The name Arnold Bode (1900–1977) is inseparably linked with documenta, which as the "Museum of 100 Days" has a firm place in the international art scene. As its initiator, curator, networker, restless promoter and unconventional designer, he laid the foundation of this exhibition event in 1955. Concurrent with documenta fifteen, the retrospective "Arnold Bode Unframed" is devoted for the first time to his painterly and graphic oeuvre and thus to a little-known side of the documenta founder.

Bode drew and painted throughout his life, reflecting current artistic developments from Expressionism and New Objectivity to postwar abstraction. His artistic path is marked by numerous participations in exhibitions and memberships in artist groups as well as his teaching at the Werkakademie Kassel, which he co-founded after the war.

Supplemented by archival material, the Bode show at the Neue Galerie presents more than 80 works spanning six decades, from his student days at the Kassel Art Academy in the 1920s to his extensive late work. It offers insights into an oeuvre that is as rich as it is varied. It is time to rediscover his works!

The exhibition is a co-operation project of the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, the documenta archiv, Galerie Rasch and the Kunsthochschule Kassel.

Arnold Bode Unframed. The Painting and Graphic Work of the documenta Founder
June 3 - October 9 2022; Neue Galerie, Kassel