September Issue 2000
Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, Offers Exhibit on 20th Century & Postwar Germany
Witness
to the 20th Century: An Artistic Biography of Fritz Eichenberg is on view at the Guilford College Art Gallery in
Greensboro, NC, through Oct. 29. From Sept. 8 through Sept. 30
the Guilford College Art Gallery will also feature the exhibition,
Quiet helpers: Quaker Service in Postwar Germany.
The exhibition, Witness to the 20th Century: An Artistic Biography of Fritz Eichenberg, chronicles the life and career of Fritz Eichenberg, artist, printmaker, teacher, author, and social activist, whose life bore witness to the political military and social follies of the 20th century. This exhibition, the first comprehensive presentation produced with the cooperation of the Fritz Eichenberg Trust, contains previously unexhibited works from the artist's personal collection, as well as other pieces on loan from museums and private collectors.
The exhibit is organized into seven thematic
sections that correspond to important phases of Eichenberg's life
and career: introduction to the artist; his years as a student
and commercial artist in Germany; his early years in New York;
his success in book illustration; his religious-themed work; large-scale
prints and portfolio projects; and autobiographical work. This
structure conflates a scheme of ten autobiographical chapters
devised by Eichenberg in 1986 for his final exhibition at Associated
American Artists gallery in New York, but never realized by Eichenberg
because of the onset of Parkinson's disease. Each part joins Eichenberg's
works of the period with a chronology of his life, excerpts from
his unpublished autobiography, and relevant text concerning concurrent
world events. This synthesis of materials gives viewers both a
sense of the context from which Eichenberg's images emerged and
an opportunity to reflect personally upon the political and social
issues that he presents.
Witness to the 20th Century, was organized by the Vanderbilt
University Fine Arts Gallery and curated by Robert Conway, Director
of the Eichenberg Trust, and Walter Schatz. The exhibit is supported
through the generosity of the Louise Bullard Wallace Foundation;
the Goethe-Institute Atlanta; and the Fritz Eichenberg Trust.
The exhibition, Quiet Helpers: Quaker Service
in Postwar Germany, is being co-hosted with the Friends Center
and Campus Ministry at Guilford College. The exhibition documents
the work of Friends in Germany who mended the wounds of war, aided
the victims of violence, and helped to rebuild civil society.
The exhibition was organized by the German Historical Museum in
Berlin and opened there in 1996. During the following two years,
the exhibit traveled to 21 German cities, and recently, the American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has brought it to the United
States for tour.
Quakers served the German people and those who were victims of the Germans during World War II. Major emphasis is given to the main theme: the large-scale Quaker relief and reconciliation programs after the war and the Quäkerspeisung (Quaker feeding effort), which many Germans still remember today.
The exhibit also explores Quaker work in Germany in the 1920's, when the civilian populace was on the verge of starvation and the country was suffering from the effects of isolation, punishing economic reparations, and world economic crisis. A third theme covers aid and rescue work during the Holocaust era when AFSC and British Friends provided humanitarian assistance to Jews and other persecuted people from a network of Quaker offices throughout Europe.
Quiet Helpers uses a mix of artifacts and three-dimensional objects, documents, historical photos, and video to explore the exhibit themes. These straightforward, real-life items put a human face on the aid work and the people who were involved. A 30-minute documentary film, Love Amid the Ruins, uses newsreels and other historical footage, interspersed with interviews of volunteers who worked in Germany as well as people who were helped by Quakers.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Gallery at 336/316-2438.
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