Fig.: Heide Stolz, Untitled [Portrait Uwe Lausen], c. 1967/1968, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2024.
Exhibition and lectures at DASMAXIMUM Traunreut and Hubert Burda Media Munich
On May 4 and 5, 2024, an exhibition and lecture series will kick off in Traunreut, focusing on the work of the artist couple Uwe Lausen and Heide Stolz. A presentation of selected photographs by Heide Stolz in the Lausen Hall of the DASMAXIMUM museum and a lecture by Dr. Selima Niggl this weekend will mark the start of a collaboration with Hubert Burda Media in Munich, where works by the two artists will also be on display from July.
Fig.: (1) Heide Stolz, Untitled [Isolde Jovine in front of Uwe Lausen's painting "Geometer", detail], c. 1966, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2024. (2) Uwe Lausen, Der weinende General, 1967, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2024. (3) Heide Stolz, Untitled [from a series in the Bruckmühl gravel pit with Gottfried Peer Überfeldt], 1967, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2024.
Uwe Lausen is one of the most important Pop Art artists in Germany. His wife, the photographer Heide Stolz, is far less well known. The couple worked closely together and clearly influenced each other in their choice of motifs and themes, which are characterized by provocation, violence and staged reality. Stolz and Lausen's resistance to the social and cultural establishment is reflected in the politically active movement of 1968 and makes their work seem alive and relevant even today, sixty years after it was created.
Uwe Lausen and Heide Stolz are closely connected to the region. For many years, a farmstead in Aschhofen near Bruckmühl was the center of the artist couple's life. Not only did Heide Stolz take numerous photographs there, it also developed into a meeting place for Munich avant-garde artists.
Since the opening of the DASMAXIMUM museum, Uwe Lausen's work, which museum founder Heiner Friedrich supported early on, has had a permanent place in the exhibition. For the first time in Traunreut, original vintage prints by Heide Stolz are now also on display alongside paintings by her husband. The spectrum ranges from early works from her student days at the Munich Institute of Photojournalism to staged shots and fantasies of violence in the style of New German Cinema from the late 1960s.
Fig.: Dr. Selima Niggl, Photo: Petra Höglmeier-Wübert
The presentation will be accompanied by a lecture by Dr. Selima Niggl, who will shed light on the joint life and work of Uwe Lausen and Heide Stolz. The Munich art historian Selima Niggl was the curator of the artist couple's first joint exhibition, which was shown at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and elsewhere, and is the author of a comprehensive monograph on Uwe Lausen, which was published in 2021.
The exhibition and lecture mark the start of a cooperation with Hubert Burda Media in Munich. From the beginning of July, prints by Lausen and large-format staged photographs, which were created as a joint work by Lausen and Stolz, will be shown in the Hubert Burda Media exhibition space. This exhibition will also be accompanied by a lecture by Dr. Selima Niggl.
The works of Heide Stolz can be seen from Saturday, May 4 in the Lausen Hall of the DASMAXIMUM Museum. On Sunday, May 5 at 14:00, Dr. Selima Niggl will give the lecture "Uwe Lausen and Heide Stolz - Center of Reaction". The works of Heide Stolz can be seen in Traunreut until the fall. The series of events was initiated and is financially supported by the DASMAXIMUM e.V. circle of friends and sponsors.