Otto Fischer, an art historian and a celebrated director of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1927-1938, is known as one of the earliest European experts in the field of Chinese art. He has published extensively on the subjects of Chinese painting, sculpture, printing and stone rubbings. In 1926 he has travelled to China, Japan and Korea, a journey that resulted in a publication of his fascinating travel diary “Wanderfahrten eines Kunstfreundes in China und Japan.“ During this time, he acquired a collection of ca. 70 Chinese woodblock prints. These popular prints were produced at various print workshops in the North and South China and feature various themes, such as folk religion, Chinese opera scenes, historical narratives, auspicious imagery and so on. After Otto Fischer’s untimely death in 1948, his daughter Hilde Flory-Fischer has donated this collection to the Museum Rietberg.

Presently, Alina Martimyanova of the KGOA is engaged in cataloguing this collection for the museum. Since the collection was never documented, it is a long-term project that involves the identification of the subject matter of the prints, their production sites, description and an assessment of necessary conservational measures for this fragile medium. The survey will also attempt to place this collection in the context of theChinese woodblock printing history and the related studies in China and the West. The collection also has become a focus of her thesis that will be completed in the fall of 2015. The Museum Rietberg is planning to show a selection of these prints to the public for the first time in the coming year.