A treasure is unearthed!
How it all began
The work of Carlo Cazals has been managed by us, Britta and Carsten Kremke, since the early 2000s. At that time, we met the Hamburg painter and tenor Carlo Cazals, who had moved to Parchim in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the late 1990s. We bought some works, visited him and his wife Inge regularly in their weathered town house filled with antiques and paintings, and became friends.
Carlo was an oddball, sometimes gruff, almost misanthropic contemporary. This made our friendship with him all the more valuable; that he was able to laugh with us – even about himself -, enchant us for hours with improvisations on the piano and tell us about his eventful life.
Even during his lifetime, we tried, as far as our limited free time allowed, to organize exhibitions, create catalogs and make his works accessible to the public. But that was not easy: his work polarizes, is rarely pleasing and is not oriented towards current events. He was also denied funding opportunities, as he was neither a “young, up-and-coming artist” nor an “artist with media-effective statements on current political issues”. Once we tried to persuade him to create works on a specific topic for a call for proposals. He found this suggestion presumptuous and became angry…
Time and again, we bought works “in bulk”. After his death in 2022, his wife Inge felt overwhelmed by the number of works that still remained with her, and so in 2022 we bought the complete remainder of Carlo Cazals’ life’s work, also to ensure that the works were not scattered to the four winds and his oeuvre was not torn apart.
Together with the works, suitcases full of documents, photos, books, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, posters and sound documents came into our possession. The suitcases had obviously not been opened for many years. For us, it was a treasure that we were given. An intimate journey of discovery through the life of a fascinating person and ingenious artist.
A treasure is unearthed!
Unfortunately, it is only now, after Carlo’s death, that we have the time to take a closer look at the work and all the contents of the suitcase. The works need to be viewed, sorted, recorded and assigned to biographical events. The contents of the suitcases bring exciting things to light and prove how closely Carlo Cazal’s life was interwoven with that of his “discoverer”, teacher, mentor and patron Gertrud Pirsch, as the suitcases also contain the life documents of this obviously fascinating woman.
We set up several tables to roughly sort the documents first. Handwritten notes were scanned and transcribed, newspaper articles sorted and filed. Important photos were assigned and also scanned – for a possibly planned biography.
In one suitcase there was a stack of loose sheets, handwritten notes on various types of paper, held together by strong wire, so that you cannot read the documents without damaging the wire. Full of excitement, we open this “safe” with a pair of pliers. On top a handwritten text, obviously a kind of last will to us:
“I ask that my handwritten writings be preserved! The disunity should serve the later researchers! My writing studies should not be submitted to the ‘smart aleck’ who cannot cope with his insignificance, emphasizing ‘his high school diploma’ with every second sentence! But you understand what I’m talking about. Your Carlo Cazals”
That was a very moving moment for us, because it made it clear to us what great trust and expectations Carlo had in us.
We have accepted the challenge:
In the meantime, everything has been roughly sorted and a “display stock” has been separated from a “retention stock” so that the work can also be shown to visitors. Using tape recordings and old documents, chronological connections can be established and the basis for a biography is slowly emerging. We are currently looking for suitable exhibition opportunities to make some of the works accessible to a wider public.
And in parallel, all works are gradually scanned or photographed and recorded in a nationwide database. This is also a Sisyphean task, but it urgently needs to be done so that museums and galleries can assess the work.
It is important to us to preserve Cazals’ works, to get them out of the narrowness and make them visible here in our rooms, in the truest sense of the word. We welcome inquiries about exhibitions, loans or acquisitions.
If you would like to see our show warehouse or exchange ideas on the subject of artists’ estates, please send me an e-mail to management@carlocazals.com.
