Allegorien des Lebens (Allegories of Life)
Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt und Wolfgang Mattheuer
The exhibition Allegorien des Lebens (Allegories of Life). Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt and Wolfgang Mattheuer explores the image as message in the art of the GDR. From the 1970s onwards, artists increasingly drew on classical myths and literary sources in order to articulate criticism and negotiate social questions through heroic figures.
For Wolfgang Mattheuer, The Flight of Sisyphus (1972) marked the beginning of a series of works devoted to various myths. Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt, by contrast, found her artistic inspiration primarily in literature and poetry, which she translated into powerful, mostly black-and-white drawings and prints of an almost Symbolist character.
The lives and artistic careers of Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt and Wolfgang Mattheuer are closely intertwined. She was born in 1926 in Plauen in the Vogtland region and initially studied architecture at the State Academy of Architecture and Fine Arts in Weimar in 1946, before transferring shortly afterwards to the Academy of Applied Arts in Leipzig. Wolfgang Mattheuer, born in 1927 in Reichenbach in the Vogtland, first completed an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Reichenbach and began studying at the Academy of Applied Arts in Leipzig in 1946, where he met Ursula Neustädt. From 1948 onwards, both continued their studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Book Design (HGB) in Leipzig.
Despite their close personal connection, they developed independent artistic positions that met with great resonance both in the GDR and during the transition to reunified Germany. She, a master of line, used pen, ballpoint, pencil, and other media for her drawings, and also worked in printmaking techniques such as lithography, etching, and occasionally linocut. He, a creator of images, employed pencil, ink, pen, and ballpoint in his drawings and early on worked with printmaking techniques such as woodcut, etching, and lithography. His first oil painting on canvas dates from 1950.
The exhibition presents this breadth of work, honouring not only the centenary of Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt in 2026 and that of Wolfgang Mattheuer in 2027, but also examining fundamental questions of life — such as the individual, freedom, and love — through their respective oeuvres.
100 Years of Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt and Wolfgang Mattheuer is an exhibition project of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig, and the LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen.
