It's the human element that counts
With the exhibition "Hedwig Holtz-Sommer", the Kunsthalle Rostock is dedicating a solo exhibition to an artist from the third generation of the Ahrenshoop artists' colony.
Hedwig Holtz-Sommer (1901-1970) settled in Wustrow on the Fischland in 1934. She first became known for her haunting portraits. Later, she primarily produced finely nuanced watercolors of the landscape around Wustrow, colorful floral still lifes and sensitive depictions of groups of people. However, her drawings and illustrations are particularly noteworthy: In their reduction, they unfold an impressive clarity and expressiveness.
The exhibition shows around 80 works from various creative phases and traces the development of an artist whose career spanned from the German Empire to the GDR. She was not only in dialog with nature and the people in her environment, but also with the political and social upheavals of her time.
A central concern of the exhibition is the comprehensive reappraisal and presentation of her collection of works on paper from the Kunsthalle Rostock collection. Some of these works are being shown to the public for the first time.
The retrospective is based on new research findings that will be published in a comprehensive biography in November 2025. These will provide a fresh, in-depth look at Holtz-Sommer's work and bring to light aspects of her life and artistic work that were previously largely unknown.
