Art Dealer and Patron
There is nothing better than standing up for imperishable values.
Hanna Bekker vom Rath in a letter to Alexej Jawlensky, December 1940
Since the 1920s, Hanna Bekker vom Rath was engaged as a private agent for her artist friends. Through her intercession Ludwig Meidner and Ida Kerkovius received commissions from the Staatstheater Kassel during Paul Bekker’s directorship.
In 1929 she called for the founding of the Jawlensky Society, in which art lovers came together to support the painter.
During the Nazi era, she offered refuge to those under threat in her Blue House in Hofheim.
In 1934, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, she initiated the purchase of a painting by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff for the Kornprinzen-Palais.
Between 1940 and 1943, she held clandestine exhibitions of some artist friends who were banned from painting and exhibiting in her private Berlin studio apartment.
In 1947 she founded the Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath, where she promoted German and international artists of the 20th century until the 1970s.
Between 1952 and 1967 she undertook exhibition tours through three continents to represent German artists on the international art scene.