Wolfgang Mattheuer: The Prints - The Hartmut Koch Donation

The painter, sculptor, and printmaker Wolfgang Mattheuer is revealed as one of the leading representatives of the "Leipzig School" in this recollection of his work. Documenting how Mattheuer took part in all exceptional art exhibitions in the German Democratic Republic, the study also covers his contribution to the famed documenta 6 exhibit in Kassel and how it attracted attention in the West. Detailing the individual works that found their way into West German museums, this record also highlights the largest stock of Mattheuer's graphic works in Chemnitz, chronicling how the private collection of Hartmut Koch was acquired by the city's Kunstsammlungen and how the artist's complete graphic oeuvre became the property of the institution. Reconstructing the accomplishments of a mastermind who produced nearly 900 sheets with more than 400 inspirational motifs, this catalog presents his collection through large-scale illustrations and scholarly essays. Mattheuer's pictorial world, always figural but yet often mysterious, unfolds through etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, and lino-cuts created over a period of six decades.

Kerstin Drechsel is the manager of the graphics department at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Ingrid Mossinger is the director of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz.