Franz Radziwill

In 1923, the young painter Franz Radziwill (1895–1983) made an unusual decision: having recently enjoyed artistic success in cities including Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin, Radziwill moved to the sedate little town of Dangast, by the Wadden Sea, where he was to live and work for sixty years. At the same time, Radziwill underwent a stylistic volte-face. He loosened his ties with Expressionism in order, over the course of just a few years, to develop his version of Magic Realism. The exhibition Alles auf Anfang. Hundert Jahre Franz Radziwill in Dangast explores this spectacular sea change. Based on a large range of works, the catalogue traces this stylistic change, illuminates Radziwill’s later view of his early work and examines the contextual aspects – What were the living conditions that Radziwill encountered a century ago in Dangast? To what extent does his relationship with nature and urban life reflect the artist’s view of Modernism?