116 - SUSANNE KANDT-HORN

SUSANNE KANDT-HORN (1914 Eisenach – 1996 Ückeritz) Young Family, 1978 Oil and latex on hardboard. 103 x 113 cm. Framed. Signed and dated “Jan.-Feb. 78” in the lower left corner. Inscribed, signed, titled, and dated on the reverse. A chip in the lower left corner (approx. 4 cm). Provenance: Falk Horn (the artist’s son); Private collection, Hesse Susanne Kandt-Horn was part of the independent circle of Usedom painters centered around Otto Niemeyer-Holstein and Otto Manigk. In 1979, she received the GDR National Prize for her contribution to shaping the portrayal of humanity in painting. Themes such as motherhood, family, and the female experience receive special attention in her work—often far removed from the official visual language of Socialist Realism, instead employing an idiosyncratic, almost archaic-monumental formal language. In “Young Family,” she condenses the three figures into an almost inseparable tangle of bodies: mother, father, and child are so tightly intertwined that the boundaries of their individual bodies are barely discernible. This compositional closeness symbolizes security and family cohesion, yet at the same time existential vulnerability—the adults’ nudity and the infant’s defenselessness transform the image into a reflection on the fragile intimacy of familial bonds. The intense red hue at the bottom of the painting acts as a pulsating foundation, while the dark green background creates a nocturnal, ethereal atmosphere. Thus, the everyday scene of a young family becomes an almost sacred, Madonna-like depiction of human closeness.