Inauguration Christian Hess Retrospective
Rabalderhaus Museum Schwaz
13 June 2008 - 5.30 pm

OPENING ADDRESS BY DOTT. OTTO LARCHER
DIRECTOR RABALDERHAUS MUSEUM, SCHWAZ

Ladies and gentlemen, kind visitors to the Rabalderhaus, I would like to thank you for your presence here at the inauguration of the Christian Hess Exhibition. This is a great occasion for our museum, which began its activities in April 1996 with Andrea Bischon.  For years I have been seeking to put on display here the works of Christian Hess; it is here in Schwaz that the painter spent his last days and it is here that he died. This is also a great event for us because it is the 100th exhibition to be hosted by the Rabalderhaus and furthermore because it has received the patronage of the  President of the European Parlament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. This is a great honour, and we would like to thank  Signor Ardizzone, who is here today representing the Christian Hess Cultural  Association from Rome, who helped make this precious recognition possible.  We are glad that, despite the European Football Championships, so many of you have turned up today. We have set up a television in another room, but to show a fine film about Christian Hess. I would like to give an especially warm welcome to the artist’s relatives who have travelled from Italy to be here, to the official representatives of the cities and regions, Dott. Erhard for the Tyrol Region, Frau Oberhollezner, the spokeswoman for culture on Schwaz Municipal Council, the representatives of the Christian Hess Cultural Association in Rome, and all the institutions, galleries and private collectors who have made their paintings available for this exhibition. I would like to offer a special word of thanks to   Dott. Stefan Demetz, director of the Municipal Museum in Bolzano, without whom this exhibition would not have been possible.. It would not have been possible financially, and we are glad to have found such an important partner.

But my most heartfelt thanks must go to Dott. Carl Kraus for all the work he has contributed as curator of this exhibition. He also wrote the wonderful catalogue and I believe since 1974, 75, 76 there has not been such a great exhibition. (applause). Thanks should also go to our sponsors and all my staff. I would like to welcome Herr Bürgermeister who has come despite the football game!  This is an exhibition of truly European status. It will run here at the Rabalderhaus until the end of July and it will then continue from the end of November until the end of January in Bolzano.
 

DOTT. STEFAN DEMETZ DIRECTOR MUNICIPAL MUSEUM BOLZANO

Thank you, Dott. Larcher. I am here to represent the City of Bolzano, the spokesperson for cultural affairs was unable to attend and sends his apologies. I was extremely grateful when Dott. Kraus and Dott. Larcher visited us and presented the project. It is always a pleasure to find partners who share the same goals. Although cultural relations south of the Brenner Pass are perennially modest, cooperation is very important to us. Especially in this case. Christian Hess spent only his early childhood in Bolzano and is not well known there. We believe it is our civic duty in the case of unknown artists whose roots are in our city to make them more widely known. No more so than for Christian Hess. If we compare his works with those by other artists in Bolzano during the same creative period it must be said that Hess reached another level. For this reason I would like to thank you, Dott. Larcher, and all your staff for your ideas and your personal contributions that – I must say – have led to this interesting exhibition and its fine catalogue.

DOTT. CARL KRAUS CURATOR OF THE EXHIBITION
AND CATALOGUE

We have all heard: Christian Hess was born in Bolzano. I would add this: he died just a few metres from where we are now in Schwaz Hospital, in 1944 following an air-raid on Innsbruck. He was 48 years old - my age now (I hope to live a while longer yet) - but his major work seemed to have finished a few years before.
In Germany, after the rise to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess no longer had any real possibility of artistic development. He was able to work well in Sicily, but he felt isolated there.
Sicily was his second home -  his sister Emma lived there. He couldn’t work in Switzerland, where he was unable to obtain stay papers. In Munich, where he had studied, the climate was hardly favourable. He was ground down by the dictatorship’s persecution. In the Tyrol, where he was born and where he lived the last four years of his life, he was not a well-known artist and his life there was not easy.
The works which you will see here were all painted between 1925 and 1935; the enormous potential of the artist is clear. I can see here in front of me Meier Beckmann, Max Beckmann’s daughter in law and in a sense a relative of the artist. Thank you for making the journey from Munich. Here you will see that Max Beckmann was a great influence on Christian Hess. He also drew inspiration from George Grosz, the cubists, and the artists of the Italian Novecento. But he also created something that was entirely his own.
Around 1931 in Germany Christian Hess enjoyed notable renown. His works were exhibited in Berlin, Hamburg, Zurich - in every major city. He was a member of the Juryfreie movement in Munich, a group of progressive, radical artists whose members included Picasso and Mondrian.
After his death in 1944, Hess, like many of the so-called “submerged generation”, slid into more or less complete obscurity. His works were unknown; they were preserved in Messina where in 1956 they were exhibited - but without a catalogue. The travelling exhibition of Rediscovery was in 1974. Starting from Palermo, it then visited cities in Italy, Austria and Germany.
I will say no further, because we are lucky enough to have with us this evening the only living relative of Christian Hess who knew the artist personally, his niece Luisa Ardizzone. I would be grateful if she could tell us something of her personal experience. I think she was nine years old when she saw Christian Hess for the last time.

SIGNORA LUISA ARDIZZONE NIECE OF CHRISTIAN HESS

DOTT. BIRGIT OBERHOLLEZNER- PRASCHBERGER
SPOKESPERSON FOR CULTURE – SCHWAZ MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

On behalf of the city of Schwaz I would like to welcome you all here this evening, especially those who have made the journey from the other side of the Brenner – not least because right now the Italian national team is playing an important game of football – and yet they’ve still managed to find their way here to the Rabalderhaus. The Rabalderhaus is a meeting-place. Last Friday there was the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the work of our very own Wolfgang Götzinger. I should like to inform our foreign visitors that we are in the middle of a huge programme of cultural events which make up the Schwaz Silver Summer 2008. The motto of this year’s festival is “Culture Moves – Body & Soul” - a free interpretation of the European soccer championships which are taking place this summer in Austria and Switzerland. The Rabalderhaus is a key venue for the festival. A few days ago it hosted a prestigious literary event, the Adorno Prize. Obviously “drive”, “thrust” and “commitment” are important qualities not only in sport, but also in the arts. Without this motivation, great works like those you can admire here would not be created. Many of you have come here from Italy - you were not put off by the long journey. And people have come from all over the Tyrol to join the many residents of Schwaz itself who are here this evening. I believe it is a good thing that we can all meet here: citizens of Bolzano and other Italian cities, residents of the Tyrol from the north and south; it is the very spirit of the European Union. That we can meet in friendship, with a shared interest in art and culture. For this reason I would like to thank everyone here, with a special word of thanks to Dott. Larcher for his tenacity and perseverance in organising what is the 100th exhibition at the Rabalderhaus. I would have liked to offer him a small glass of schnaps, but I was told it was not a good idea - so I have brought this bouquet of flowers. And so I can now declare open the Christian Hess exhibition.