f.l.t.r. Dr. Beate Borowka-Clausberg (Heine-Haus Hamburg, curator of the exhibition), Friederike Näscher 

Prof. Dr. Alexander Klar (Director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle)

Düsseldorf, 13 April 2023: Friedrike Näscher, Düsseldorf artist and great admirer of Heinrich Heine exhibits two works in Hamburg's Heine-Haus on Hamburg's Elbchaussee. The 225th birthday of Heinrich Heine on 13 December 2022 was the occasion for an exhibition of Heine portraits in the historic garden house of his uncle Salomon, today's Heine-Haus on Hamburg's Elbchaussee. The artists dealt with the topic of what image today's viewers can form of the poet's appearance.

How do contemporary artists see him, whom they only know from illustrations?

The exhibition presents original engravings and lithographs from the 19th and 20th centuries as well as portraits made especially for the exhibition by 5 selected contemporary artists.

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The artist had time to answer a few questions to Alethea Mag about her works exhibited there.

Friedrike Näscher is known for her Fotogram technique, but has used different means for these works

"My two pictures are a mixed technique on paper: elements of the photogram technique are included, but here I have deliberately introduced image distortions into the photography. I drew the Heine portraits on the paper prints of this photographic basis. Finally, I drew elements with brush and ink on a glass plate and put them on the sheet as a monotype.“

"The intentionally created diverse pictorial "disturbances" are also an allegory for his uncomfortable critical view."

Her two paintings look very iconic and also like stamps. Friedrike Näscher described her approach to the project to us: "There are no photographs of Heine, only a few contemporary drawings, steel engravings or lithographs of him, which we must use as a guide today if we want to form a picture of the poet. Of course, these "pre-images" always have something iconic. I decided on a portrait in profile, which I countered in my two paintings, similar to a Janus head - romantic and rebel at the same time. The intentionally created diverse pictorial "disturbances" are also an allegory for his uncomfortable critical view, which was often perceived as disturbing by those around him. Hence the picture titles "Disturbance with Heine I" and "...II"."

"In the motif "Störstelle mit Heine II" I deliberately chose this colour scheme of blue, white and red, a link to Heine's adopted country of France."

For the artist, Heinrich Heine's work has great validity in our time: "He was a great poet with a very alert mind who observed and described his time and social developments with the utmost precision. Much of his work is still valid today, and when you read it, you can always marvel at the topicality of his texts. Marcel Reich-Ranicki put it very aptly: "A born provocateur he was and an eternal disturber of the peace."

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Where to find:

Von Angesicht zu Angesicht Heinrich Heine in Portraits

Exhibition in Hamburger Heine-Haus:

21 December 2022 to 26 September 2023

https://www.heine-haus-hamburg.de/Aktuell/

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