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Masters of German Expressionism: Witnesses to an Era

May 5, 2007- June 2, 2007

George Grosz, Paul Kleinschmidt

ACA Galleries

529 W 20th St

George Grosz, recognized as a founding member of the Berlin Dada movement and for his scathing social and political satire, was born in Germany. He chronicled the decadence, despair and futility of World War I and the pre-Nazi era to reveal the widespread class inequities through his depictions of brothels, murders, rapes, tramps, corpulent generals, and capitalists.

In 1932 he was invited to teach at the Art Students League, New York. When classes ended he went back to Germany and soon after returned to New York. Hitler’s regime labeled him “Bolshevik Number 1.” He lived in the United States for the next twenty-five years and became an American citizen in 1938.

In contrast to his earlier German works, the art he produced while in New York and later in Cape Cod, celebrates the American experience and the excitement of urban life.

Museum Collections:Art Institute of Chicago; Fine Art Museums of San Francisco; Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY; High Museum, Atlanta; Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Gallery, London; Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford; Wallraf-Richarz-Museum, Cologne; Whitney Museum of American Art; among others.

Paul Kleinschmidt, known for his sensual landscapes, crowded still lifes and exaggerated portraits of voluptuous women in theatrical settings, was born in Germany to a family of actors. His childhood memories of the theater provided a source of inspiration for his art. After concluding his studies at the Berlin Akademie and the Munich Akademie he returned to Berlin and became friends with artist Lovis Corinth. He participated in the Berlin Sezession shows in 1909 through 1911. His first solo exhibition of graphics in 1923 at Euphorion-Verlag, Berlin was followed by an exhibition of oil paintings in 1928 at Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin.

The Art Institute of Chicago held a retrospective of his work in 1933. This exhibition traveled on to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1934. But as his career soared Hitler’s regime came into power and his artwork was labeled Entartete Kunst “Degenerate Art”. Many of his works were confiscated by the Nazis.

In a 1959 exhibition catalogue, he was described by George Grosz as an artist who “…occupies a special position in German art and is a master in his own right.”

Museum Collections: Andrew Dickson White Museum of Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca; Art Institute of Chicago; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; Bayrische Staatsgemaldesammlunger, Munich;Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Euphorian-Kunsthandlung, Berlin; Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, San Diego; Galerie der Stadt, Esslingen/Neckar; Galerie der Stadt, Stuttgart; Galerie Geiselhart, Reulingen Hessisches; Landesmuseum, Darmstadt; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign; Kunstforum, Heilbronn; Kunsthalle Luzern; Landesgirokasse, Stuttgart; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg; Schlosshofgalerie, Kisslegg und Lindau; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; Syracuse University Collection, Syracuse; Ulmer Museum, Ulm; Ulm Museum, Ulm; among others.

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

Location map  Gallery ACA Galleries Address 529 W 20th St New York (Chelsea) NY, 10011 United States Phone 212-206-8080 Fax 212-206-8498 Hours Tue-Sat 10:30-6 Nearby: All 23 galleries at 529 W 20th St

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