Lehmbruck – Kolbe – Mies van der Rohe : Artificial Biotopes

In the first exhibition highlight of the year, three outstanding artists – Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Georg Kolbe, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – are being brought together for the first time at Haus Lange in Krefeld. Figurative sculpture, as repeatedly integrated into designs and buildings by the architect Mies van der Rohe, is thus placed in direct dialog with the building, the design, and the gardens of Haus Lange. The background for the interplay between architecture and sculpture is the natural-philosophical climate, which, in the early twentieth century, influenced a wide range of disciplines. On display will be roughly twenty-five sculptures by Lehmbruck and Kolbe as part of the organic body of Haus Lange.

This publication traces three outstanding modernist artists and the interrelationship among sculpture, architecture, and nature.

In the 1920s, architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began to conceive of architecture, design, and art as united forces. He incorporated the works of Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Georg Kolbe, two of the best-known sculptors of the Weimar Republic, into the designs of his buildings. In villas such as Haus Lange in Krefeld, the sculptures function not just as independent artworks, but also as essential elements of the villa’s design—an organic system made up of space, light, material, water, and vegetation.
 
Mies van der Rohe established himself as the visionary architect of New Building, a modernist architectural movement that emphasized geometric form. An architectural approach also permeated the fine art of the time, while a scientific understanding of nature influenced art and architecture equally. This book and exhibition are among the first to bring sculpture and nature together in an examination of Mies van der Rohe’s work. Highlighting eight sculptures by Lehmbruck and seven by Kolbe, the volume features more than one hundred color illustrations.