This exhibition presents the multi-layered work of the artist Karl Bertsch in a solo show. A critical observer of society, he captured scenes of everyday life from his school days before the First World War until the 1960s. Beside social inequality, the war, and societal contradictions, his work also reflects an awareness of cultural debates of the period in question.
There are numerous extant drawings from his time as a soldier in the First World War that document the paths of the artist during the war, almost like a visual diary. Striking here is a sober, observing, objectively descriptive style.
Trained as a draughtsman at Stuttgart’s Kunstgewerbeschule, Karl Bertsch began working around 1920 for the Graphische Druckanstalt Paul Isidor Landmann in Mannheim-Neckarau. Here, he designed the packaging for several brands of cigar in an often very reduced style. Bertsch was already important for the Kunsthalle due to his iconic posters from the 1920s for the exhibitions The New Objectivity: German Painting since Expressionism, Forms of New Architecture, or Paths and Directions of Abstract Painting, which all convince with their reduced and clear design. During the 1920s, Karl Bertsch also worked for various establishments of Mannheim’s cultural life, including Künstlertheater Apollo. After the war, he designed logos and trademarks for companies located in the region such as Böhringer-Ingelheim, Felina, Weißer Hirsch and Vivil during the economic boom.
Curator: Susanna Baumgartner
Exhibition views
