HANS BRASS – Transformations
Hans Brass (1885–1959) is among the underestimated artistic figures of classical modernism. His life and work are closely connected with the Baltic seaside resort of Ahrenshoop: for more than 25 years – with interruptions – the Berlin avant-gardist lived, worked, and painted there. In Ahrenshoop, he founded the legendary Bunte Stube and was even elected mayor twice – an unusual path for an artist of his time.
Brass’s career was far from straightforward: after a brilliant start during the post–World War I years of artistic upheaval, he was defamed as “degenerate” under the Nazi regime. Later, in the GDR, his abstract expression pushed him to the margins, while in West Germany he was considered too realistic to fit into the art scene. After 1949, his work almost completely vanished from public awareness. Only today is a long-overdue rediscovery beginning.
The exhibition at the Kunstmuseum offers a comprehensive insight into all phases of this imaginative, original, and socially critical painter’s oeuvre.
Thanks to a generous donation from BAU-Metall GmbH Rostock, 16 paintings, numerous drawings, prints, and photographic documents of lost works by the artist have entered the museum’s collection. These form the core of the exhibition. In total, 115 works are on display – most of them never before presented in a museum context.
