The blind spot: Bremen, colonialism and art

Abstract

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Hanseatic city of Bremen was a flourishing centre of rapidly growing international trade, profiting from colonial expansion and overseas migration. These global relations also left their traces in the Kunstverein in Bremen. Many works which were acquired by the museum during the colonial period reflect stereotypes of the foreign and exotic. The authors examine the history of the Kunstverein in Bremen within the context of the city's trade and global connections and investigate the colonial implications of works by, amongst others, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde and Fritz Behn. These European perspectives are set in dialogue with works by modern and contemporary artists from the African and Asian continent. Thus, the book not only enables a postcolonial perspective on the collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen, but also on early modern art in general. With works by Fritz Behn, Paul Gauguin, Katsushika Hokusai, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Georg Kolbe, Hew Locke, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, Ngozi Schommers, Amrita Sher-Gil.

Contents

Blind spots: Bremen's global trade and patronage in the colonial period / Julia Binter -- Travelling, collecting, exhibiting : dream and reality. The collection of Japanese woodcuts at the Kunsthalle Bremen. Approaching the exhibition Art of East Asia and the people's of nature of 1922 -- Colour, language, perspectives: topoi of dealing with whiteness / Anna Greve -- Encounters with the other in art : "how racism speaks through words [and images]" a cooperation with the University of Bremen -- Imagination and violence: modern artists and the study of the other / Julia Binter -- Returning the gaze: Amrita Sher-Gil, Self portrait as Tahitian, 1934; Vivian Sundaram, Re-take of Amrita, 2001-2001; The art of colonial contact zones -- Pictorial frictions: Europeans through the mirror of art / Anna Brus -- Global claims and Wanderlust: posters of the North German Lloyd and other Hanseatic shipping companies -- Of "savages" and "advertising efforts": aspects of visual culture in German colonialism -- Yvette Mutumba -- Contemporary perspectives on Bremen's colonial heritage: Ngozi Schommers, (Un)Framed Narratives, 2017; Hew Locke, Cui Bono, 2017.