39th Greifswald Speech and public evening lecture as part of the lecture series "Talking about Friedrich" in the Caspar David Friedrich anniversary year 2024
by Professor Dr. Werner Busch (Berlin)
Did research, trade and publishers benefit? What image of Friedrich now prevails in the public eye? The major exhibitions in Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, which will be followed by an exhibition in New York and a series of smaller ones in Winterthur, Schweinfurt and Greifswald, have made Friedrich omnipresent, especially as hundreds of accompanying events have reminded us of Friedrich on an almost daily basis. Is this a single success story or rather an obfuscation of what Friedrich is at his core? An attempt to characterize this core will be made at the end.
Werner Busch studied art history in Tübingen, Freiburg, Vienna and London. He completed his doctorate on William Hogarth and habilitated in Bonn with a thesis on the German 19th century. This was followed by a professorship in Bochum, then from 1988-2010 he held the Chair of Art History at the FU Berlin. Between 1983-85 he was head of the Funkkolleg Kunst and between 2003 and 2005 of the Collaborative Research Center 626 "Ästhetische Erfahrung im Zeichen der Entgrenzung der Künste". His publications include Adolph Menzel 2015; Füßlis Nachtmahr (with Petra Maisak) 2017; Goya 2018; Die Künstleranekdote 1760-1960, 2020; Caspar David Friedrich 2021; Romantisches Kalkül 2023.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Thomas Klinger
