Satellite exhibition

The Social Network. The guest books of the art collector Franz Moufang

From 28 July to 22 October 2023, a small exhibition dedicated to the Heidelberg art collector Franz Moufang (1893–1984) will be on display in the fireplace room of the Mark Twain Centre. This is one of three smaller satellite exhibitions organised in conjunction with the exhibition ‘The Social Network. The Guest Books of Art Collector Franz Moufang’ (10 June to 6 August 2023). In addition to the Mark Twain Centre, these include exhibitions at the University Museum (30 June to 31 December 2023) and the University Archives (19 September to 31 December 2023). Mehr dazu

The satellite exhibitions are intended to further explore the phenomenon of the network, which is the focus of the Kunstverein exhibition: just as Moufang linked institutions through his activities and interests, they are now linked through the exhibitions dedicated to him, which are spread across the urban landscape.

The exhibition at the Mark Twain Centre focuses on Franz Moufang’s connections with the USA. As head of the City of Heidelberg’s Cultural Affairs Department, he was in contact with the directors of several ‘Amerika-Häuser’ established in Germany by the USA between 1945 and 1951 as part of his wide-ranging cultural policy activities. Together with the ‘Amerika-Haus’ in Heidelberg (now the DAI), he organised exhibitions of works by contemporary artists from Heidelberg. As is evident from his guest books, exhibited at both the Kunstverein and the Mark Twain Centre, Moufang’s professional and private lives were frequently intertwined. He was personally acquainted with, if not actually friends with, many of the artists featured at the Amerika-Haus in Heidelberg. This also applies to figures living outside Heidelberg and Germany, such as the Expressionist painter Josef Scharl (1896–1954), who fled to America in 1938 to escape the Nazis and whose works Moufang regularly purchased from 1947 onwards. As the famous physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955) had taken Josef Scharl under his wing following his arrival in the USA and had become friends with him, a brief correspondence also developed between him and Moufang after the painter’s death in 1954.

From 28 July to 22 October 2023
Open Wednesday to Sunday, 1 pm to 6 pm
Free admission.