The Museum Penzberg - Sammlung Campendonk presents an exhibition exploring the friendship between visual artists Heinrich Campendonk (1889-1957) and Fritz Stuckenberg (1881-1944), along with poet Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1928). This intriguing trio highlights the clash of artistic visions, the realities of life in the young Weimar Republic, and their visions for the future. Central to this narrative is the axis connecting the rural Seeshaupt and the art metropolis of Berlin between 1919 and 1921.

During this period, a sort of artist colony seemed to emerge around Starnberger See, where these creatives exchanged ideas. They sought new artistic forms of modernity to inspire movements following the 'Blue Rider' group. The proposed manifesto, named 'Kataklump', refers to the onomatopoeic Flemish word for galloping horses. Through their artworks and letters, the exhibition offers new, often intimate insights into their lives and creative processes.

Fritz Stuckenberg, a true urbanite, found himself in Seeshaupt from October 1919 to August 1921--not entirely by choice. He sought artistic inspiration from the rural idyll, alongside lower living costs and better conditions, similar to what Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and Heinrich Campendonk experienced. Poet Paul van Ostaijen supported Stuckenbergs' idea to move closer to Campendonk. Their meeting in July 1919 sparked a profound, mutually inspiring friendship between the painter and the poet, leading to an intense and personal correspondence between Upper Bavaria and Berlin. These letters reveal their search for new forms of expression, their aspirations, failures, struggles for visibility, and confrontations with bourgeois morality.

This exhibition is based on a collaboration with the Haus Coburg | Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst, which holds Stuckenberg's estate, showcasing paintings, watercolors, graphics, and poems from the three artists, alongside works by fellow artists Georg Muche and Arnold Topp, who were also meant to participate in 'Kataklump'. Although the project remained an idea, the artistic and epistolary exchanges allow for a belated realization of their plans that once failed. Works from the STURM circle, including those by Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Kurt Schwitters, Walter Dexel, and William Wauer, complete the picture of these turbulent years.

Accompanying programs include guided tours on Sundays at 11:00, workshops, art & wine events, and more (until June 22).