Until 1937, Kunsthalle Mannheim had a collection of expressionist art that was one of the first in German museums. This major exhibition will be the first to spotlight this crucial chapter of the museum’s history. The focus will be placed on the museum’s own collection, but also confiscated works now in collections abroad. A special emphasis of the exhibition will be the work of the sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck and the Mannheim collection of his former patron Sally Falk.
After the Second World War, expressionism continued to play an important role in Mannheim’s cultural landscape, not only at Kunsthalle Mannheim, but also in a private collection as well. This private collection features masterpieces by Erich Heckel, Alexej von Jawlensky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Oskar Kokoschka, Otto Mueller, Max Pechstein, Emil Nolde, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, or Gabriele Münter. The exhibition places the works of artists in new constellations, officering very special insights and comparisons. Additional work from Mannheim private collectors, including pieces by artists such as Max Pechstein, will also be shown.
The exhibition will also take a critical look at the gaze of expressionists on the foreign, the “exotic,” their appropriation of non-European art and culture. Recent research has also required us to reevaluate the position of individual artists during the Nazi period: Emil Nolde is here an example.
The exhibition will show 50 paintings, 30 sculptures, and 100 prints and drawings that come from the Kunsthalle’s own collection and lenders from around the world.
The show is accompanied by an extensive auxiliary program in which expressionism in Mannheim is explored in various ways.
Curators: Johan Holten, Dr. Inge Herold, Luisa Heese, Dr. Ursula Drahoss, Dorotea Lorenz
Funded by:
