Hans-Joachim Staude, Girl with a Guitar, oil on wood, 90 x 74 cm, 1929, detail

Hans-Joachim Staude (1904-1973) was born at Port-au-Prince (Haiti) of German parents. He was educated in Hamburg, where he curated his  rst major exhibition (on Munch) in 1918. He immediately entered into contact with the German Expressionism of Die Brücke and especially Schmidt-Rottlu.

His studies from this period are characterised by a subtle introspective dimension with a strong philosophical bent. In the 1920 he made the decision to devote himself to painting and two years later abandoned Expressionism. In 1925, after a period spent in Hamburg, he left for Florence, and in the following years divided his time between Tuscany, Hamburg and Paris. In 1929 he settled for good in Florence, where he drew close to the “modern classicism” of Italian art between the two wars. One of the most interesting and in some ways “eccentric” German painters of his generation, Staude and his work is now being thoroughly studied with a detailed critical focus on his close connection with the Novecento Italiano movement: from Ardengo So ci to Felice Carena, in the context of the modern classicism of European art between the two wars.  This deep relationship made the artist one of the most Italianate German painters in the 20th century. 

The retrospective exhibition at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, curated by Francesco Poli and Elena Pontiggia, explores this aspect, and sets Staude in the context of his age. Twenty-seven of his most signi cant works from various periods will be on show. Reference is also made to previous exhibitions, especially the Palazzo Pitti exhibition in Florence, but with a broader analysis of his pictorial style and his theoretical and cultural background, which is also documented in the catalogue through writings by the artist and previously unpublished material.

A key moment during the exhibition will be a conference involving leading experts on the period in question.  eir papers will contribute to a better understanding and fuller assessment of the artist (the conference programme can be downloaded at cini.it).