Des Pudels Kern
Illustrations from 1900 until today
»So that was the poodle’s core,« cried Goethe’s Faust in amazement as the animal transformed itself into Mephistopheles. This expression is still used today to mean the essence or crux of a matter. Illustrations, too, employ techniques of visualisation, exaggeration and comment. For the first time, the exhibition presents prints from the Museum Gunzenhauser collection that are based on literary sources, poems, stories and fairy tales. These include illustrations by Marcus Behmer referencing Honoré de Balzac, Oscar Wilde, E.T.A. Hoffmann and Voltaire; and Karl Walser’s Leonce und Lena; Karl Hubbuch’s portfolio of etchings on Goethe’s Faust and David Hockney’s series on the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales. Having engaged with the works in the collection, the illustration class of Thomas Matthaeus and Katja Schwalenberg at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig is showing contemporary works in the exhibition.