In Focus: Longing for Change
A Marriage of Artists Told in Letters 1909 -1914
Hans Purrmann and Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann
From 23 January 2019 until 17 March 2019; Book Launch and Opening on 23 January 2019 at 7:00 pm
The letters of the painter Hans Purrmann (1880–1966) as well as those of his wife and artistic colleague, Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann (1876–1943) from 1909 to 1914 tell the suspenseful history of the early years of their artists’ marriage in Germany and France. Contrary to the social conventions of their time, the daughter of an industrialist in Stuttgart and the son of a craftsman from Speyer got together. They became part of the tight circle around Henri Matisse. Linked by their passion for painting, Hans Purrmann and Mathilde Vollmoeller have secured a firm place in Classical Modernism. In life, as well as in their letters, they dealt with each other as equals.
Hitherto unknown letters of this artistic couple from the inventories of Speyer’s Purrmann House and the Hans Purrmann archives in Munich, have been published by Felix Billeter and Maria Leitmeyer who also offer their commentary. The correspondence is supplemented by an essay from Peter Kropmanns (Paris) and contributions by the publishers on the Paris years of Hans Purrmann and Mathilda Vollmoeller-Purrmanns.
From 23 January 2019 until 17 March 2019, the Purrmann House in Speyer is showing an exhibition accompanying the book in the small-room of the museum.
Longing for Change – A marriage of artists as told in letters 1909-1914. Hans Purrmann and Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann, produced by Felix Billeter (Hans Purrmann Archive Munich) and Maria Leitmeyer (Purrmann House Speyer), with an essay by Peter Kropmanns (Paris) and contributions by the publisher, Deutscher Kunstverlag Berlin/Munich 2019, 75 letters, 184 pages, 45 images, €14.90, ISBN: 978-3-422-89286-6
The publication was supported by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, the Hans Purrmann Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of Speyer.
Book Launch and Exhibition Opening on 23 January 2019 at 7:00 pm
Welcoming address: Stefanie Seiler, Mayor of the City of Speyer
Introduction and reading by the publisher:
Dr. Felix Billeter, Head of the Hans Purrmann Archives Munich and
Maria Leitmeyer M.A., Custodian of the Purrmann House in Speyer
Musical accompaniment: Music School of the City of Speyer
Purrmann is catching on ...
Student Projects from Speyer’s Classrooms
22 June until 8 July 2018
The Purrmann House has initiated a new series of exhibitions in which an opportunity will be given to school classes once a year to present their own projects. Projects that were created after a tour through the exhibition during art instruction class will each be exhibited for about 14 days.
First to get started on this will be art teacher Karin Germeyer-Kihm with her 6a class of the High School at the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer as well art teacher Jochen Frisch with his BK basic course for the current year’s graduating age group at the Friedrich-Magnus-Schwerd High School.
In Focus: Something new from the collection
26 November 2017 until 4 March 2018
The Purrmann House in Speyer is exhibiting the largest public collection of paintings by Hans Purrmann (1880-1966) and Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann (1876-1943). Now the exhibition has expanded with two outstanding works by Hans Purrmann from the estate of Elisabeth Albig. This niece of the painter-couple has bequeathed the oil painting, “Effigy of the Mother” (unfinished) and “Effigy of the sister, Friederike”. These works were almost certainly painted in Speyer, presumably even in Hans Purrmann’s family home, the Purrmann House as it is known today. Now they have returned to the site of their creation and taken their place alongside additional portraits of the family and other works from the painter’s early creative period. Both paintings are being shown publicly for the first time in the current small-room exhibit of the “In Focus” series, where they are being placed, through photographs and other documents from the archives, into their larger context.
Exhibition Opening on Sunday, 26 November 2017 at 11:00 am
Welcoming address: Hansjörg Eger, Mayor of the City of Speyer
Introduction: Maria Leitmeyer M.A., Custodian of the Purrmann House
Musical Accompaniment: Music School of the City of Speyer.
Records from 2013 to 2017
In Focus: Hans und Mathilde Purrmann in Beilstein 1914-1916
Exhibition by Purrmann House Speyer in cooperation with the Hans Purrmann Archive in Munich
29 January 2017 until 25 June 2017
In Focus: Hans Purrmann in Montagnola
Contemporary witness as guest: Effi Casey (born Bantzer), Purrmann’s assistant, 1964-1966
4 October 2015 until 21 February 2016
In Focus: Color and Light of the South
Hans Purrmann and Mathilde Vollmoeller- Purrmann: An Artistic Couple of the Classics
12 October 2014 until 8 February 2015
Hans Purrmann and Wilhelm Wittmann.
Exhibition at the Purrmann House in Speyer in cooperation with the Hans Purrmann Archive in Munich
24 September 2013 until 26 January 2014
Hans Purrmann (1880-1966). An Artist’s Life in Photographs
Exhibition at the Purrmann House in Speyer in cooperation with the Hans Purrmann Archive in Munich
16 May 2013 until 15 September 2013
