Arts Archives

The written estate of Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943) came to the Staatsgalerie in 1974 from family ownership. The collection is continuously enriched by further donations and acquisitions. In addition to diaries, calendars and notebooks, it contains a source collection of approximately 2.700 writings and correspondence, some of which are handwritten and some typewritten. The archival materials mainly cover the period from 1899 to 1943 and document Schlemmer's career and world of thought.

The art critic Will Grohmann (1887-1968) was a networker for the art and cultural scene in the 20th century and, because of his international contacts, occupies an important position in the context of the cultural politics of the time. His estate contains extensive correspondence which, on the one hand, contains statements by artists about their work and, on the other, sheds light in detail on relationships in the field of tension between artists as well as art patrons and art critics of those years. The Grohmann estate, acquired in 1970, is one of the founding holdings of the archives.

In the borderless realm of music, poetry and happening, the Sohm Archive is considered one of the central work complexes of the international Fluxus movement. Alongside Viennese Actionism, Beat & Underground, Concrete Poetry and anti-art positions, the focus is on the early 1960s to late 1970s. With interest and a pioneering spirit, the dentist and 'archivist' Hanns Sohm (1921-1999) collected works from international contexts. The collection, acquired by the Staatsgalerie in 1981, has been continuously expanded since then.

The work of the painter and art theorist Adolf Hölzel (1853-1934) is of central importance for the development of modernism in Germany. Among his many students at the Stuttgart Art Academy were the later Bauhaus masters Johannes Itten and Oskar Schlemmer. The estate, acquired in 1996, comprises 1,875 archive items, including writings, notebooks and correspondence.