28.03.2025 –
09.06.2025
NOTHING WITHOUT NATURE – Ewald Mataréʼs Animal Sculptures
Ewald Mataré (1887–1965) is considered one of the most significant artists of the 20th century in Germany. His life was shaped by the major political and social events of his time: he experienced two world wars, the Weimar Republic, the National Socialist dictatorship, and the early years of the Federal Republic. Mataré made a name for himself as a painter, graphic artist, and sculptor. His animal sculptures occupy a unique position in German sculpture of his time. In his depictions, the artist was not concerned with a naturalistic representation of the animals but rather with the pure sculptural form. He frequently depicted horses and roosters, yet his central motif was the cow. He created numerous variations of it, making it a key subject in his work.
About the Exhibition
Characteristic of Mataréʼs work is his intense struggle for formal solutions and his focus on essential fundamental forms.
“Only behind nature lies form; everything else is romantic,”
noted the artist in his diary in the summer of 1930 – a guiding principle reflected in his work.
With over 70 works, the exhibition at Kunsthaus Dahlem traces the artistic development of Ewald Mataré and highlights the compositional and formal aspects of his oeuvre. While his works from the 1920s still followed a figurative representation, increasing abstraction is noticeable from the early 1940s onwards. In addition to over 50 sculptural works, the exhibition also presents works on paper and handcrafted objects.
An accompanying interactive play and activity room invites children and visitors to engage playfully with forms and create their own animal representations.
Ewald Mataré – Biography
Ewald Mataré was born in Aachen in 1887 and began his studies in Berlin in 1907. Initially, he gained recognition as a painter and graphic artist. Around 1920, his first sculptural works emerged from his work with woodcuts. Animal sculptures soon became his primary theme, and it was mainly this body of work that generated growing interest in his art. As a member of the November Group and the Porza Association, Mataré actively participated in the artistic and political debates of his time. In 1932, he was appointed to the Düsseldorf Art Academy but was placed on leave after only seven months under pressure from the Nazi authorities – his expiring contract was not renewed. As part of the “Degenerate Art” campaign, at least 46 of his works were confiscated from German museums. Facing attacks on his work, a lack of commissions, and no exhibition opportunities, Ewald Mataré lived in seclusion during the Nazi period. After World War II, his circumstances quickly improved. With the reopening of the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1946, he took over a sculpture class and devoted himself passionately to teaching – among his students was Joseph Beuys. In the 1950s and 1960s, during the reconstruction of the Federal Republic, Ewald Mataré completed numerous public commissions – particularly significant was his design of the bronze doors for the south transept of Cologne Cathedral. In 1952, he received the Thorn-Prikker Prize from the city of Krefeld, and in 1953, the Grand Art Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for Sculpture. In 1958, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit. The artist passed away in 1965 at the age of 78 in Büderich.
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
The bilingual catalogue (German/English) for the exhibition on Ewald Mataré’s animal sculptures is now available. It features over 80 images of artworks and archival photos from the artist’s studio, as well as excerpts from his diaries. With texts by Dorothea Schöne and Philine Pahnke.
Published with generous support from the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
For orders, please visit the Publications section.
PHOTO GALLERY
Exhibition opening on 27 March 2025
© Kunsthaus Dahlem, 2025.