II. documenta

Where swastikas were emblazoned in 1933, the small “d” now dominates Friedrichsplatz on posters and flags. By its second edition, documenta has already established itself as a brand. With the founding of a supporting company, documenta GmbH, the exhibition was institutionalized and was now to take place every four years. While the documenta of 1955, with its revision of the avant-garde after the “lost years” of National Socialism, was inevitably designed to be retrospective, the aim now was to tie in with contemporary art.

Once again, founder Arnold Bode was assisted by historian Werner Haftmann. The stocktaking of art after 1945 followed the motto “Art has become abstract”, which was by no means uncontroversial in the almost moralistic debate about contemporary art at the time, in which supporters and opponents of abstract art fought bitterly, especially in Germany. Haftmann substantiated his thesis in two subsections: “The Masters of 20th Century Art” (here exclusively Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian) and “Pioneers of 20th Century Sculpture” (Julio González Henri Laurens, Henri Matisse and others). Although a number of figurative tendencies were shown at documenta 2 (in painting, for example, with Francis Bacon, Werner Heldt, Rudolf Hausner), Werner Haftmann’s concept postulated the thesis of a continuity in the development of 20th century art towards abstraction – a thesis that could not be upheld in view of the diverse manifestations in 20th century art.

Realist tendencies were almost completely ignored at documenta 2 – at the height of the Cold War, this was also a clear political statement. The Fridericianum was dominated by the abstract trends of Art Informel and Tachisme. The arrival (there was even talk of an “invasion”) of abstract positions from the USA was particularly spectacular, with formats that were sometimes gigantic by European standards – such as Jackson Pollock, who had his own room alongside Nicolas de Staël, Willi Baumeister and Wols. In addition to the Fridericianum, the ruins of the baroque Orangerie at the entrance to the Karlsaue, which was also bombed during the Second World War, were added as a second exhibition venue; in contrast to the paintings shown in the Fridericianum, figurative positions predominated here. The sculptures by Henry Moore, Henri Laurens, Jacques Lipchitz, Norbert Kricke and others were mostly placed on pedestals in front of a whitewashed wall; the expanse of the Karlswiese and the park would only be conquered by the sculptures in later documenta exhibitions. Bode’s sense of grand staging came to the fore here in particular: a sculpture boulevard was erected in front of the ruins of the Orangerie in a labyrinthine exhibition architecture, which was spectacularly illuminated at night. Symbolically charged, Ossip Zadkine’s bronze sculpture The Destroyed City (1951-53) stretched its arms accusingly towards the sky. During the day, visitors could relax in organically curved deckchairs under awnings and watch the water games in a fountain basin specially created for Picasso’s sculpture group The Bathers (1956). In addition to the “Painting and Sculpture Committee” (Arnold Bode, Herbert Freiherr v. Buttlar, Ernest Goldschmidt, Will Grohmann, Werner Haftmann, Ernst Holzinger, Kurt Martin, Werner Schmalenbach, Eduard Trier, Heinrich Stünke; for the American artists: Porter A. McCray from the Museum of Modern Art, New York), there was also a committee for prints (Bode, Schmalenbach, Stünke), which were presented in a separate exhibition in Bellevue Palace.

A total of 1770 exhibits by 321 artists and 18 female artists, mainly from Europe and the USA, were shown. With 134,000 visitors, documenta 2 attracted even more interested visitors than its predecessor (the continuous increase in visitors was to continue until the last, 13th edition in 2012), but the public reaction was no longer as unbrokenly positive as in 1955, but strongly polarized between enthusiastic approval and rejection - corresponding to the camps of supporters and opponents of abstract art.