This in-conversation is programmed alongside our current exhibition Egon Altdorf. It will focus on the fascinating narrative of Altdorf’s son Dorian Crone’s rediscovery of a significant amount of his father’s oeuvre and archive, as well as Altdorf’s history of architectural collaborations.
Following his father’s death in 2008, Crone discovered a large amount of material was located in the collection of an art dealer formerly based in Wiesbaden, Germany, where the artist spent the majority of his later life. Upon learning of its neglected state, Crone purchased the work in an effort to bring Altdorf’s legacy together.
As well as making sculpture, woodcuts and works on paper and writing poetry, Altdorf frequently collaborated on architectural projects. Between 1966 and 1983 he designed furnishings and glass for the interior of a new synagogue in Wiesbaden’s Friedrichstrasse, a building considered to be one of the finest post-war examples of synagogue architecture in Germany.
Other commissions include glass for a cemetery chapel in Wambach (1972), the painted interior and the exterior scheme for a sports hall in Saulheim (1973) and works innovatively combining sculpture and wall-painting.
A research project led by Dr Judith LeGrove has resulted in exhibitions in Wiesbaden and the UK, a book published in German and English (Into the Light: The Art of Egon Altdorf) and a forthcoming illustrated edition of Altdorf’s poetry (Egon Altdorf: Poems + Images).
