Johannes Grave – författare

Published to mark the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich’s birth, the most thorough Friedrich retrospective in many years. Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) is renowned as the Romantic painter par excellence, his works icons of an age of major social upheaval. His landscape paintings and drawings broke with traditional patterns of representation, and paved new ways of both experiencing and reflecting on the ambivalent relationship between humankind and nature. Accompanying the most comprehensive Friedrich retrospective in many years, this catalogue re-examines the artist’s groundbreaking work in light of the urgent challenges in a time of climate crisis and postcolonial reflection. It centres on more than sixty paintings, among them many major iconic works, and about 100 drawings. Selected works by Friedrich’s colleagues, notably August Heinrich, Georg Friedrich Kersting, Ernst Ferdinand Oehme and Johann Alexander Thiele are also featured. The second part of the book focuses on the contemporary reception of his work. In contributions ranging from video and photography to installations, some twenty artists working across a variety of genres and media explore the Romantic era, its attitude to nature and the art of Caspar David Friedrich. The participants include Alex Grein, Swaantje Güntzel, Jochen Hein, Johanna Karlsson, Hiroyuki Masuyama, Loudmila Milanova, Mariele Neudecker, Ulrike Rosenbach, Susan Schuppli, Santeri Tuori and Kehinde Wiley.

European Romanticism in the visual arts has always been defined by transnational transfer processes. It is surprising that international aspects of Romantic movements have been, in contrast to literary studies, a gap in art historical research. Picturing the Romantic addresses this issue and reveals new perspectives on European Romanticism(s) in the visual arts by reconsidering the phenomenon’s traditional canon, geographical dimensions and terminology and analysing various examples of the complex and heterogeneous works of Romantic painting. In fifteen original essays, renowned and early career researchers examine the question of whether to speak of several independently considered Romanticisms or one European Romanticism. They adopt a transnational perspective on Romantic art in and beyond Europe, focusing on the interconnections between the countries.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the category of the -sublime became a central concept of the fledgling field of aesthetics. Originally located at the margins of discourses on rhetoric, it became a source of fascination in literary and artistic production, but quickly proved to be a complicated matter, especially for the visual arts. Artists and philosophers contended with the question of whether the sublime can be depicted at all or whether the events that can cause viewers to experience the sublime can be adequately represented in painting. The contributions of this special issue suggest, however, that the contested visual representability of the sublime might have spurred visual artists to devise innovative, experimental solutions in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

"A painting must stand as a painting, made by human hand," wrote Caspar David Friedrich, "not seek to disguise itself as Nature." One of his generation's most popular painters, Friedrich imagined landscapes of powerful beauty and spirituality from within the confines of his studios. This breathtaking monograph, filled with glorious reproductions and details of his paintings, argues for Friedrich's reputation as a sublime artist and interpreter of nature. In his thoughtful and well-researched commentary, author Johannes Grave explores Friedrich's approach to landscape painting as well as his revolutionary thoughts about how these paintings should be received by their viewers. Looking closely at pieces such as Monk by the Sea, Abbey in the Oakwood, and the Tetschener Altar, Grave shows how Friedrich developed an innovative approach to landscape painting, one that communicated a new sense of space and time, and which draws the viewer into a unique aesthetic experience. Highly readable, insightful, and copiously illustrated, this compelling book sheds crucial light on Friedrich's celebrated body of work.

Following the arc of Bellini's career, from his early devotional paintings to his later, occasionally secular works, this book offers an in-depth appreciation of the Venetian master who dominated the Early Renaissance. Featuring nearly every extant Bellini work, as well as those of his contemporaries, this book brims with gorgeous Renaissance art. Author Johannes Grave focuses on some of the artist's greatest works including Allegoria Sacra, the Brera Pieta, and the altarpiece of San Giobbe-to explore how Bellini excelled in tempera before mastering oil painting. Grave discusses how Bellini's precise lines, his delicate facial expressions, and the subtle effects of light and shadow were used in his religious paintings as well as his portraiture and late mythological depictions. This book examines Bellini's life, including his complex relationships with his father Jacopo, his brother Gentile, and his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna. It considers the original contexts of Bellini's works, and elucidates the ways in which these paintings were meant to be perceived. The book also links Bellini's devotional paintings with the poetic creations of his pupil Giorgione. An important contribution to the scholarship of Renaissance art, this masterful book reaffirms Bellini's status as one of Venice's greatest painters.

Wer an Revolutionen denkt, hat »Die Freiheit führt das Volk« von Delacroix vor Augen. Johannes Grave wirft einen neuen Blick auf das Gemälde und zeigt, wie Bilder Freiheit erfahrbar machen können.Dem Gemälde »Die Freiheit führt das Volk« ist eine merkwürdige Ambivalenz eigen. Einerseits hat sich Eugène Delacroix'' Bild als affirmative Ikone der Julirevolution von 1830 im kollektiven Gedächtnis festgesetzt. Andererseits ist seine frühe Rezeption kontrovers und keineswegs vorbehaltlos enthusiastisch. Den Weg zu einem besseren Verständnis dieser Zwiespältigkeit kann die auf den ersten Blick überraschende Idee eines zeitgenössischen Kunstkritikers bahnen: Als Gustave Planche 1831 den besonderen Wert des Gemäldes zu begründen versuchte, betonte er, dass dessen Qualität erst nach längerer Betrachtung hervortrete.Wie ändert sich der Blick auf das Bild einer Momentaufnahme, wenn es lange angeschaut wird? Was folgt daraus, wenn Delacroix – der Lessings »Laokoon« aus eigener Lektüre kannte – einen Moment der revolutionären Dynamik stillstellt? Und wie verhält sich das Bild dabei zu seinem zentralen Thema: der Freiheit? Am Beispiel von Delacroix'' Gemälde lässt sich nachvollziehen, wie Freiheit – über konventionelle allegorische Darstellungen hinaus – durch die dem Bild eigene Zeitlichkeit auf einzigartige Weise greifbar werden kann.

Practices of comparing shape how we perceive, organize, and change the world. Supposedly innocent, practices of comparing play a decisive role in forming categories, boundaries, and hierarchies; but they can also give an impetus to question and change such structures. Like almost no other human practice, comparing pervades all social, political, economic, and cultural spheres. This volume outlines the program of a new research agenda that places comparative practices at the center of an interdisciplinary exploration. Its contributions combine case studies with overarching systematic considerations. They show what insights can be gained and which further questions arise when one makes a seemingly trivial practice – comparing – the subject of in-depth research.