"Figure paintings", Rubin Hirschbeck, Stadttheater Fürth, Fürth, Bavaria, 25.01. - 18.03.2009

[Rubin Hirschbeck]

Fürther Nachrichten, 28.01.2009, MATTHIAS BOLL

Artistic Director Müller has artwork removed

Three paintings by Rubin Hirschbeck were only allowed to hang until the end of the exhibition opening on Sunday

Under pressure from director Werner Müller, the Nuremberg artist Rubin Hirschbeck had to remove immediately after the opening on Sunday three nudes "figure paintings" from his exhibition in the Stadttheater. Hirschbeck called this a scandal, Müller refers to his house right.

The title of the painting speaks volumes. "What lays ahead of us, lays behind us", was on view until Sunday at noon in the foyer of the Stadttheater. Then art curator John Hammond and a staff member took them down. Two other works also went back to the depot by Rubin Hirschbeck who was also born in Fürth.

All three works show without exception naked people. A skinny woman wearing a red headscarf rides on the back of an older man, in front of the couple another man is creeping on the floor, in the right hand corner the viewer discovers the nude torso of a woman. "Three women on three legs" shows a bare brested woman reclyning, one woman from the front and another from behind. "The old men" shows two elderly men boxing, a woman passes by, tapping her forehead.

Hirschbeck (40) was master student at the Nuremberg Academy. He says: "I have never experienced anything like this before." During the hanging of the pictures at the end of last week Hammond reported to him that a theater-goer complained about the three paintings, there upon host and theatre director Werner Müller arranged, to have the pictures removed "immediately". After all, a compromise was made. The pictures would be on the wall at the exhibition opening on Sunday, but not after that.

"A very strange process" commented Hirschbeck. "I had a strong desire to quit, but the invitations were already printed and preparations in full swing. Incidentally, I have a contract with Art-Agency Hammond, not with Müller." Hirschbeck, whose nudes enjoy high recognition in local art circles, specifically exempted Hammond from his criticism. "During all that time he behaved fairly and correct." Hammond could do nothing against Müller’s decision. Hirschbeck already had to remove two other paintings from his nude-cycle before the exhibition opened.

"I am surprised about the allegations of censorship," Werner Müller replied on request of the FN. "Hirschbeck must know that I’m the one who has the overall responsibility of the art exhibitions at the Stadttheater." The disputed works of art, the theater director says "had no form of pornographic or sexually misguided representation. I just think that the quantity of work was not what I had asked for." Apparently this is supposed to mean: we are not prudish, but so much nudity was not planned.
 

Werner Müller did not want to confirm that the incident with the supposedly outraged theater-goer took place during the children’s ballet "The Emperor's New Clothes" running last weekend. It was himself who asked Hammond, after looking through the catalog from Hirschbeck for sensitivity and to exchange the three pictures. The fact that now a wall in the theater foyer up until the closing event on March 18 will stay empty was not his intention. Hirschbeck could have hung alternative paintings there, but did not do so.

"Embarrassing provincial farce"

you can now read in internet forums about "art censorship" and "embarrassing provincial farce". Hirschbeck – whose style of painting is ironic, caustic, cryptic and sometimes dramatic - is not known to be an expert in innocent Tuscan Still Life. A fact known early on by the theatre director. "I accepted Hammond's proposal, to include Hirschbeck in our list of art exhibitions with pleasure, because I was very touched by his paintings." However, he clarifies: "The final decision what will be exhibited is mine." At the opening reception on Sunday, Müller was not present, the highest-ranking representative of the Stadttheater was head of administration Thomas Reher.

Hirschbeck about his art: "The task in my pictures is to communicate. I do not want to provoke, I paint what interests me." From those pictures, reflecting his interest in naked human bodies the exhibition in Fürth shows still a lot - but not everything anymore.