Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. To the Absolute Through the Abstract

At the threshold of his artistic career, the German artist Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (1899-1962) proclaimed that “form no longer has any contact with the appearance of Nature” and “there is really no content in art”. Over the course of forty years, he painstakingly searched for universality through his abstract works. During the 1930s he was one of the many artists whose work was declared as “degenerate” in Nazi Germany; his paintings were confiscated, and he and his Jewish wife emigrated to the Netherlands. Vordemberge-Gildewart was a member of the most important avant-garde art collectives of the time, such as De Stijl and Der Sturm, and his friends included Piet Mondrian and Oskar Kokoschka. He made his mark in the history of art as a painter. His works are held in some of the most prestigious museum collections around the globe, including MoMA in New York, Tate Moder in London and Centre Pompidou in Paris. Launched in June, the exhibition To the Absolute Through the Abstract held at MOCAK until 23 September presents over twenty of his works loaned from European collections. (Dorota Dziunikowska, “Karnet” monthly)