BERLIN.- The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, is the first stop on the US tour of Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945. Masterworks from the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Many of the 70 plus works from the collection of the Neue Nationalgalerie are traveling to the US for the first time. Subsequently, the show will travel to the Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico, and to The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). Further stops will be announced.


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Developed specifically for an American audience, the exhibition traces the history of modern art in Germany. Central here are the political roles that art and the Neue Nationalgalerie in particular played in this history because, more than almost any other, the museum’s collection was fundamentally shaped by the social and socio political developments of the time, not least of all because it was located in Berlin. Going beyond a mere history of aesthetics, the works from the first half of the 20th century impressively illustrate the major stages of history: reflected in the collection’s paintings and sculptures are the German Empire, World War One, the Weimar Republic, and the Nazi Period and World War Two.

The exhibition Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945 stands in the tradition of past presentations of the collection of the Neue Nationalgalerie. Shows like Modern Times (2010/11), The Black Years (2015/16), and The Art of Society (2021-23), focusing on the Nazi period, all engaged with the intersections between art and politics and society.

The present exhibition focuses in particular on art produced during the Nazi dictatorship from 1933 to 1945. Despite political repression, many exponents of modern art continued to work under difficult conditions, either in secret in their homeland or in exile. The exhibition tells this story by drawing on selected outstanding artworks, many of which were either shown in the 1937 exhibition Degenerate Art – a show mounted by the Nazis to defame modern art – or else were created in direct response to this exhibition.

More than 70 paintings and sculptures from the collection of the Neue Nationalgalerie are on tour. They include such well-known principal works as Stützen der Gesellschaft / Pillars of Society, 1926 by George Grosz, Sonja (1928) by Christian Schad, and Nacht über Deutschland (Night over Germany, 1945-46) by Horst Strempel. Artwork created in Germany by artists like Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Hannah Höch, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, and Käthe Kollwitz will enter a dialogue with works by other European artists of the time, including Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Giorgio de Chirico, and Salvador Dalí. Stylistically, the exhibition presents Expressionism, New Objectivity, and abstraction – avant-garde movements that were central in shaping art in Germany and Europe until 1933. Further themed rooms illustrate artistic engagement with politics and current affairs, particularly under National Socialism.

Klaus Biesenbach, Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, states: “We are delighted to be able to show large parts of our important collection of Modern Art in the USA for the first time. In addition to engaging in active lending with the traditional cosmopolitan metropolises, we consider it our educational responsibility to broaden our reach be present in more areas of the US as well and to show the explicitly political art from the first half of the 20th century.”

Joachim Jäger, Deputy Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, states: “This exhibition is also an invitation to look back at a time that was charac- terized by struggles and extremes, some of which had drastic consequences for society at the time. Of course, issues such as war and politi- cal extremism are of current, global relevance to our society today.”

The tour has been organized by the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum and will be accompanied by a catalogue. It is curated by Irina Hiebert Grun (Curator, Neue Nationalgalerie), George T. M. Shackelford (Deputy Director of the Kimbell Art Museum), and Dieter Scholz (Curator, Alte Nationalgalerie), in collaboration with Joachim Jäger (Deputy Director and Head of the Neue Nationalgalerie Collection) and Lisa Botti (Curator, Neue Nationalgalerie), with support from the FREUNDE der Nationalgalerie.


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