Aspects of Intermediality
Art exhibition and literary workshop in commemoration of the bicentenary of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s death on 25 June 1822.
Organisers: Dr. Sheila Dickson (University of Glasgow) and Prof. Ricarda Schmidt (University of Exeter, emerita)
In his literary work, E.T.A. Hoffmann engaged intensively with artistic questions, repeatedly referring to historical artists and musicians as well as creating fictional artists in all artistic fields and at all levels of success between failure and genius. Hoffmann's response to the work of the Lorraine copper engraver Jacques Callot is probably one of the most intensely researched aspects of his work (see, among others, Schaukal, Prawer, Tunner, Bomhoff, Dieterle, Olaf Schmidt, Ricarda Schmidt, Corda). But Hoffmann also referred to painters as diverse as Rubens, Rembrandt, Breughel, Mieris, Raphael, Salvator Rosa, Hummel, Kolbe, as well as various other contemporaries and art forms (such as the phantasmagoria). The workshop aims to identify what interested Hoffmann in each of these different painters and graphic artists, what tensions and contradictions there are between these intermedial reference points, and how these contrasts can be made fruitful for an interpretation of his literary work.
At the same time, Hoffmann's work had an inspirational effect on musicians and artists. Here we will also concentrate on the visual aspect of intermediality, namely on the portraits of Hoffmann in painting and graphics, as well as the visual representation of individual motifs from Hoffmann's work or the illustration of certain works. The spectrum of artists who responded to Hoffmann ranges from Adolph von Menzel, Hugo Steiner-Prag, Alfred Kubin, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, Karl Georg Hemmerich, Horst Janssen, Michael Mathias Prechtl to Stephan Klenner-Otto. Almost half a century has passed since Elke Riemer's seminal research on E.T.A. Hoffmann and his illustrators. We propose to examine in particular the works of art created in the last 50 years that have been inspired by Hoffmann as a person or by his work, and to reflect on the changing perspectives on Hoffmann.
In our exhibition we want to make the international and intermedial dialogue with Hoffmann's work that began in the workshop accessible to a wide audience and to open up a new angle of approach, namely a German-British exchange on Hoffmann. The well-known German Hoffmann illustrator Stephan Klenner-Otto will exhibit his works. Scottish Comic artist Frank Quitely will display his Comic illustrations for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Endless Nights (2003). We have also invited the English portrait painter Steven Bramble and the Scottish graphic artist Kathryn Pender to create works inspired by Hoffmann for this exhibition. They can perhaps provide the impetus for a new intermedial academic discussion.
Programme of Workshop
on Art in Hoffmann -- Hoffmann in Art
Friday 24th June 2022
9.00 Registration
9.30 Welcome
Section 1: Art in Hoffmann
9.40 Ricarda Schmidt (Exeter): „Von Callot bis Kolbe. Zur Heterogenität von Hoffmanns ästhetischen Bezugspunkten in der visuellen Kunst“
10.10 Frederike Middelhoff (Frankfurt/Main): "Still Lives and Living Stills: Hoffmann and the Art of Place"
10.40 Discussion
11.00 Tea/Coffee Break
Section 2: Art in Hoffmann
11.15 Polly Dickson (Durham): “Hoffmann and the Art of ‘Doodling’”
11.45 Laura Vordermayer (Saarbrücken): „Karikatur als Kunstgenre und Darstellungstechnik: Hoffmanns zeichnerische und literarische Karikaturen (am Beispiel von ‚Das Steinerne Herz‘ und ‚Die Brautwahl‘)“
12.15 Christian Quintes (Saarbrücken/Trier): „‘Jüngling, aus dir hätte viel werden können.‘
Künstlerische Idealtypen in Hoffmanns Werk und ihr Verhältnis zu den zeitgenössischen Ästhetiktheorien“
12.45 Discussion
13.15 Lunch Break
Section 3: Hoffmann in Art
14.30 Monika Schmitz-Emans (Bochum): „Comic-Inszenierungen zu Hoffmanns Sandmann“ (via Podcast and Zoom)
15.00 Joanna Neilly (Oxford): “Staging
The Nutcracker, Hoffmann Style: Maurice Sendak and Matthew Bourne”
15.30 Discussion
15.50 Tea/Coffee Break
Section 4: Hoffmann in Art
16.10 Laurence (Billy) Grove (Glasgow) and Frank Quitely (independent artist): “Frank Quitely and the shifting Sandman influences: A discussion”
16.40 Sheila Dickson (Glasgow): „Stephan Klenner-Otto's Hoffmann-Illustrationen“
17.10 Concluding Discussion
18.00-20.00
Opening of the exhibition, in the presence of the artists:
Steven Bramble (Exeter)
Stephan Klenner-Otto (Upper Franconia, Germany)
Kathryn Pender (Glasgow)
Frank Quitely (Glasgow)
The exhibition will be shown for one month:
25 June - 23 July 2022
Goethe-Institut Glasgow
3 Park Circus
Glasgow G3 6AX
Mon-Thu: 9:30 am - 6 pm
Fri: 9:30 am - 3 pm
Free Entry
All members of the public are welcome to attend the workshop which is free of charge. All participants are requested to make their own lunch arrangements. For any enquiries regarding the workshop, please email
sheila.dickson@glasgow.ac.uk.
Tea and coffee will be provided courtesy of the Goethe-Institut.
The workshop and exhibition are a part of the cultural programme
etah2022.de and are supported by the Goethe-Institut Glasgow, University of Glasgow, and University of Exeter.
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