To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Schwaan Art Museum is staging an exhibition on the work and influence of Otto Bartels in 2024.
Otto Bartels (Schwaan 04.12.1874 - 1958 Rostock)
was born in Schwaan in 1874. Rudolf Bartels' brother learned wood sculpting in Rostock and later worked with his brother Carl on various stucco projects using plaster and mortar, including the Bavarian State Parliament in Munich and the Imperial Court in Leipzig. After the First World War, he attended the Hanover School of Arts and Crafts and the now Weimar State Academy of Fine Arts, majoring in portrait painting. Based in Rostock from 1917, he died in 1958.
The exhibition at the Schwaan Art Museum shows around 30 works, including well-known paintings, but also works that have never been shown before and which came to the public's attention last year following an appeal by the museum. These hidden treasures, which were previously privately owned, can now be admired by the public for the first time.
Another highlight of the exhibition is the world premiere of a musical composition by the artist himself. This unique work will be performed for the first time in close collaboration with the Rostock University of Music and Drama.
