Life as a total work of art. Heinrich Vogeler and Wenzel Hablik

Summer of 2023 at the Barkenhoff
25 June to 5 November 2023

The summer exhibition 2023 at the Barkenhoff is dedicated to two artists, Wenzel Hablik and Heinrich Vogeler, who pursued the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art: Both artists sought to combine artistic themes with those of a visionary lifestyle by incorporating them in a wide range of various aspects of life.

Wenzel Hablik, born in Brüx (western Bohemia) in 1881, was a trained carpenter and porcelain painter and, like his contemporary Heinrich Vogeler, worked not only as a painter and graphic artist. His œuvre includes, in addition to paintings and graphics, mainly works of handicraft design. Hablik developed a number of visionary architectural designs as well as those of furniture and interiors. In 1907 he moved to Itzehoe in northern Germany, where he and his wife, the weaver Elisabeth Lindemann, built an artistically designed home and studio and lived there until his death in 1934.

The exhibition in the former sheds presents his work with selected exhibits of various genres showing parallels, but also differences to Vogeler's work, which is presented in the historic residence.