THE Museum of Somerset, in Taunton, is appealing for support for the development of an exhibition about the art and life of Alexander Hollweg (1936-2020).
The retrospective, opening in November, will be the largest ever show of Hollweg’s art and will feature paintings and sculpture from across five decades.
The museum has been working with the Hollweg family and The Court Gallery for over two years to uncover artworks and stories about the artist.
Now they are asking people who knew Hollweg to come forward with their memories of him.
They also want to create a database of artworks in private collections and are inviting anyone with an artwork by Hollweg to get in touch.
Alexander Hollweg worked for many years from a studio at Nettlecombe, West Somerset, creating art that translates the ordinary and everyday into surprising, often humorous, reflections on modern life. Space and people were enduring themes.
“Landscape was my subject,” he once wrote. “Not the wilderness but the landscape made by man.
"Farm, factory, city, housing estate. The places where people live and work and play.”
Exhibitions and programme manager Sarah Cox said: “It was Nettlecombe that inspired Hollweg’s best-known work, his woodcut Country Dance.
"It was commissioned to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of John Constable in 1976 and is now part of the Tate Collection.
“In the following decades he worked on many major commissions, including the impressive London Life mural for the Charlotte Street Hotel in Soho.
"He never lost his sense of fun, curiosity and positivity, all of which visitors will discover in the exhibition.”
Hollweg exhibited internationally during his career, including through long relationships with galleries in New York and Italy, and achieved commercial and critical success.
He was also a gifted teacher of art.
The museum will be publishing an accompanying exhibition catalogue featuring an essay, previously unpublished writings by Hollweg and reflections from those who knew him.
To share your memories of Alexander Hollweg, or to provide information about artworks in private collections, contact sarah.cox@swheritage.org.uk
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