1493 - Karl Hubbuch (1891, Karlsruhe – 1979, ibid.)

Karl Hubbuch (1891, Karlsruhe – 1979, ibid.) Carnival Revelry An expressive, lively, densely packed scene featuring numerous figures in a carnival parade, with people in costumes, wearing makeup, and masks; in the center are two clowns being driven by an Indian chief on a motorcycle. Created in the 1950s, this work belongs to Hubbuch’s mature late period, and its motifs, style, and faces contorted into grimaces have drawn comparisons to Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Karl Hofer, and George Grosz. What they all have in common is that they rank among the most significant chroniclers of their time. During the Weimar Republic, Hubbuch was one of the most prominent representatives of a satirically oriented New Objectivity and Verism, critically engaging with society, politics, and the growing National Socialist movement. Hubbuch completed his training at the Art School in Karlsruhe and at the renowned educational institution of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin under Emil Orlik, in whose classes he made the formative acquaintance of Rudolf Schlichter and George Grosz. In 1924, Hubbuch began teaching at the State Art School (later the Academy) in Karlsruhe; in 1928, he became a professor and took over as head of a painting class. Having already participated in 1923 (alongside Hofer, Pechstein, and Schlichter) with prints at the “Great German Art Exhibition for Fine and Applied Arts” in Karlsruhe and in 1924 at the Academy’s fall exhibition in Berlin, he also took part in the epoch-making “New Objectivity” exhibition at the Mannheim Kunsthalle in 1925 (along with Scholz, Kanoldt, Dix, Grosz, and Schlichter). Due to his politically critical and artistic stance, Hubbuch was increasingly defamed and, in 1933, became the first professor at the State Art School to be dismissed by the Nazis. During the “Third Reich,” Hubbuch was later barred from practicing his profession and exhibiting his work; in 1937, his works were removed from public collections by the Nazis as part of the “Degenerate Art” campaign. From 1939 to 1945, he made ends meet by painting on ceramics at the State Majolica Manufactory. With the reopening of the State Academy of Fine Arts in 1947, Hubbuch regained his professorship, a position he held until 1957. Influenced by Beckmann, his late artistic work is characterized by Expressionism. His artistic career came to an end when he lost his sight in 1970. Oil on hardboard. Signed lower left with monogram; estate stamp on the reverse. 53 cm x 60 cm. Provenance: from the artist’s estate, later in the Hubbuch family’s possession. Oil on masonite. Signed with monogram. Estate stamp on the reverse.