Search results for ""author philipp demandt""

Wilhelm Kuhnert was a pioneer. He was one of the first European artists to travel to the largely unexplored savannahs and jungles of the German colonies in North and East Africa. Under hazardous conditi ons he documented at close quarters the fascinating animal and plant world and then created in his Berlin studio monumental paintings which were much sought - after on the art market. Like no other artist of his time Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865 – 1926) has moulded our image of Africa. In his seductively realistic drawings, watercolours and paintings he recorded with almost scientific accuracy the characteristics of the animals and their habitat. It is not surprising, therefore, that his pictures illustrated on the o ne hand legendary reference works like Brehms Tierleben and adorned on the other the popular collector cards of the chocolate manufacturer Stollwerck. The volume shows a comprehensive, exciting portrait of Kuhnert’s unusual life and works and takes into account at the same time the current debate on attitudes to Germany’s colonial past.

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Deceivingly Beautiful Creatures between Truth and Imagination The Romanian-German artist Miron Schmuckle is a singular position within contemporary art. Growing up in Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu, he dreamed of other worlds that seemed forever inaccessible due to the Iron Curtain. From the beginning, Schmuckle’s uniquely coherent pictorial cosmos has been linked to the idea of primeval forests and jungles, oscillating between hyperrealism and undisguised escapism, precise observation of nature and exuberant imagination. His almost scientific approach belies the fact that his complex creations have not sprung from nature but from imagination. Schmuckle’s fascinating hybrid creatures intertwine notions of scent and poison, beauty and transience, anatomy and sexuality to create an oeuvre between truth and invention that is both timeless and ostensibly fallen out of time. This monograph comprises works from the past 15 years and gives insights into the artist’s concepts and technique through an in-depth interview with art scholar and journalist Simon Elson.

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