FIDUS, eigentl. HUGO HÖPPENER_x001D_ Lübeck 1868 - 1948 Berlin-Wolterdorf

FIDUS, actually HUGO HÖPPENER_x001D_ Lübeck 1868 - 1948 Berlin-Wolterdorf "Im Tempel der Zwei-Einheit". Nocturnal scene with a group of people worshipping an apparition of light. Watercolor on wove paper, mounted on cardboard with watercolor framing 1914. J. Frecot, J. F. Geist and D. Kerbs, FIDUS 1868 - 1948. Zur ästhetischen Praxis bürgerlicher Fluchtbewegungen, Munich 1972, 5.1 (Bildnerische Tätigkeit) no. 1914 8 with full-page illus. 45 on p. 463 - Signed, dated "Januar 1914" and titled. Signed, dated "Jan. 1914", titled and inscribed "Tempelbild-Entwurf" verso on frame backing. On green-brownish card. 49 x 71 cm (overall image; including frame: 64.5 x 86 cm). Slightly browned. The idea of building a temple can be found early on in Fidu's work; they date from the time when he became a member of the German section of the Theosophical Society in Berlin in 1890 and show plans for temples for a new religion of nature and light, in which the people were to gather for worship. The founding of the St. Georgs-Bund with the associated publishing house in 1912 and the move to the residential and studio house (Fidushaus) designed by the artist in the Schönblick villa colony in Berlin-Wolterdorf encouraged the further development of this idea and Fidus gave numerous illustrated lectures on his temple art. In the present drawing, the temple is only visible in a few architectural elements that frame the central depiction. The naked figures populating the temple are clearly recognizable in their aestheticized depiction as followers of ritual nudism and, with their backs turned to the viewer, are striving towards a diffuse center surrounded by luminous elements, above which a wheel cross hangs from the ceiling of the temple as a symbol of the cycle of the year. The motif was published under no. 158 as a postcard by the St. Georgs-Bund (from 1927 Fidus-Verlag). In original frame. [bg]