Carl Arp

During several exhibitions in the Kieler Kunsthalle (1891 to 1894) and the Münchner Glaspalast (Munich Crystal Palace, 1892) the innovative, thick, pasted form of paint application in some of his works were criticized by conservatives for appearing ‘almost like a relief’.

In a meeting convened on 17 January 1894, Professor Max Thedy petitioned that this censorship be reviewed but Görtz responded that he had discussed the matter with the grand duke and that “further deliberations will be unnecessary”.

In 1895 he married the teacher Marta Rethwisch and the young couple spent the subsequent years in Venice and Taormina (Sicily) before returning to Kiel in 1898.

Despite the conservative social and cultural attitudes in Wilhelmian era Germany, which included direct condemnation of modern art as 'degenerate' by the last Kaiser in his 18 December 1901 Rinnsteinrede ('gutter speech'), works by Carl Arp continued to be presented in Berlin, Kiel and Munich exhibitions.

Arp's works are mostly oil or water colour paintings with motives from Schleswig-Holstein and the Kieler Förde, as well as his time in southern Germany and Italy.