No. 329: Art in Germany, 1943-55, Early American Paper Photography

Episode No. 329 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators Lynette Roth and Mazie Harris.

Roth is the curator of “Inventur — Art in Germany, 1943-55,” which is at the Harvard Art Museums through June 3. It is the first exhibition to examine art made in Germany by artists who stayed in Germany throughout World War II. “Inventur” presents more than 160 works made by 50 artists, art made when Germans were forced to acknowledge and address the war, the Holocaust, their defeat and occupation by the Allies, and the beginning of the Cold War. The fascinating exhibition catalogue, which is full of new discoveries and analysis, was published by Yale University Press. Amazon offers it for $55.

Roth, the curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the head of modern and contemporary art at HAM, was previously a guest on Episode No. 192, when she discussed her catalogue of the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Max Beckmann collection.

On the second segment, J. Paul Getty Museum curator Mazie Harris discusses “Paper Promises: Early American Photography,” which is at the Getty from Tuesday, February 27 through May 27. The exhibition examines why daguerreotypes-loving Americans were so much slower to embrace paper photography than other nations, and what prompted the belated switch. The terrific catalogue for the exhibition is full of surprising history and is published by the Getty. Amazon lists it at $50.

Air date: February 22, 2018.

Curt Querner, My Stool in the De la Tubize Detention Camp (near Le Grand-Quévilly by Rouen) | Mein Stuhl im Gefangenenlager De la Tubize (bei Le Grand-Quévilly, ar. Rouen), 1946.

Juro Kubicêk, For the Minister’s Birthday | Zum Geburtstag des Ministers, from “Mein K(r)ampf,” mid-1940s.

Otto Piene, Untitled (Sketch of a Child in Oversized Military Coat) | Ohne Titel (Skizze vom Kind mit sackartigem Soldatenmantel), 1945.

Otto Piene, Untitled (Sketch of Flak Gun) | Ohne Titel (Skizze vom Flakfeuer), 1945.

Werner Heldt, Still Life at the Window | Stilleben am Fenster, 1950.

Hannah Höch, Red Textile Sheet | Rotes Textilblatt, 1952.

Louise Rösler, The Room | Das Zimmer, 1951.

Louise Rösler, The Shop Window | Das Schaufenster, 1948.

Louise Rösler, Frankfurt in Rubble | Frankfurt in Trümmern, 1947/48.

Heinz Trökes, Dance on Shaky Ground | Tanz auf schwankendem Grund, 1947.

Amid the rubble, Theodor Rosenhauer works on his oil painting View of the Japanese Palace after the Bombing. From Richard Peter’s series Dresden nach der Bombardierung von 13./14. Februar, 1945 (Dresden after the Bombing, February 13 and 14, 1945).