Literature for the Eye

Extended to 18th August 2019

HANS MAGNUS ENZENSBERGER
GÜNTER GRASS
HERMANN HESSE

The exhibition Literature for the Eyepresents threewell-known writers in an unusual guise. It focusesnot on the internationally acknowledged literarywork of Hans Magnus Enzensberger, GünterGrass and Hermann Hesse, but on their less familiar activity as visual artists. The authors’ approaches to their artistic workdiffer strongly. Hans Magnus Enzensberger’smachines involving written and spoken wordsform a kind of playful digression generating whathe calls “linguistic dances”. Günter Grass, whostarted by studying art, attached equal importance to his literary and artistic activities, combining both in many works throughout his career. Hermann Hesse came to painting by way of a personal crisis and, although he regarded himself asnothing more than a “dilettante” in the field,noted in retrospect in 1924 that “I would not havegot as far as I did as a writer without painting”.That statement might stand as a general mottofor all three authors’ engagement with the visualarts, which revolved principally around a fruitfulinteraction between the two artistic disciplines.

 Exhibition folder (German / English)

© 2018 by the artist Hans Magnus Enzenberger; by Günter Grass: Steidl Verlag, Göttingen; by Hermann Hesse: Hermann Hesse Editionsarchiv, Volker Michels, Offenbach am Main