QUESTIONS ON NATURE – Karl Hartung

Karl Hartung (1908-1967) is one of the most important sculptors of German post-war modernism. His work combines organic forms, vegetal structures and abstract compositions – evidence of an ongoing search for the essence of form.

Between figuration and abstraction, smooth surfaces and ruggedly jagged structures, an oeuvre emerges that remains open and cannot be clearly categorised into any particular style. Hartung understood art not as a representation, but as an expression of a holistic experience of life and nature – influenced by anthroposophical thinking and the question of the possibilities of artistic imagery. The exhibition centres on sculptures from the 1940s to the 1960s: organic, archaic figures, expansive vegetative forms, head studies and self-contained massive volumes. In the park designed by Peter Josef Lenné at Villa Jacobs on Jungfernsee, his natural forms unfold a language that is as varied as it is multi-layered. Lenné’s composed landscape and Hartung’s works symbolise the inseparable connection between nature and art.

The exhibition shows nine sculptures in the park as well as over twenty smaller figures and drawings in the neighbouring orangery and in the machine house. A catalogue of the exhibition will be published in August 2025.





Opening hours | Tickets

Karl Hartung – Questions on Nature
29 June – 14 September 2025
Open only on Sundays 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and on request
Public guided tours: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.