History

Institute of Art History (IKG)

The Institute of Art History is one of the oldest of its kind at a German technical university.

The history of the Institute of Art History

Founded in 1865, the Institute of Art History is one of the oldest of its kind at a German technical university. Its foundation was committed to the idea of the unity of technical and aesthetic-artistic culture. Wilhelm Lübke was the institute's first chair holder. His influence on the German bourgeoisie was enormous. His "Grundriß der Kunstgeschichte" was part of every upper class familie's bookcase at that time. He saw his goal in conveying what he called the eternaly and true and beautiful. He was an ardent advocate of the Renaissance, and - being influenced by German national sentiments - of medieval architecture at the same time. He did not occupy himself with social and political problems and their artistic expression. Lübcke was an avowed oponent of the contemporary realist currents which in his mind occupied themselves with the "morally and physically ugly". "What kind of swamp do we enter with this", he asked. Lübcke was committed to an "ideal creativity" which he saw as an antidote to an "increasingly plebeian school of thought".

His successor Carl Lemcke on the other hand was an advocate of realism, not only the type to be found in early modern Dutch paintings, but also in the contemporary art of the time as well. As temporary director of the Museum of Fine Arts, predecessor of today's Staatsgalerie, he was the first to purchase paintings by Christian Landenberger and others.

Lemcke was followed in 1904 by the painting connoisseur Heinrich Weizsäcker. Weizsäcker was very open to contemporary art. In "Stuttgarter Kunst der Gegenwart", a book published in 1913, he already wrote an article about the dissolution of realism and the birth of impressionism and contributed a chapter on Adolf Hölzel and the regularity of colors and forms. He emphasized the division of surfaces and their relation to decorative mural painting.

Fundamental research on contemporary art was then carried out by Julius Baum and Hans Hildebrandt, both of whom habilitated under Weizäcker and were appointed associate professors at the IKG.

At that time, Julius Baum was already writing about the Hölzel School, Willy Baumeister, and Ida Kerkovius. Art history in Stuttgart rose to international heights through Baum's fundamental work on medieval painting and sculpture in Germany, France and Britain. Hans Hildebrandt, for his part, contributed to the renomé of the University of Stuttgart. He was the first to translate Le Corbusier's works in 1926, "Vers une architecture". "The Art of the 19th and 20th Centuries," published in 1931 as a handbook aesthetics, is still fundamental today, especially for its treatment of the architecture of the 1920ies.

Under National Socialism, Baum and Hildebrandt were expelled from their posts. Julius Baum spent several weeks in the Welzheim concentration camp before emigrating. Both, however, nevertheless resumed their teaching in Stuttgart after 1945; Baum was director of the Landesmuseum Württemberg between 1947 and 1952.

In 1935, and thus during the period of National Socialism, Otto Schmitt was appointed from Greifswald to Stuttgart. He was involved in the planning of a large-scale, interdisciplinary research project of the Reich Ministry of Science, which was planned by the so-called "Arbeitsgemeinschaft für den Kriegseinsatz der Geisteswissenschaften". He was supposed to lead the subprojects "France" and "Burgundy" in the section "Radiation of German Art". The project however didn't materialize. His work as editor of the Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte was a significant contribution to this important publication. In his research, he contributed significantly to the knowledge of medieval sculpture in the German southwest. After the war he became the second rector of the University of Stuttgart.

After Schmitt's sudden death in 1951, Dagobert Frey served as the chair's deputy for a year and a half. As a full professor of art history in Breslau from 1931 to 1945, Frey participated as a scientific advisor in the organized theft of artworks from occupied Poland. In the context of the aforementioned war effort in the humanities, he supported a series of publications on the "Special Achievements of German Art" together with Karl Swoboda, Leo Bruhns, or Wilhelm Pinder. At the same time, he pursued art-theoretical and methodologicaly-conceptual issues in writings such as Kunsthistorische Grundfragen (1946).

In 1953, Schmitt's long-time colleague Hans Wentzel took over the chair. He was internationally recognized for his work on medieval stained glass, being an essential co-founder of the "Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi". In his era, the technical university strived to become the University of Stuttgart, by massively expanding the humanities. These efforts were crowned by success in 1967. This development had positive consequences for art history, as the institute was expanded by a second chair, which was first held by Werner Sumowski.

While Herwarth Röttgen was head of the institute from 1977, its staff grew. Heinrich Dilly and Johannes Zahlten now also taught as professors for a time. In 1994 Reinhard Steiner came to the institute as Sumowski's successor. Röttgen influenced the teaching at the institute through his numerous studies on German late Gothic, Baroque, Historicism and especially on Italian art. His fundamental studies on Giuseppe Cesari and Caravaggio bear mentioning. While serving as chairman of the Association of German Art Historians for several years, Röttgen represented the interests of the entire discipline from Stuttgart.

Beat Wyss directed the institute between 1997 and 2004, expandinging the research on contemporary art movements that had been traditional at the Stuttgart institute. After his appointment to succeed Hans Belting at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Magdalena Bushart held the institute's directorship from 2006 to 2008, while publishing writings on German art around 1500 and on Expressionism. Reinhard Steiner ensured the continuity of the institute as acting director between 2004 and 2006 and then again from 2008 to 2015, doing important research on both pre-modern and modern art. These include his writings on Leonardo, Egon Schiele, and the Prometheus motive. Since 2015, the Institute again has two chairs, now with the denominations of pre-modern and modern art history. Daniela Bohde, who is also the director of the institute, was appointed chair for pre-modern art history while Kerstin Thomas holds the professorship for modern art history.

See also H. Röttgen: Nachvollziehende Gedanken zur Geschichte des Instituts für Kunstgeschichte, in: 125 Jahre Institut für Kunstgeschichte, hrsg. von J. Zahlten, Reihe: Reden und Aufsätze, Bd.41, S. 28-42 as well as Reinhard Steiner, Marthe Kretzschmar und Christian Baudisch: Spuren. Bilder. Dokumente - 150 Jahre Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Stuttgart 2015

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