Enthusiastic Pioneer
My mission: Bridging the gap created by the Third Reich. To acquaint the youth with the art of the last forty years and to introduce them to the work of the present in the field of painting, sculpture, graphic and applied arts.
This is how Hanna Bekker vom Rath formulated her goal in the leaflet of the Kollwitz Exhibition, 1947.
Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath
On May 11, 1947, the Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath opened at Kaiserstrasse 5 with an exhibition of Käthe Kollwitz. The unsaleable prints were on loan from the collector Helmut Goedeckemeyer.
Ten years later the foundress describes the beginning: Art in the midst of deprivation of the most commonplace, in the midst of hunger and need – art: a wake-up call! Between ruins and caves and holes, with the sky at one’s head, rain, snow and sun exposed, one groped one’s way up two dark stairs, with burnt-out steps and broken railings, and then suddenly found oneself in a roofed, orderly room whose atmosphere added to the contrast with the outside.
In January 1949, the gallery moved to the Börsenplatz. During the first ten years, the much larger rooms were regularly used for readings, concerts, dance and theater performances. During these years the concert grand piano was part of the inventory.
(with grand piano in the background)
Between 1913 and 1928 the famous Salon Ludwig Schames was located at Börsenstraße 2 in the very same building complex.
The foundress did not live to see the sale of the building and the move of the Kunstkabinett to Braubachstraße in 1993.
Until its closure at the end of 2016, the Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath operated in Frankfurt’s gallery district, the final location being Braubachstraße 12. Artist and exhibition archives as well as other holdings from the Frankfurt Art Cabinet are located at the Institut für Stadtgeschichte.
The gallery was taken over by Anja Döbritz-Berti, owner of the auction house Döbritz, and was reestablished in 2016 under the previous name. The Galerie Hanna Bekker vom Rath continues in the previous premises with a new business concept at Braubachstr.12.
Selected Publications on/by Frankfurter Kunstkabinett
Käthe Kollwitz – Druckgrafik. 1947 ausgewählt von Hanna Bekker vom Rath aus der Sammlung Helmut Goedeckemeyer. Katalog Stadtmuseum Hofheim 2006
50 Jahre Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath.
Eine Dokumentation bearbeitet von Marian Stein-Steinfeld, Frankfurt 1997
Vierzig Jahre Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath. Dokumentation 1947-1987; Jubiläumsausstellung Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Frankfurt 1987
20 Jahre Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik und Plastik des XX. Jahrhunderts; Ausstellungen seit 1957. 10. Katalog Frühjahr 1967
Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath 1947-1957. Zehn-Jahres-Ausstellung; Übersicht der bisherigen Ausstellungen, Vorträge und Veranstaltungen, Frankfurt 1957