Visiting the GalerieHebecker for its dual exhibit (Schillerstrasse 18, until 2/15/14) reminded me of my first art assignment in 1948 at my hometown Jesuit University of Detroit. The priest teaching the course gave us our first assignment: go downtown to the new Detroit Institute of Arts and find a work you really like and explain why it appeals to you. My choice was “The Liberated Slave”, reminding me powerfully of the not yet released Detroit Negroes.
I get the same sense
of challenge from Hebecker in the four to six shows they present each
year. Michael Hebecker founded the gallery in 2002, but his daughter
Susanne took over when he died in 2008. (Her brother runs another
family gallery on the Kramerbrücke in nearby Erfurt).
The current
show, dubbed “Red and Black”, contrasts the black and white style
of Karl Ortelt (1907-1972) with the richly colored style of Fritz
Keller (1915-1994). Both served in the German Army during the First
World War, and both were jailed in Great Britain for several years
after the war in the ‘40s. But the similarities end there.
Ortelt’s portraits
were frontal views of ordinary people, a man and a child, a married
couple, and a couple with a small child, celebrating. Keller’s
rich colors teem with energy, the realities in the frames being often
obscure but nonetheless eloquent. I’ve been since then to all the
greet museums of the world, the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery
in London, the many Smithsonians in Washington., the Kyoto in Japan.
Even the brilliantly retrieved Gotha Museum nearby.
Part of the
Hebecker’s power lies in their brilliantly edited brochures. And
catalogs. And the friendly presence of their staff. Like that
Jebbie priest in Detroit 66 years ago who made an esthetic fanatic of
me with his “simple” assignment, Ms. Hebecker and her Hungarian
mother are the sweetest guides I’ve encountered in my 87 years.
Bless them and their open-minded, second floor display area.
No comments:
Post a Comment