Hans Purrmann: Ein Leben in Farbe

Kunstforum Hermann Stenner in Bielefeld

14 February –15 August 2021

With his colorful works, the painter Hans Purrmann (1880-1966) is one of the most important colorists in the European art history of the 20th century. In the course of a life full of stages between his Palatine homeland, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Rome and Switzerland, he developed into a painter of outstanding stature with far-reaching connections. His participation in the legendary Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne in 1912 up to the "documenta I" in Kassel in 1955 marks the wide-ranging impact of Purrmann, who left behind an extensive life's work of around 3,000 paintings, watercolors, drawings and numerous graphic works.

With 112 paintings, the Kunstforum Hermann Stenner in Bielefeld now documents the long career of the artist who, despite the great influence of his teacher and longtime friend Henri Matisse, found an unmistakable artistic expression of his own.

The exhibition features loans from renowned private collections, the Purrmann Foundation, the Purrmann House in Speyer, and the Museum Langenargen on Lake Constance, and was created in close cooperation with Dr. Felix Billeter, Hans Purrmann Archive, and Prof. Dr. Christoph Wagner, University of Regensburg.

The exhibition catalog with texts by Felix Billeter, Christiane Heuwinkel and Christoph Wagner has been published by Hirmer Verlag.

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