characteristic traditions and styles of their own which continue to be evident down to the present day. On the basis of selected examples from its collection, the Kunstfonds will be presenting works from the Saxon Academies of Fine Art in Dresden and Leipzig and from the Faculty of Applied Art in Schneeberg in an exhibition entitled “Meister // Schüler” (Master // Class) from 13 July until 16 September 2016. Featuring a total of 48 works - paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures - the exhibition in the Saxon Landtag will pay tribute to the three art schools and compare their different origins and approaches.
The artistic work of many professors and graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden is in the tradition of what is known as the Dresden School of painting. The exhibition showcases their painterly effect and their emphasis on the materials, the artistic process and the surface by displaying selected works by artists ranging from Siegfried Klotz, Ralf Kerbach and Stefan Plenkers to Anna Leonhard.
In the works of the so-called Leipzig School, whose development is closely associated with the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (Academy of Fine Arts), the emphasis is, instead, on narrative, thematic interest as opposed to material execution. Werner Tübke’s paintings in the style of the Old Masters and Wolfgang Mattheuer’s allegorical images are examples of this. Last but not least, the Leipzig Academy is also known for its emphasis on photography. In this exhibition, the role of media art there is represented through works by Timm Rautert, Michael Schäfer and Rebecca Wilton.
In addition to the art schools of Dresden und Leipzig, the exhibition also features works by artists from the Fachschule Schneeberg, which is now part of the Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau (University of Applied Sciences). The Faculty of Applied Art has its origins in the Gewerbeschule (industrial school) founded in 1878. Sculptural works by artists from the Department of Wood Design such as Sven Braun illustrate a specific tradition in which craftsmanship is combined with artistic design, thus bridging the gap between applied and fine arts.
