Exhibition Series: Artists of the V.R.K. in Dialogue with Contemporary Perspectives
During the turbulent times following the disaster of World War I—a period marked by a search for direction, a general societal quest for meaning, and an economic fresh start—Rostock’s artists felt compelled to get involved, if only to secure their own livelihoods. This led to the founding of the Association of Rostock Artists in 1919; its members sought to expand their sphere of influence in their hometown through joint exhibitions and explicitly saw themselves as “mediators between artists and the public.” Among the founding members were Thuro Balzer, Hans Emil Oberländer, and Bruno Gimpel—leading figures in Rostock’s painting scene.
Egon Tschirch (1889–1948) played a key role as a driving force in the founding of the V.R.K. His willingness to experiment and his productivity led him to rise, in the association’s early years, to become its most controversial yet most successful member. The exhibition at the Kunstverein zu Rostock features expressive works by Egon Tschirch in a triadic dialogue with paintings by Matthias Wegehaupt and Felix Jess, who are representative of contemporary painterly positions in the northeast.
The exhibition is part of the series “Artists of the V.R.K. in Dialogue with Contemporary Art,” in which, since 2019, one member of the Association of Rostock Artists has engaged annually with current artistic trends.
We thank the lenders—the Kunsthalle Rostock, the Kulturhistorisches Museum Rostock, and private collectors—for their generous support.
