Thomas Scheibitz: A TRIBUTE TO HERMANN GLÖCKNER: Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, Pinakothek der Moderne, Münich, Germany

The painter and sculptor Thomas Scheibitz (*1968) is undoubtedly one of the key figures of his generation. Since his artistic contribution to the German Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, which attracted the attention of an international audience, he has been one of those artists who continue to surprise with his multifaceted work.

Thomas Scheibitz's artistic style is captivating with a genuine iconographic visual language that oscillates between the two major themes of abstraction and figuration. He interweaves architectural quotations and facets of landscape prospectuses with elements from the contemporary media world, advertising, and, not least, everyday culture. His dynamic imagery deliberately resists a static order. Rather, they seem to continually reorganize themselves and encourage a comparison with our everyday reality, which the artist challenges through key visual stimuli.

Scheibitz already demonstrated in 2019 that he is not afraid to enter into artistic dialogue with masters of classical modernism with the impressive exhibition " Pablo Picasso x Thomas Scheibitz: Signs, Stages, Lexicon" at the Museum Berggruen in Berlin. Here, he placed his visual worlds in dialogue with individual works by Picasso, revealing surprising correspondences and, in their interplay, new perspectives on the work of both artists.

For his debut at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Thomas Scheibitz will create a painterly and sculptural Gesamtkunstwerk for the exhibition spaces of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München (State Graphic Collection Munich). It will be dedicated to the sculptural and graphic works of the Dresden artist Hermann Glöckner (1889–1987) in three phases, from the foyer through the display case corridor to the exhibition spaces. His artistic dialogue will progressively develop, interconnect, and ultimately culminate in a congenial homage. Even during his time at the Dresden Academy, Scheibitz had already learned to admire the artists' artist Hermann Glöckner, an insider tip among artists. However, he would never have considered placing his own works in an artistic dialogue with the master of quiet tones. It is impressive how Thomas Scheibitz functions simultaneously as artist and curator in his Munich exhibition project. It speaks volumes about his sensitivity when he uses his work as a catalyst to playfully and easily showcase the refined nobility of this old master and to make Hermann Glöckner once again appear surprisingly contemporary.

For almost a decade, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München (State Graphic Collection Munich) has amassed an outstanding collection of graphic works by Hermann Glöckner with expertise that is unparalleled nationwide. Glöckner undoubtedly belongs to a small group of East German artists of Classical Modernism and the lost generation between the world wars who only came to the attention of curators and museums across Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. With the exhibition Hermann Glöckner: A Master of Modernism, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München (State Graphic Collection Munich) presented Glöckner's singular panel work to a wider public in 2019 in an avant-garde exhibition display.

With the exhibition project Thomas Scheibitz – A Tribute to Hermann Glöckner, the collection is now taking this a step further. Following a recent extensive donation of design drawings for architectural sculptures by Hermann Glöckner, Scheibitz will not only select from this most recent addition to the collection, but also integrate it into his three-dimensional spatial artwork. Rather, major sculptural works were borrowed from renowned German museums and private collections, which, through Thomas Scheibitz, cast the significance of this artist of classical modernism in a new light on a spatially sculptural stage.

The Munich museum's latest exhibition thus promises a completely new approach to dialogic presentation, offering a sensory and aesthetic form of insight into Hermann Glöckner's work never before experienced.

Last but not least, the exhibition Thomas Scheibitz – A Tribute to Hermann Glöckner marks the conclusion of a multi-year research project at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München on Hermann Glöckner's sculptural works, which will culminate in a critical catalogue raisonné. Konstanze Rudert's scholarly work was generously supported by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation. Back in the 1970s, Werner Schmidt (1930–2010) of the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett (Cabinet of Prints and Drawings) began working with Hermann Glöckner to compile a catalogue raisonné of his extensive oeuvre. The project has now been resumed on the initiative of Michael Hering, the director of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München. More than 600 sculptural works have now been recorded, which will be presented in a representative catalogue published parallel to the exhibition.

Michael Hering

Director, State Collection of Prints and Drawings Munich

Images: 

 Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, Photo by Herbert Boswank