Da wohnten Menschen auf Kristall'nen Bäumen (There people lived in crystal trees)

Wenzel Hablik, artist

1881–1934

Da wohnten Menschen auf Kristall'nen Bäumen (There people lived in crystal trees), 1925

Portfolio/Series title: Cyklus Architektur--Utopie (Cycle Architecture-Utopia)

Where object was made: Europe

Material/technique: etching

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 290 x 280 mm max.
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 11 7/16 x 11 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 401 x 304 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 15 13/16 x 12 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 16 in

Credit line: Anonymous gift

Accession number: 2010.0006

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Machine in a Void: World War I & the Graphic Arts," Mar-2010, Steve Goddard
Before the War, Wenzel Hablik studied applied art in Vienna and Prague, becoming a master cabinetmaker. During the War he was a war artist, serving in the Carpathian Mountains until 1916 when he was wounded in the right arm. In 1927 he and his wife, Lisbeth Lindemann, set up a weaving workshop in Itzehoe.

Amidst the political turmoil of postwar Germany, a group of progressive artists, architects, and critics formed the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Work Council for Art). In 1919 members of this group formed a "pseudo-Masonic secret
society," the Gläserne Kette (Crystal Chain), in which Hablik, who had been fascinated by crystals since childhood, was to play an important role. In this etching Hablik imagines a time when people live in crystal trees, as described in the text on the print:

There people lived in crystal trees and trees that grew from God - and flowers of gold and precious stones, and blooming shrubs of glass sparkled between moss and strawberries and peaches, and happy children floated to race with the swallows

See also the early utopian etching by Hablik at the beginning of this exhibition from his 1909 portfolio, Creative Forces, and the current exhibition in the Spencer Museum, Utopia/Dystopia.