julius klingebiel. cell.!
19.3. – 11.10.15
This exhibition was centered around a reproduction, for visitors to walk into, of the cell of Julius Klingebiel (1904-1965), a psychiatric patient who spent many years of his life in the state-owned custodial house in Göttingen. Between 1951 and 1963, Klingebiel painted the walls of his solitary cell with colorful landscapes, animals, human figures, coats of arms, and symbols, which he attempted to structure using linear elements. Over and over, he supplemented and overpainted individual sections of the approximately 9.25 square meter space and thereby also defined the spatial boundary in a new way. The paintings take up biographical motifs and address historical themes. We get an idea of what was preoccupying the artist or what he was experiencing. It is interesting that some of his pictures of women recall, in their contours and flatness, the later works of Max Beckmann; some motifs, such as the saints' figures next to the window, copy the style of Byzantine prototypes. It is possible that Klingebiel selected templates that appeared suitable to him and transformed these for his own purposes while configuring the walls. This yields a stylistic diversity of this spatial artwork, which fascinates to this day and which, through the possibility to walk into Klingebeil’s “cell” in the form of a photographic room installation, is brought to life in a special way.
