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.
