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HOHMANN FINE ART 73-660 El Paseo | Palm Desert, CA 92260 (760) 346-4243 phone (760) 346-4246 fax (877) 977-CHFA (2432) toll free e: email@christianhohmann.com w: www.christianhohmann.com w: www.hohmannfineart.com www.facebook.com/christianhohmannfineart www.pinterest.com/hohmannfineart www.youtube.com/hohmannfineart
IMPRESSUM
© Hohmann Fine Art, Inc. 1st Edition 2013/2014 Layout & Design: Christian Hohmann Text: Kimberly Nichols, Christian Hohmann Photography: Josh Heinz, Mark Davidson Any reproduction or use of text or image material in part or in full is only allowed with the written consent of Hohmann Fine Art, Inc. Measurements are approximate and may vary. Please contact gallery if you require framed, unframed, paper or plate sizes or exact dimensions of sculptures. Slight variations in color are inherent to the printing process. High resolution images and condition reports are provided upon request.
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THE OLD HOUSE (Detail) | Oil on Canvas | 79” x 98” | 1997
WIEBKE KRAMER
HOHMANN FINE ART
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Like many children of World War II, Kramer’s memories are fleeting and muddled with a veil of confusion and mystery. She spent most of those years hidden away in an idyllic forestlike setting at her grandparents’ home while on the periphery of her world, destruction was waging. In the years emerging from this protected childhood space, she came to learn of the harsh truth about what had been going on alongside her life. The realization that she had been merrily playing in the fields while others were dying in concentration camps unlocked a Pandora’s box of emotions within her from grief to shame to guilt to anger. Finding no relief in talking with friends and family, she turned to the medium of paint to quench her dark hunger to understand.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
German artist Wiebke Kramer’s most profound body of work consists of paintings articulated through the process of catharsis; that of an adult digging through the wreckage of a distinctive past to make sense of her physical and psychological absence from events that have come to haunt her conscience.
The resulting paintings are her attempt at working through this myriad of feeling, pulling together and informing an eerily familiar voice that echoes in the collective consciousness helping not only the artist but the viewer walk through the process of pain, discovery and closure from those enigmatic life circumstances we may never comprehend but can indeed heal and evolve forward from. The discrepancy in her own mind between substantive and actual reality is forcefully expressed in these views of a little girl in surreal juxtaposition to her environment. The paintings are filled with fragments of recollection that represent both her real world and the one she constructs now through a backward glance. Each piece attempts to make sense of the chaos of actual knowledge while simultaneously presenting the innocence of her blossoming young femininity. Thus, the work presents an authentic vulnerability and burgeoning sensuality that becomes perversely bisected by the horror. This harkens to the cultural phenomena of the country and era found in German Romanticism and Goethe’s Germany in which the spirit of the child is raised only to find itself amidst the rubble of life.
www.christianhohmann.com
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This is strongly seen in “Ignited A Light” where the young girl cowers in a corner refusing to look or to hear what is in her immediate surroundings, backed up to a wall that is seemingly tainted with blood.
IGNITED A LIGHT Oil on Canvas 87” x 71”
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A compilation of light bulbs share ceiling space with a dead woman, hanging totally exposed and stripped of her dignity above an audience of small children in “Let There Be Light (The Children Never Die)”. Some of the children appear real and others loom like ghosts, mere traces of the many who have fallen and a reminder that life is not always under one’s control.
LET THERE BE LIGHT (THE CHILDREN NEVER DIE) Oil on Canvas 95” x 71”
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In “The Paravent” we see an idealized wooden screen laden with warmth and the only life the artist knew of her youth: needlepoint with grandma, frolicking in the flowers, enjoying nature and the comfort of animals. Behind this screen lurks a torrid red sky accentuating the crumbling buildings and roads strewn with human limbs beneath it that were geographically so close yet mentally so far.
THE PARAVENT Oil on Canvas 98” x 79”
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In “Big Bang” we see a small child going down into the basement in a nod to the dark, subconscious space where mass societal denial accumulated during this time. Ironically enough, it is that same underground space where many worked in collusion to hide others from being killed. A broken light bulb signifies the violent demeanor of the officers of the time while on the other side of wall sits the nostalgic visage of the family before the home and childhood safety zone were invaded.
BIG BANG Oil on Canvas 87” x 71”
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The paintings also remark upon the universal human process of psychological and spiritual evolution that occurs from birth to adulthood. This reflects an eternal life process in which our versions of reality shift and unfold between that which we were taught and that which we decide to become, consisting of all the mental obstacles and permutations that occur on our quest for personal truth and self-individuation. It is not without its wounds or its lessons. This particular series offers such a comprehensive and poignant look at both a deeply, serious gash in German history as well as the profound effects of war on the individual that it was honored in an unprecedented show in 2010 at the Military Museum in Muenster, Northern Germany. Today, Christian Hohmann and his family retain representational rights to Kramer’s body of work.
RED ROSES Oil on Canvas 79” x 91”
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THE RED GLOVE Oil on Canvas 95” x 71”
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DIE MAUER, DAS FEUER ODER DIE LIEBE Oil on Canvas 71” x 60”
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THE OLD HOUSE Oil on Canvas 79” x 98”
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SCHWARZE TRAENEN Oil on Canvas 59” x 39”, 80” x 83”, 59” x 40”
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THE LEAPING CHILDREN Oil on Canvas ??????” x ??????”
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EVEN BOYS LOVE DOLLS Oil on Canvas 71” x 87”
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THE RED SKY Oil on Canvas 87” x 71”
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THE GLOBE Oil on Canvas 95” x 71”
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DIE OPERATION 38 Oil on Canvas 79” x 39”, 79” x 59”, 79” x 40”
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SISTERS Oil on Canvas 87” x 71”
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THE PAINTING OF THE GRANPARENTS 44 Oil on Canvas 79” x 138”
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DIE MAUER, DAS FEUER ODER DIE LIEBE 46 Oil on Canvas 71” x 59” each
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christian hohmann fine art
ARTISTS OF THE GALLERY PAINTING Mohamed Abla Deladier Almeida Michael Azgour Robert Dunahay Zivana Gojanovich Eberhard Hückstädt Thomas Jessen Denis Jully Manzur Kargar Wiebke Kramer Gabriele Lockstaedt Gerd Lieder Heiner Meyer Armin Mueller-Stahl Neil Nagy Heinz Rabbow Thomas Ritter Peter Schettler Doug Smith Karin Voelker Edward Walton Wilcox Rimi Yang PHOTOGRAPHY Karin Székessy
ESTATES Bob Freimark Clemens Kindling David Schneuer Paul Wunderlich SCULPTURE JD Hansen John Helton Holger Lassen Siegfried Neuenhausen Stefan Reichmann Christopher Schulz Pierre Schumann Heinz Spilker Julian Voss-Andreae FINE PRINTS Marc Chagall Corneille Xenia Hausner Rudolf Hausner Joan Miró Pablo Picasso and many more...
Christian and Kaarina Hohmann
CHRISTIAN HOHMANN FINE ART represents
almost 40 years of lineage in the art world by the Hart/Hohmann family founded in Germany and in 2013 Christian Hohmann celebrated his 20 year anniversary of entering the professional art world. Christian’s parents Werner and Ursula opened their first gallery in 1976 in the cultural tourist destination of Walsrode, which quickly became a success attracting cosmopolitan visitors from all over the world. In 1998, his aunt Eva Hart ventured to the States and opened a gallery in Carmel by the Sea, a premiere address for the California fine art world. She introduced art collectors to the best European contemporary artists, a relatively untapped market in the area, and one in which was found a thriving market. Only two years later the Hart family opened another location in the heart of Chicago. Back in Germany, 19-year old Christian was honing his own career by studying Art History and Economy at the University of Trier. In 1993, just a month before he began his studies, he founded Kunstverlag Christian Hohmann, a company that would publish lithographs, etchings and serigraphs by several artists, among them the acclaimed artist Prof. Rudolf Hausner, an important representative of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism. Two years later he opened his first gallery in Hamburg at 21. In 1998 he partnered up with Thomas Levy, one of Germany’s premier art dealers and gallery owners, to open a gallery villa in Hamburg-Poeseldorf. The gallery highlighted artists such as Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, and Xenia Hausner and participated in art expos including Art Frankfurt and the prestigious Hamburg Photo Triennale. Three years later, Hohmann collaborated on a project gallery in Berlin-Mitte. In 2002 Eva Hart decided to open a flagship gallery in Palm Desert, CA. Located on the exclusive El Paseo Drive in the renowned playground for the Forbes 400, the gallery played host to visitors from all over the world looking for paradise weather, perfect golf and tennis and world-class art. Christian joined his aunt as gallery director and went on to facilitate stellar exhibitions from modern classics like Joan Miró, Chagall, and Gabriele Muenter to contemporary artists such as Paul Wunderlich, Eberhard Hückstädt and Karin Voelker. In the summer of 2009, the Harts retired and Christian decided to carry on the family tradition solo with a new 5,000 square foot signature space, also located on El Paseo Drive. Today, Christian Hohmann Fine Art reflects this rich legacy in the art world, which began in Germany in 1976, and now spans across the United States. With a longstanding tradition of presenting both European and national artists of the highest
View into Gallery II: Painting by Bob Freimark, Sculpture by John Helton
caliber to the discerning collector, the gallery’s strong figurative program is accentuated by diverse offerings in 20th century master works by both familiar and emerging names. The gallery features an exquisite selection of original paintings and sculpture by over 100 unique artists while also representing many artists’ estates. From the prestigious location on El Paseo and with a network of artists, collectors, galleries and institutions the gallery has built a strong internet presence that reaches far beyond the borders of the United States. By participating in art fairs across the US and by publishing books and catalogs, the gallery is trying to spread the word about their artists world wide. With a true passion for art, educating the client, and a devotion to its artists, the gallery has garnered a world-class reputation as a sophisticated destination for art.
CHRISTIAN HOHMANN FINE ART 73-660 El Paseo | Palm Desert, CA 92260 (760) 346-4243 | (877) 977-CHFA (toll free) www.christianhohmann.com
WIEBKE KRAMER
HOHMANN fine art www.hohmannfineart.com
BOOKS00039 Wiebke Kramer $25