Deutsches Haus at NYU presents “Open Letters: Die Weisse Rose & Liberty under Attack,” an exhibition by the painter Regina Baumhauer. Please join us for the exhibition opening and book presentation on January 11, at 6:30 p.m. Opening remarks will be delivered by Carol Kahn Strauss, former executive director of the Leo Baeck Institute New York, Berlin.Deutsches Haus at NYU will also present an artist talk with Regina Baumhauer and presentations by guest speakers from Europe and the U.S. on February 2, at 6:30 p.m. More detailed information about this event will be announced shortly.
Taking center stage in the art of Regina Baumhauer, a New Yorker born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, is the existential human being, in our endangered and fragile state. Regina Baumhauer's work is determined by cycles, in which abstract visual language is mixed with figurative and narrative elements. In her recent work, a series of portraits originating from Regina Baumhauer’s engagement with the German resistance group "The White Rose" (Die Weisse Rose), the artist commemorates and honors people, who were affiliated with this group: Sophie and Hans Scholl, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, Gerhard Feuerle, and Kurt Huber—young university students and their professor, who demonstrated great strength and courage in fighting for liberty and dignity in the darkest of times in Germany in 1942–43. The liberty they fought and died for and that we enjoy today cannot be taken for granted, as liberty is fragile and needs to be defended every single day. In this context, and representative of the many men and women who continue to stand up for our liberty all over the world, Regina Baumhauer’s newest work, “Open Letter Series: Feuerle im Zauberwald ,” pays homage to the acclaimed and provocative Russian theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov, whose work on a new production of "Hänsel and Gretel" at the opera house in Stuttgart, Germany, was cut short earlier in 2017 when he was arrested and put under house arrest in Russia in August.
Regina Baumhauer was born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. Following a scholarship year at Boston University (1986–87), Regina Baumhauer graduated from The Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart (1988) where she was granted The Aufbaustudium for Painting (1988–90). Regina Baumhauer completed 12 permanent installations for art in architecture and building projects in Germany, has received international grants and awards, such as the Innovationsfonds Baden-Württemberg, the Dietenberger Mahringer Stiftung, Kunst für Brüssel Prize, and the Patricia Highsmith-Plangman Residency. Her works are included in many prestigious public and corporate collections. Four of her publications are dedicated to the “Open Letter Series": Open Letters, 2006 (Edition SüdWest), Open Letter, 2012 (exhibition catalogue), Little Miss Liberty Crossing the Delaware, 2016 (Museum im Prediger, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany), and Die Weisse Rose—IN MEMORIAM PRESENTE, 1942/43–2017/18, 2017 (exhibition catalogue). Regina Baumhauer has made a name for herself with exhibits in museums and galleries in Germany and the United States since the mid-1980s.
Regina Baumhauer's work is included in selected public and corporate collections:
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, gift of Sarah-Ann and Werner H. Kramarsky (USA)
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung/permanent collection of the museum (Germany)
Kunstsammlungen der Städte/permanent collections of the city of Aalen, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Sindelfingen (Germany)
Landesgirokasse/BW-Bank, Stuttgart (Germany)
Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst Baden-Württemberg (Germany)
Museum Ulm (Germany)
Neue Kinderklinik, Universität Tübingen (Germany)
BLB-Bank, New York (USA)
Diözesanmuseum, Rottenburg (Germany)
Museum im Prediger, Schwäbisch Gmünd (Germany)
