Between Shapes at the GRIMMWELT Kassel: Helga Gebert's art of storytelling

Between Shapes: Helga Gebert's narrative image worlds at the GRIMMWELT Kassel

The special exhibition BETWEEN SHAPES | HELGA GEBERT. Telling in Image and Word is dedicated to an artist whose illustrations not only accompany stories but open up independent realms of thought and feeling. In the GRIMMWELT Kassel, word and image, traditional fairy tale material and contemporary reflection, childlike curiosity and art historical contemplation come together.

Illustration as an independent art form

Helga Gebert, born in 1935 in Freiburg im Breisgau, is one of the defining figures in the renewal of the German children's and youth book in the 1970s and 1980s. As an illustrator, author, painter, and translator, she developed a distinctive visual language. Her fine drawings, poetic character worlds, and carefully composed fairy tale images combine graphic precision with narrative openness.

The exhibition makes visible how illustration works in the process of storytelling: It advances stories, contradicts familiar interpretations, and creates new spaces of meaning. Gebert's works on the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, on tales from One Thousand and One Nights, and her own fantastic stories illustrate visual art as cultural communication across times and spaces.

Between fairy tales, memory, and the present

The curatorial concept follows the idea of the in-between. Illustrations appear as a transition between reading and viewing, past and present, individual memory and collective narrative material. The atmosphere of the exhibition arises from the dialogue of numerous characters, motifs, and visual ideas that invite visitors to a concentrated viewing of the works.

A comparative look at works from the Grimm collection of the city of Kassel as well as works by Maurice Sendak, Helga Ruppert-Tribian, and Markus Lefrançois broadens the perspective. Different visual solutions demonstrate how artists select fairy tale material, condense scenes, and reinvent characters between textual fidelity and creative freedom.

An art experience for adults and children

The exhibition combines art historical mediation with playful discovery. Biographical insights, interactive elements, a riddle trail for children, and a accompanying exhibition catalog deepen the engagement with Gebert's work. Thus, cultural education emerges that does not stop at knowledge transmission but allows for aesthetic experience.

Fine lines, imaginative shapes, and the tension between familiar storytelling and surprising visual ideas characterize the tour. Visitors experience how living narrative spaces emerge from paper, color, form, and language. It is precisely in the interplay of visual poetry and literary memory that the special power of this exhibition lies.

Conclusion: Experience storytelling live

Between Shapes opens an inspiring access to the work of Helga Gebert and to the art of illustration. The exhibition at the GRIMMWELT Kassel promises a sensual art experience between fairy tales, literature, drawing, and cultural memory. Those who want to discover the creative closeness of image and word should visit this exhibition live and explore Gebert's character worlds with their own eyes.

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Sources:

• BETWEEN SHAPES | HELGA GEBERT – GRIMMWELT Kassel
• Visitor information – GRIMMWELT Kassel
• Tours for the exhibition – GRIMMWELT Kassel
• Press kit for the exhibition opening – GRIMMWELT Kassel
• Between Shapes – Visit Kassel