An exhibition at the Hansa gallery on Lünener theatre continues the life work of the Eglinger family of artists Mergenthal again in the scene. To see the exhibition is still on until 6. January.
Attenham/Lünen – “From the Mergenthal-Virus I’m infected since my first encounter,” says Werner Tischer (74), former press dealer and a Fan of modern art in the Westphalian city of Lünen. In 1997, the Lünener visited the sculptor Kurt Mergenthal and the painter Helga Mergenthal for the first time in the Eglinger District Attenham, curious Mergenthals wall plastic by Kurt in the theatre in Lünen. A contribution to the 60th anniversary of this theatre is a remarkable exhibition on the Attenhamer family of artists Kurt, Helga and son Stefan Mergenthal. All three are now deceased, Stefan already in February 2005, and Helga and Kurt in quick succession in the autumn of 2018. The exhibition at the Hansa gallery on Lünener the theatre continues her multi-faceted life’s work again in the scene.
How did the project? In the late autumn of 1958, the architecture Professor Gerhard Graubner, the Builder of the theatre, two very successful students of the art Academy in Munich, the gold artist Hermann Jünger and the sculptor Kurt Mergenthal wrought convened, and Lünen. They created two modern wall sculptures for the theatre foyer, “Orpheus and the animals” and “Orpheus and the plants”. Kurt Mergenthal, later never came back to Lünen. “The Work of discipleship and Mergenthals met promoters of culture and population, first with incomprehension and fierce rejection,” recalls Tischer, who was then 14 years old. Two years later, a disembodied Orpheus of the Europe-wide renowned Gerhard Marcks.
Tischer found it unfair that Kurt Mergenthal is in contrast to this hardly known, and began to investigate. “The life work of the Mergenthals convinced me immediately,” says Tischer. He spoke with the spouses about their work on the island of Elba and its Lüftlmalerei in Oberbayern. He repeated to his friend, the educationalist Frank Ragutt, as a curator. Since the summer of 2017 until the opening in December he went alone or with Ragutt six Times to Attenham, reviewed source material, spoke with companions and created in his house a “Mergenthal-archive”.
The exhibition pays tribute to both joint projects such as the artistic documentation of the disused Mines on the island of Elba. It also presents each artist as a stand-alone personality: Kurt Mergenthal, of the fire as the talented young artists of the Munich avant-garde, Helga Mergenthal, which produced a high pace of countless large-format, expressive images, and Stefan Mergenthal, trying to grasp as a sculptor and a graphic artist walk. Can alienate be to prove to a Bronze dove from the Academy and an abstract sculpture made of oak wood-Rest, and a mining relic (2002), as well as drawings, the geometric forms in a fascinating way.
Tischer and Ragutt tell many stories, like that of the legendary “Attenhamer Bauer theatre”, the even attracted actors like Senta Berger after Attenham and even the time magazine from Hamburg, devoted several pages. Or the of the drawn, to his wife Helga skillful post cards of Kurt, were the scenes in Cafés in Schwabing and on the island of Elba, whimsical types, or distinctive faces. You can tell by Kurt’s early wild and successful years as an Artist, his passion as a restorer, and his film roles. Also the Tradition of the Lüftlmalerei, as well as the ratio of the Mergenthals to friends and neighbors or money to dedicate themselves to the texts and presentations.
It is planned to bring the exhibition also to Bavaria. In Lunen, it is in the Hanse gallery in the Kurt-Schumacher-Straße 41, up to and including 6. To see January: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9 am to 13 PM and 14 to 16 PM and on Fridays from 9 am to 12 PM. On Sunday (14 to 17 hours) is Werner Tischer. vm
