7th publication in the series Edition Purrmann Briefe des Hans Purrmann Archivs, Deutscher Kunstverlag 2024

The Bavarian State Painting Collections (BStGS) and the Hans Purrmann Foundation jointly invite you to a lecture and reading:

Hans Purrmann – Karl Ernst Osthaus – Henri Matisse. The correspondence 1907-1919

on Thursday, 14 March 2024

at 6.30 pm (admission from 6.00 pm), end of event approx. 7.45 pm

at the Siemens Forum of the Pinakothek der Moderne (Barer Straße 40, 80333 Munich)

Introduction by Prof. Dr Bernhard Maaz, Director General of the Bavarian State Painting Collections

The latest volume of the Edition Purrmann Briefe presents an exchange of letters from the beginning of the “struggle for modernism” and takes us to Paris, Hagen and Berlin:

For the first time, it presents the correspondence between the collector and founder of the Folkwang Museum Karl Ernst Osthaus and the painters Henri Matisse and Hans Purrmann: it was through Purrmann that Osthaus acquired his first work by Matisse in 1907, helping the painter genius to make his breakthrough in Germany. After several acquisitions, Osthaus finally began to take an interest in the works of Purrmann, from whom he tried in vain to acquire paintings for his private museum.

The new edition of the Hans Purrmann Archive, edited by the art historians Prof. Dr Rainer Stamm and Dr Gloria Köpnick, makes the correspondence between Osthaus, Matisse and Purrmann accessible for the first time. The publication thus opens up new sources on the early history of the reception of Matisse’s works in Germany, on the genesis of the painter’s early major works and on the founding of the Académie Matisse.

Prof. Dr Rainer Stamm (Landesmuseum Kunst & Kultur Oldenburg) will introduce the edition and, together with Dr Felix Billeter (Hans Purrmann Archive, Munich), will present a selection from the letters, which are available in print for the first time, in a dialogue reading.

We look forward to welcoming a large audience. Admission is free of charge.

The publication can be purchased on site.