1916, Gabriele Münter, At the Clockmaker's -- Guggenheim Museum (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label:
Scholars have interpreted At the Clockmaker's as representing the ennui Gabriele Münter felt while waiting for her partner, Vasily Kandinsky, to join her in exile in Sweden during World War I (1914-18). She had arrived in summer 1915, and he visited her only briefly that winter. Each clock on the wall displays a different time, possibly alluding to Münter's weariness with their prolonged separation or, more broadly, to the passage of time. The two figures remain detached from one another, absorbed in their own worlds.
Despite her precarious personal situation, the multilingual Münter found camaraderie among the Swedish avant-garde and secured exhibition opportunities across Scandinavia. In Copenhagen, in 1918, she held the largest solo show of her career and, rather than returning to Germany, decided to stay in Scandinavia for two more years. These historical facts complicate prevailing narratives around Münter's emotional state and suggest a more nuanced view of her wartime practice.
1916, Gabriele Münter, At the Clockmaker's -- Guggenheim Museum (New York) (special exhibition)
From the museum label:
Scholars have interpreted At the Clockmaker's as representing the ennui Gabriele Münter felt while waiting for her partner, Vasily Kandinsky, to join her in exile in Sweden during World War I (1914-18). She had arrived in summer 1915, and he visited her only briefly that winter. Each clock on the wall displays a different time, possibly alluding to Münter's weariness with their prolonged separation or, more broadly, to the passage of time. The two figures remain detached from one another, absorbed in their own worlds.
Despite her precarious personal situation, the multilingual Münter found camaraderie among the Swedish avant-garde and secured exhibition opportunities across Scandinavia. In Copenhagen, in 1918, she held the largest solo show of her career and, rather than returning to Germany, decided to stay in Scandinavia for two more years. These historical facts complicate prevailing narratives around Münter's emotional state and suggest a more nuanced view of her wartime practice.