Berlinische Galerie

Streets and Faces 1918–1933

09 Mar - 28 May 2012

From The Collection
STREETS AND FACES 1918–1933
9 March – 28 May, 2012

One emphasis in the collection of the Berlinische Galerie is the art of the Weimar Republic, in particular the field of graphic art. As contemporary witnesses, artists documented and commented on the political struggles and social changes of those years with a sharp eye and a deft pen; it was a time when Berlin was developing into a scintillating big city of entertainment after the world war and revolution. Not without sympathy, artists traced the deep lines that a struggle to survive had etched into the faces of people chasing after happiness on the city's boulevards, at its bars, or in the gloomy dance halls of the working men's pubs.

This exhibition with circa 60 works from our own collections, supplemented by some loans, will show works on paper by artists including Max Beckmann, Chas-Laborde, Otto Dix, Dolbin, Heinrich Ehmsen, Lilo Friedlaender, Rudolf Großmann, George Grosz, Karl Holtz, Karl Hubbuch, Jeanne Mammen, Gertrude Sandmann, Rudolf Schlichter, Gerd Wollheim and Richard Ziegler. Up to the present day, their skill as draftsmen has shaped our picture of that epoch: between expressionist, cosmopolitan demonism and objective velocity, an affirmation of modernity and the shadow of dictatorship, and rebellion and redeployment.
 

Tags: Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz