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until 13.10. | #2120ARTatBerlin | Galerie Mutare presents from 18th August 2018 an exhibition with paintings by the artist Ita Maximowna.
The exhibition “Ita Maximowna” presents works by this versatile artist in her genre of free painting. Thus, the Mutare Gallery shows once again subsequent to the exhibition of the artist Martin Rupprecht, who assisted with Ita Maximovna, an artist being originally at home in the field of stage and costume design.
The exhibition will open on 18th August and will be on view until 13th October 2018. The Gallery owner introduces the vernissage with friends and collectors of Ita Maximova.
Ita Maximovna was a stage and costume designer, graphic artist and painter of Russian origin and one of the first and most important stage designers in Germany. She achieved the breakthrough also internationally and was asked by all major opera houses worldwide. Her creative period was in the 40s to 70s of the 20th century.
The free works of the artist under the motto “Fascination of Decay” are very much in contrast to their rather cheerful stage sets and mostly show motifs from the Berlin city environment.
Ita Maximowna – Whip Masts in Wedding | Mixed technique | 70 x 50 cm
Ita Maximowna – Kochstraße | Mixed technique | 70 x 50 cm | 1971
On wanderings through dilapidated Berlin with her former assistant and friend Martin Rupprecht, the Berliner-of-choice created sketches of ruins, which served as templates of her deserted architectural images. Firewalls, drab facades, construction sites and piles of rubble have not emerged out of a melancholy. Rather was the artist fascinated by the becoming and passing away of these processes of nature. The patina of the walls exposed to all the forces of nature, was extremely appealing to her.
Decline as a process, this is what Maximovna wanted to represent very real. The texture of this process was not achievable for her in the conventional sense of painting.
Ita Maximovna developed a special painting technique, so that – by the free play of colours – this morbidity was expressed. And this is what still today marks her special artistic handwriting.
Ita Maximovna, construction site, 1971
Ita Maximowna – House in Schöneberg | Mixed technique | 60 x 42 cm | 1977
Ita Maximowna – Lehrter Bahnhof (train station) | Mixed technique | 70 x 50 | 1972
Background:
Ita Maximovna, born near St. Petersburg, has not during her lifetime indicated any concrete figures regarding her date of birth. Therefore, we can find in various sources a variety of different information. The 31st of October 1901, based on documents of the artist’s estate, seems to be her exact date of birth. Ita Maximovna died in Berlin in 1988.
Maximovna was educated by Marie Laurenc in Paris and in the Art School Berlin (Book illustrations, graphics, writing by Johannes Boehland, painting, portrait, composition at Erwin Freytag’s). In July 1945 she started as a stage designer under Karlheinz Martin. The artist described him as the most essential figure in her life and was also engaged wth him in private.
She created stage sets for nearly 400 theatrical and opera productions in Europe, Canada, North and South America. Particularly noteworthy was her debut in 1952 in Berlin “Prussian fairy tales” under the direction of Ludwig Berger and 1953 the “Zauberflöte” under the direction of Günther Rennert, for which she achieved the Art Prize of the Berlin Senate.
In addition to her work as a set designer, Ita Maximowna began in 1970 with free paintings. In 1976 her first exhibition took place at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein.
Vernissage: Saturday, 18th August 2018, 7:00 p.m.
Exhibition period: Saturday, 18th August to Saturday, 13th October 2018
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Exhibition Ita Maximowna – Painting – Galerie Mutare – Contemporary Art – Exhibitions Berlin Galleries – Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | ART at Berlin
