From Liebermann to Nolde

Impressionism in Germany on Paper

April 5 to June 15, 2014
at the Old Town Hall, Ingelheim

The phenomenon of German Impressionism has been addressed in numerous exhibitions. However, the main focus has almost exclusively been on painting and its French models. The pioneering function of Impressionism for the development of modernism in Germany is of significance. This is particularly evident in works on paper—in drawing, watercolor, gouache, pastel, printmaking, as well as in contemporary photography. The unacademic, dynamic landscape sketches reflect the longing for artistic freedom. The dissolution of the object into movement and light also leads to the overcoming of naturalism in Germany. Thus, the Impressionists pave the way into the abstraction and expression of modernism.

The exhibition brings together approximately 150 rarely shown works on paper from the period between 1880 and the 1920s. The selection of artists is not limited to the three major names repeatedly mentioned in this context—Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, and Max Slevogt—but is expanded to include artists such as Lesser Ury, Maria Slavona, Otto Modersohn, Christian Rohlfs, Arthur Illies, Thomas Herbst, photographer Heinrich Kühn, and others. To document the extent to which direct work on paper prepared the development of painterly Impressionism in Germany, several paintings will also be presented in the exhibition.

Subsequently, the exhibition will be shown as a project of the Internationale Tage Boehringer Ingelheim at the Ernst Barlach Haus in Hamburg (June 29 to September 21, 2014).

From May 4, 2014, the Landesmuseum Mainz will present the exhibition “Max Slevogt – Paths to Impressionism.”

The Otto Modersohn Museum in Fischerhude will show the exhibition “Clara Rilke-Westhoff” – Retrospective – On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of her death from March 9 to May 11, 2014.