Photo by Naomi Russell
Our second visit was hosted by Rita Kersting, Deputy Director of the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, to discover more about the Cologne Progressives, an often overlooked and significant art movement and group of artists based in the Cologne and Dusseldorf area.
Photo by Naomi Russell
Frans Seiwert, Heinrich Hoerle and Gerd Arntz, these 3 principal members of the group were barely in their 20s when the first world war ended. They were active participants in the radical workers movement and produced the radical art magazine A bis Z (1929-1933). Locally rooted, and internationally minded, their aims and ideas were shared by many artists from elsewhere. They aimed to break down art’s exclusiveness and develop new forms for art in order to facilitate communication of their ideas which, they hoped, would be understood by the workers – in the city and in the land to whom their art was directed. They resisted art as a commodity, and instead believed it capable of transformation into a weapon for communicating revolutionary ideas and ideals. Huge thanks to Rita for giving us an inspiring insight into this courageous and radical group of artists!
Photo by Naomi Russell
