“I’ve been a juggler all my life, and I loved being one”.
Armin Müller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl, an impressive contemporary witness, an exceptional talent, a person who fills a room when he enters it. What a gift to have experienced him today in the midst of his works at the Kunsthalle St. Annen . En passant, a piece of cultural history comes alive for me today. Armin Mueller-Stahl has experienced many formative greats of the film business and literature, art and music, worked with them, cultivated friendships.
In the exhibition, which is open to the public from June 16, Mueller-Stahl’s paintings, drawings and prints will be juxtaposed with film sequences and scene photographs that make it clear that his acting and painting work always entered into a symbiosis and that his various artistic activities mutually influenced each other. The approximately 140 pictures shown in the exhibition were selected together with the artist.
From East to West
This creates an exciting arc. The thematic block “From East to West”, for example, takes up the confrontation with the formative experience of the former GDR regime and its effects on everyday life, which is central to Mueller-Stahl’s biography.
Goethe’s URFaust
Goethe’s “Urfaust” provided him with inspiration in 2003. These works show the depth of the artist’s exploration of existential questions and the individual’s search for meaning within a larger social and philosophical context.
Hollywood
In the room “Night on Earth – Day on Earth,” the individual works and picture cycles on display are often directly related to Mueller-Stahl’s work as a Hollywood actor. He still loves to stay in California to this day. He holds the American citizenship and lives in Pacific Palisades – Thomas Mann’s refuge during his years of exile.
However, Mueller-Stahl’s work has always been an exploration of contemporary issues such as culture, science, and politics. He is particularly moved by the situation of people who are forced to flee or migrate.
International understanding
The topic of international understanding is very close to his heart – at a time when a split in society is becoming noticeable and attacks on synagogues and Jewish institutions are becoming more frequent. For example, his most recent cycle of works, “Jewish Fates, Friends, and Companions,” created as recently as 2020, features portraits that are on public view for the first time in this form.
This part of the exhibition particularly impresses me personally.
Mueller-Stahl has portrayed 90 Jewish people including Billy Wilder, Franz Kafka, Paul Celan, Helene Weigel, Isaac Stern, Jurek Becker and Kurt Maetzig.
All the personalities portrayed by the artist, although some of them are not widely known, have in their own way left their mark on the world. Often there are close references to Lübeck as well. One example is the portrait of Eric M. Warburg, who, together with his cousin Carl Jacob Burckhardt, worked to ensure that Lübeck was spared further bombing after the attack in March 1942. Or the portrait of the Lübeck rabbi, teacher and author Salomon Carlebach, during whose tenure the completion of the Lübeck synagogue took place. I am very moved to discover this work directly opposite the window looking out on “his” synagogue. I could stay for hours in this part of the exhibition, listening to the artist’s incredibly detailed and pointedly told stories that he associates with the people portrayed…. A veritable fireworks display of names, dates and facts. “Oh yes, the Bernstein…” “Schönberg’s daughter-in-law Barbara always had Sachertorte and Schnitzel…” “Gershwin and Schönberg were connected by tennis…” Incidentally, the guests of the exhibition will also be able to enjoy this – indirectly – as Mueller-Stahl shares many memories in an accompanying film that will be shown in the exhibition.
Salomon Carlebach, progenitor of one of the most respected rabbinical families in Germany 
View to the Lübeck Synagogue
“Music underlies everything.”
Armin Mueller-Stahl
When asked which genre he likes best in his artistic work, he answers that for him music is clearly the basis of everything. An art form that can be developed most quickly and that always touches people, since everyone associates memories with music and, for example, still knows exactly which song was playing when they were in love for the first time.
So it is not a bit surprising to hear that he likes to play the violin or piano before his works and that many of his works were created while listening to suitable pieces of music. And also currently Mueller-Stahl listens to jazz while painting jazz greats. I hope that the works currently being created will also be shown soon and that this multi-talented artist will remain with us for a long time to come. In the meantime, I am pleased about the many associations that the visit to the exhibition has awakened in me. Until October 24, 2021, a real highlight of this summer awaits you.
P.S. Have you heard the interview with Armin Mueller-Stahl yet?
