In the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz: Cornelia Gurlitt (1890-1920) and Anton Kolig (1886-1950) – two expressionist soul mates

29 years. Her life, which she herself ended, was short and overshadowed by an unhappy love and the First World War: the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz is dedicating itself to the expressionist graphic artist Cornelia Gurlitt (1890-1919) and thus the cousin of its founder Wolfgang Gurlitt for the 20th anniversary Anniversary. With which director Hemma Schmutz continues the series of (still) unknown artists. The daughter of art historian Cornelius Gurlitt and sister of Hildebrand Gurlitt – “Hitler’s art dealer” – shared a soul mate with the expressionist painter Anton Kolig (1886-1950). The exhibition “Cornelia Gurlitt & Wolfgang Kolig”, which opened yesterday, shows their life and work, attractively curated by Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller and Hubert Portz from Kunsthaus Désirée, Hochstadt/Pfalz. Two rooms in the basement invite you to meet two people whose work is just as touching as their fate.

At the front and in the hospital

At the age of 23, Cornelia Gurlitt met the four years older, married father Anton Kolig in Dresden. From then on, both share a deep friendship. And their war experiences: He fought on the Italian front in 1917 and in Silesia. She serves as a hospital nurse on the Eastern Front in Wilna (Vilnius). Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller: “Both had to sacrifice their lives and careers to the war.” Oppressively, the show contrasts Anton Kolig’s portraits of war-weary soldiers with rigid expressions with Cornelia Gurlitt’s hospital scenes, one of which is particularly captivating. For curator Hubert Portz, she shows “the state of her love”. The 23-year-old met and fell in love with the German writer and art critic Paul Fechter in Vilnius in 1916. She held a piece of paper with his name in her hands when she committed suicide. Anton Kolig’s “Lamentation” about the death of his soul mate is one of his most important large-format works: “Cornelia” is inscribed on a band next to which a naked youth is looking up at the sky: an allusion to the homoerotic tendencies of the father of five. Is it a blue sky that his “woman with a fan” is looking at? They are touching works of two destinies in a complex show, which is worth visiting.

“Cornelia Gurlitt & Anton Kolig”: Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, until 13. 8.; Curator tour and lecture with Anton Kolig expert Otmar Rychlik: June 1st, 6pm; Registration: 0732 7070 3614, lentos.at