Exhibitions between the Alps and Lake Garda: Nikodem, Weber-Tyrol and Their Peer Artists

Many say that life is a journey. Do you agree? One thing is for sure — encounters on the road (literally or not) can enrich our lives. Travelling provides us the opportunity not only to observe and absorb but also to express and share.

Many artworks honestly document how visiting and local artists fused their ideas and how they influenced each other. The relationship between Van Gogh and Gauguin first came to my mind, but there are also more harmonic and lasting ones. A series of exhibitions recently opened on both sides of the Brenner Pass and they highlight this exact type of mutual development. The exhibitions focus on the mobility of the artists in this region between WWI and WWII and they share the same title:

(In the Net of Modernity — Art Stances between the Alps and Lake Garda)

The curatorial concept was materialized across four locations over five months (May – September 2021). Two of the sites are the NIMU in Mutters and the Rabalderhaus Schwaz — both in North Tyrol — and the other two are in Eppan and Riva del Garda in the Trentino-South Tyrol region in Italy.

The core figures in these exhibitions are Artur Nikodem (1870 – 1940) and Hans Josef Weber-Tyrol (1874 – 1957). Both artists were professionally active in the region between the Lake Achen in Austria and the Lake Garda in Italy. They were in friendly contact with each other and mutual influences could be traced in their works. For the fellow artists in greater Tyrol and Trentino, both artists were also inspiring.

Artur Nikodem was very well travelled for a man of his time. He left his hometown, Trient, to study and research art in Munich, Milan, Florence and Paris. Serving in the navy around the Mediterranean, on the other hand, brought him as far as Egypt. Then he spent 14 years in Merano where he thrived with the local Artists’ Association before settling in Innsbruck. His later artistic interest, photography, helped him capture his experience in Bulgaria, Turkey and Tyrol.

I visited the “NIMU” (Nikodem Museum) in Mutters which was the nearest IM NETZ DER MODERNE exhibition site to me. Home to the Nikodem Archive, the museum was opened in 2010 by Nikodem’s great-grandson, Martin Krulis, whose photographic artworks were also nurtured by extensive international journeys.

The works shown in the NIMU were of small formats, which was a feature. Other artists included Herbert Gurschner, Waldemar Güttner, Gilbert Heidegger and Theodor Prachensky.

Throughout Artur Nikodem’s career, he digested Vienna Secession, Impressionism and Expressionism first-hand from his contemporaries.

After distillation, his (very) small paintings eventually became portals looking into abstract art.

As the exhibitions were to explore the relationships among these artists, the works were often displayed in pairs. What they had in common could be the subject of interest and/or their art techniques.

I also found familiar subjects in the exhibition such as the lovely chapel in Arzl and the Golden Roof in snowy Innsbruck. (If you enlarge the photo below by clicking on it, you might just see the Golden Roof.) In fact, in Arzl there is a street named after Nikodem (Nikodemweg).

The IM NETZ DER MODERNE exhibition in the NIMU was hosted on the ground floor. On the first floor, there were enlarged modern prints of Artur Nikodem’s photographs. The space itself was also amazing.

These are the details of the IM NETZ DER MODERNE exhibitions for you to continue your journey:

NIMU Mutters, Kirchplatz 12, Mutters 6162, +43 650 5129644
Rabalderhaus Schwaz, Winterstellergasse 9, Schwaz 6130
Both open from 8 May to 27 June 2021, Thursday to Sunday from 4 to 7 pm

Lanserhaus in Eppan an der Weinstraße, 14 May to 27 June 2021
MAG – Museo Alto Garda in Riva del Garda (in collaboration with the Mart Museum in Rovereto) 9 July to 19 September 2021