They called for “honest nihilism”, positioned themselves “against a good conscience, a fat belly and harmony” and proclaimed the “cultural putsch”. The members of the artists’ group “Spur”, which was founded in Munich in 1957, were not only avant-garde painters and sculptors who fueled an artistic spirit of optimism in post-war Germany, but also ironic, provocative and witty in their socio-political statements. “The world can only be cleared by us. We are the painters of the future,” said one of their manifestos.
Two protagonists of the wild avant-garde movement Spur lived and worked for a long time in the idyllic Isar valley. Helmut Sturm and Lothar Fischer, who were among the founding members alongside HP Zimmer and Heimrad Prem in 1957, lived in Pullach and Baierbrunn respectively for several decades. Next Monday, the Pullach History Forum is showing a documentary about the group, which was also part of the Situationist International (left-wing European artists and intellectuals) and was involved in a spectacular blasphemy trial alongside other media scandals. The film “We are the painters of the future. The artist group Spur” from 2019 is a portrait with original films, documents, contemporary witnesses and curators, directed by Sabine Zimmer.
It was shown for the first time at the 2019 Munich Documentary Film Festival in the Lenbachhaus, and Angelika Bahl-Benker, Chairwoman of the History Forum, also saw it there. “Some other people from Pullach were there too and we said: We could show him in Pullach,” says Bahl-Benker. The screening has been postponed several times since then because of Corona, but the date is now set. “It’s unfavorable, on the Monday right after the Whitsun holidays, but the community center is often fully booked and we hope that some people will come anyway.” This is also a particular concern for Bahl-Benker because she thinks that the storm is largely forgotten. “Such a well-known artist, but he doesn’t really play a role in Pullach,” she complains.
Sturm was in fact one of the most important representatives of abstract-expressive painting after 1945 and an actor with the brush, who was as exploding in form as he was powerful in colour. He died in Pullach in 2008, where he also taught at what is now the Pater-Rupert-Mayer-Gymnasium. Lothar Fischer is considered one of the most important German sculptors after the war. He died in Baierbrunn in 2004, where his widow Christel Fischer still lives in a listed building. She wants to come to the film screening on Monday, and Helmut Sturm’s daughter Katharina Sturm has also been announced. “They are two of the protagonists in the film,” explains Bahl-Benker.
The sculpture “Big base pair” by Lothar Fischer at the publishing house Wort und Bild in Baierbrunn.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
The social scientist with a penchant for art hopes to be able to initiate something with the film and to raise awareness of Sturm, who would have been 90 this year, in the Isar Valley community. Lothar Fischer’s artistic heritage is more present in neighboring Baierbrunn simply because one of his works “Big base pair” is in the sculpture garden of the Wort & Bild publishing house.
The History Forum Pullach presents the film “We are the painters of the future. The artist group Spur” on Monday, June 20, in the Pullach community center. Starts at 7 p.m., admission is free. The Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts is showing the exhibition “Helmut Sturm. Playing Fields of Reality” until June 29th. The occasion is the 90th birthday of the painter.