The blind Spot Art in Bremen during the Colonial Period     05.08. – 19.11.2017

The Blind Spot: Art in Bremen during the Colonial Period

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen was a flourishing centre of rapidly growing international trade relations. It benefited both from colonial expansion and from mass overseas emigration. This global interdependence also left its mark on the Kunstverein in Bremen which was founded in 1823; one that has remained unexplored until now. A research and exhibition project sponsored by the Federal Cultural Foundation focuses for the first time on investigating these complex colonial relationships.

It links the history of the Kunstverein in Bremen to that of the city’s trading history and examines works by Paula Modersohn-Becker, Emil Nolde and Fritz Behn among others in light of their colonial context. The blind spots which are illuminated as a result explore the depiction and treatment of all things foreign during the colonial period. The exhibition creates a dialog between the Eurocentric view of the Kunsthalle Bremen’s collection and non-European positions in art.

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