The painter and graphic artist August Babberger is regarded as one of the leading figures of Late Expressionism in south-west Germany. From 1920 to 1933, he taught mural painting at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts, which he headed as director from 1923 to 1929. In 1927, Babberger was commissioned by the architect Hermann Billing to create a series of Christian stained-glass windows for the formerly Catholic hospital chapel.
Conceived in the classical triptych form, the stained-glass work depicts scenes from the life of Jesus. Passages from the Gospels of Matthew and Mark served as the basis for the design. The central composition depicting the Crucifixion is flanked by acts of the merciful Christ. The message and function of these religious works are geared towards powerfully conveying the tenets of the Christian faith, as well as offering comfort and strengthening hope. Babberger translated the thematic brief into a powerful, expressively exaggerated and two-dimensionally stylised pictorial structure of intensely luminous colour contrasts, imbued with dynamic restlessness and decorative rhythm. A tension between figuration and abstraction characterises the bold formal language with which Babberger transcended traditional stained glass art.
These expressive figurative compositions are outstanding examples of modern, period-typical stained-glass art from the 1920s in south-western Germany. Babberger created further late-Expressionist stained-glass windows for the Protestant hospital chapel, which no longer exists. These works can now be viewed at the Protestant retirement home.
The Catholic stained-glass windows were produced by the renowned Berlin firm ‘Puhl & Wagner’ under Gottfried Heinersdorff, which was regarded at the time as the leading workshop for modern stained-glass production in Germany. The stained-glass works for the Protestant chapel were produced by the Karlsruhe-based firm Emil Großkopf.
Text and editing: Kunstmuseum Singen
