Albert Wigand was born in Ziegenhain, Hesse, in 1890 and died in Leipzig in 1978. He lived in Dresden for the longest part of his life, from 1925 to 1971; it was here that he created the majority of his oeuvre, and we can justifiably call him a Dresden artist who - although he exhibited and collected early on in Hesse - only came to public attention here late, in 1946. But then his standing was quickly recognised by experts: Fritz Löffler, Wolfgang Balzer, Werner Schmidt promoted him, the Kühl Gallery dealt with him; friendships with colleagues developed, Wigand had collectors and became a stimulus for younger artists - he was not really adequately recognised or even "famous" beyond the region. This was due to the fate of his generation, which is not called the "lost generation" for nothing, but it was also due to his nature and that of his art: Wigand's pictures are initially inconspicuous, quiet. They do not impose themselves, they expose themselves - and that is touching. At the same time, his later works have a modernity that made A.R. Penck say in 1970 (when Wigand was 80 years old!): "He's already doing what we first want."
Wigand's pictures have a silent presence in time; they are made, they are valid, they want nothing from us, they do not need us - and perhaps that is precisely why some of us need them.
With Dr Roland März (former curator of the Nationalgalerie Berlin, among other things curator of the exhibition "Art in the GDR") as co-curator and co-editor of the catalogue, we have gained a profound connoisseur of Albert Wigand's art.
Catalogue
A catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition.