1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456451003321

Autore

Kay Carolyn Helen

Titolo

Art and the German bourgeoisie : Alfred Lichtwark and modern painting in Hamburg, 1886-1914 / / Carolyn Kay

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 2002

©2002

ISBN

1-282-00853-6

9786612008535

1-4426-7102-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (197 p.)

Disciplina

759.3/515

Soggetti

Painting, German - 19th century

Painting, German - 20th century

Art patronage - Germany - Hamburg

Art and the middle class - Germany - Hamburg

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Alfred Lichtwark and Modern German Art -- 2. The Petersen Portrait: The Failure of Modern Art as Monument in Hamburg -- 3. The Scandal in 1896 over the 'New Tendency' -- 4. Lichtwark and the Society of Hamburg's Patrons of Fine Art (the Gesellschaft Hamburgischer Kunstfreunde) -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In this new study of art in fin-de-siècle Hamburg, Carolyn Kay examines the career of the city's art gallery director, Alfred Lichtwark, one of Imperial Germany's most influential museum directors and a renowned cultural critic. A champion of modern art, Lichtwark stirred controversy among the city's bourgeoisie by commissioning contemporary German paintings for the Kunsthalle by secession artists and supporting the formation of an independent art movement in Hamburg influenced by French impressionism. Drawing on an extensive amount of archival research, and combining both historical and art



historical approaches, Kay examines Lichtwark's cultural politics, their effect on the Hamburg bourgeoisie, and the subsequent changes to the cultural scene in Hamburg.Kay focuses her study on two modern art scandals in Hamburg and shows that Lichtwark faced strong public resistance in the 1890s, winning significant support from the city's bourgeoisie only after 1900. Lichtwark's struggle to gain acceptance for impressionism highlights conflicts within the city's middle class as to what constituted acceptable styles and subjects of German art, with opposition groups demanding a traditional and 'pure' German culture. The author also considers who within the Hamburg bourgeoisie supported Lichtwark, and why. Kay's local study of the debate over cultural modernism in Imperial Germany makes a significant contribution both to the study of modernism and to the history of German culture.