Albertinum: Carl Lohse: Expressionist

Portrait eines Mannes mit kantigem und unnatürlich gefärbtem Gesicht

Carl Lohse: Expressionist

Carl Lohse (1895-1965) produced a magnificent Expressionist oeuvre during the period of heightened artistic creativity following the First World War, between 1919 and 1921. After his release from captivity as a prisoner of war and from military service, in which Carl Lohse had been the only survivor when his company was buried alive, he painted highly expressive portraits with glaring colour contrasts.

Exhibition Site Albertinum

DATES 15/12/2017—15/04/2018

In October 1919 Lohse moved to Bischofswerda near Dresden, where he found financial support and experienced a veritable rush of creativity. In a year and a half he produced a stream of portraits, landscapes and city views. The young Expressionist developed a remarkably independent style. Compared with customary academic painting, his colour combinations were extremely audacious, while the rhythm of his paintings was charged with energy. His drawings are radically simplified, and the forms of his oversized portrait heads, modelled in plaster, are daringly fragmented. The artist ardently experimented with the various artistic styles of Expressionism, Cubism and Futurism as well as pure abstraction. Carl Lohse’s paintings are an impressive testimonial to the frame of mind of a sensitive artist during the crisis ridden post-war period.

Ansammlung von Häusern aus der Vogelperspektive — **Carl Lohse, Kleine Stadt, 1920** Mischtechnik auf Leinwand, 98 x 98 cm, Albertinum

ein Porträt von einem namenlosen Jungen in leuchtenden Farben — **Carl Lohse, Junge (Blauer Junge), 1919/21** Öl auf Pappe, 71,3 x 53 cm, Albertinum

**Carl Lohse, Jazzsänger,1919/21** Öl auf Leinwand, Privatbesitz

das expressionistische „Empfindungsleben“ von Lohse wird hier in einem Porträt erlebbar — **Carl Lohse, Empfindungsleben, 1919/21** Öl auf Pappe, Kunstsammlung Lausitz

The exhibition “Carl Lohse. Expressionist”, conceived in collaboration with the Ernst Barlach-Haus Hamburg, brings together major works by this artist held in important public and private collections in both eastern and western Germany for the first time.

The Dresden exhibition also features drawings and watercolours held in the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden and in private collections, mostly dating from the period around 1920. An additional section shows works produced after the foundation of the GDR, when this independent artist declined to comply with the doctrine of Socialist Realism.

Portrait einer Frau mit unnatürlicher Gesichtsfarbe — **Carl Lohse, Sie, 1920** Öl auf Pappe, 70 x 52,5 cm, Albertinum

All visitors are invited to come to the Farb_Labor, a studio for art education, to explore on a practical and theoretical level the effects of different colours in painting. Hands-on art stations allow for a poetic philosophizing about colour, for experimental exploration of colour contrasts in front of a mirror as well as the designing of magnet boards with portraits painted by visitors in the spirit of Carl Lohse.