Müde Helden Ferdinand Hodler, Aleksandr Dejneka, Neo Rauch

Müde Helden deals with the utopian ideal of the 'Neue Mensch' ('new man') and its history in the 20th century. It starts with the proclamation of the 'new man' at the beginning of the 20th century, leads on to the political appropriation of the ideal in the vision of a socialist order, and ultimately draws to a close with the abandonment of all idealism after the end of Communist rule in the East Bloc in the late 1980s. The art of the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler is deeply rooted in the ideals of the 'life reform' movement. The discourses of a 'new man' that featured so prominently, and with great pathos, in the Lebensreform movement naturally found their way into his paintings. Despite their monumental appearance, his large-scale renditions of both female and male figures are marked by a measure of decoration and affectation. 0Exhibition: Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (17.2.-13.5.2012).0.