This is a reminder that in lieu of our monthly meeting in October, we are invited by the Consulate General of Germany to the Opening Reception of an incredibly moving and compelling exhibit, Postcards from the Trenches: Germans and Americans Visualize the Great War, on Thursday, October 23, 2014, at 6:30 p.m., at The Printing Museum Houston, 1324 West Clay, Houston, TX 77019. As time is limited, please let the museum know now that you’ll be attending by calling (713) 522-4652, ext. 201. Opening remarks will be made by Dean Bill Monroe, The Honors College, University of Houston, Deputy Consul General Clemens Kroll, German Consulate General Houston, and Dr. Irene Guenther, co-curator of the exhibition.
The exhibit commemorates the 100th anniversary of the First World War through art created in the trenches by German and American soldiers on opposite sides of No Man’s Land. The German soldiers included artists, such as Kokoschka, Felixmüller, Kollwitz, and some who are not as well known. Hand-painted trench postcards, sketches, ink drawings, and graphic works made by soldiers in the midst of the conflict, juxtaposed with mass-produced postcards and government propaganda, movingly illuminate the personal landscapes and bitter truths of the Great War.
Of particular note is a series of 80 hand-painted postcards by the Dresden artist-soldier, Otto Schubert, a close colleague of Otto Dix and of Alfred Gunther. There is no more fitting and humane commemoration of the soldiers who served in the First World War than to focus on the art they made for themselves and for their loved ones on the home front. Alfred Guenther’s granddaughter, Dr. Irene Guenther, a member of the teaching faculty at the Honors College at the University of Houston is co-curator of the exhibit.
For more information, please check out the following website, video and audio recording: http://postcardsfromthetrenches.com, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m_eP3dL3_A, and http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/uh-moment-postcards. The exhibit shows through February 14, 2015.
See you on Thursday!