Arnold Bode (23 December 1900 – 3 October 1977) was a German architect, painter, designer and curator. Arnold was born in Kassel, Germany. From 1928 to 1933, he worked as a painter and university lecturer in Berlin. However, when the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s came to power they banned him from his profession. He returned to his home town of Kassel following the war. Bode organized the first '' documenta'' exhibition in Kassel in 1955. This featured a broad overview of 20th-century art using large spaces in an innovative way. It was an unprecedented success.

Frieze Magazine ''frieze'' is a contemporary art magazine, published eight times a year from London. History ''frieze'' was founded in 1991 by Frieze Art Fair founders Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover with artist Tom Gidley. A Damien Hirst butterfly painting ...

claims: 'documenta’s singularity becomes clear in comparison with the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, which began in 1895 and inspired the Bienal de São Paulo in 1951 before spawning endless copies across the globe in the 1990s. After the first national pavilion was built in 1907 by Belgium in the Giardini, the Biennale became a battleground between countries, their artists and their pavilions: an Olympics of art. By contrast, documenta’s internationalism remains rooted in the failures of nationalism: the defeat and material hardship wrought by National Socialism and the repressed shame surrounding the Holocaust.' Bode organized three more ''documenta'' exhibitions, finishing with ''documenta 4''. Others have since continued to produce regular ''documenta'' exhibitions in Kassel. Bode received the German Federal Cross of Merit in 1974. Bode's daughter is Renee Nele.

References

Arnold Bode
''documenta'' archives German art curators Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters 1900 births 1977 deaths Architects from Kassel Artists from Kassel {{Germany-artist-stub

See also

References