Eggert Gustavs Museum

Description

The Eggert Gustavs Museum opened in 2019 in the Old Smithy in Kloster on the island of Hiddensee. After careful renovation and expansion with an archive annex in 2022, the Eggert Gustavs Society (e.V.) was awarded the Friedrich Lisch Monument Prize 2023 of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The private museum presents original works by the artist in a wide range of techniques (watercolor, linocut and woodcut, brush and reed-pen drawings, oil, pastel, pencil, glass printing), figurative wood carvings, printing plates, photographic and film recordings, as well as an exhibition on the history of the listed smithy building. The preserved tools, the forge and the transmission drill press bear witness to the long artisan tradition of blacksmithing on the island of Hiddensee. Eggert Gustavs — son of the island pastor and ancient Near Eastern scholar Lic. Arnold Gustavs — was born in the parsonage on Hiddensee. Even at a young age he was drawn to Hamburg to the State Art School and to the Bauhaus in Berlin. From 1934 he then followed his own path — as a self-taught and freelance artist. In his impressive watercolors and masterful woodcuts Gustavs limited himself to the essentials. Also in portraiture and caricature he realized his aim of capturing the typical with spare artistic means. He was fascinated, as he put it, by the “face of the landscape” and the “landscape of the face.” On the occasion of the artist’s 100th birthday, the Eggert Gustavs Society (e.V.) was founded in 2009 and his life’s work was honored with the publication of the book “Eggert Gustavs – Life and Work of a Hiddensee Artist.” The museums in Neuruppin and on Hiddensee showed extensive exhibitions, as did the Royal Art Circle in Barcelona in 2010. The renovation and expansion of the Old Smithy, the construction of the functional annex, the solar roof, the terrace, the air-conditioning, the scanner and the kitchenette were funded with public funds: https://www.eggert-gustavs.de/