Invent – Experiment – Discover Helmut Humann on the occasion of his 100th birthday
Helmut Humann zum 100. Geburtstag
On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the painter and graphic artist Helmut Humann (1922-1996), the Schloßbergmuseum is showing a cross-section of his artistic work in a cabinet exhibition.
The early artistic works show Humann as a rather conventional painter who found his motifs mainly in the landscape of the Ore Mountains. At the beginning of the 1950s, the first commissions for building-related art finally appeared. In addition, Humann became increasingly involved in the design and production of costume jewellery made of transparent enamel – a technique that he may have learned during his stay in France and which was to have a formative influence on his further work. Through »invention, experimentation and discovery« – as he once described it himself – he continued to develop this process. In the process, he succeeded, among other things, in developing a patented substitute material for the previously customary bar enamel, which opened up the possibility of large-format wall designs. With this prerequisite, Humann was also called upon in 1965 for the pictorial design of the newly developing city centre of Karl-Marx-Stadt. Perhaps his best-known work is the mural Chemnitz als Festung (1968), which was located in the former pedestrian tunnel at the central bus stop and has had a new location in the DAStietz cultural department stores’ since 2004.
In addition, he furnished – partly in close collaboration with artists and form designers such as Hans Brockhage, Volker Beier or Carl Clauss Dietel – a large number of schools, restaurants, nursing homes, cultural and leisure facilities, mainly in the south of the former GDR, but also in Berlin. With his high-quality building-related works, Humann tried to combine traditional and progressive aspects of a predominantly landscape-based art production in an individual way.
The opening, to which we cordially invite you, will take place on Sunday, 18 September 2022, at 11 a.m. in the Schloßbergmuseum.
