The exhibition Leipzig: A Universe of Images. 1905-2022 presents more than 200 works, some well-known and others still unknown. In this exhibition, which is new to the MdbK, an active dialogue between artworks and visitors is to be created. All visitors to the exhibition are invited to actively participate in deciding which artworks are shown and which stories are told. With the help of digital and analogue offerings, visitors to the exhibition can give feedback on their impressions directly during their visit and help decide which artworks are missing and which should continue to be shown. The exhibition is a step on the way to opening up the Museum of Fine Arts even more as a lively place for the whole of Leipzig's urban society. The aim is to make visible the diversity of art from Leipzig over the last 120 years.
Like no other museum in Germany, the MdbK is closely interwoven with the city's art development and especially with the Academy of Visual Arts. This unique selling point is clearly reflected in the museum's collection, which focuses on the art movements that emerged from Leipzig. This tendency reached its peak especially in the acquisition policy of the years 1949 to 1989. At the latest with the founding of the painting class by Bernhard Heisig, the progressive centre of art in the GDR was found in Leipzig. The name "Leipziger Schule" (Leipzig School) was soon established for these art movements - which quickly achieved international renown. Art from and around Leipzig has the largest share in the MdbK's collection. It is therefore all the more important to integrate art from the GDR appropriately in the permanent exhibition of the new museum building.
Leipzig: A Universe of Images. 1905-2022 devotes an entire exhibition space to Max Beckmann from Leipzig, who was considered one of the most successful painters of the Weimar Republic and lived in exile after the National Socialists seized power. The exhibition deals with the emergence of modern art movements such as Expressionism and New Objectivity and also contextualises the defamation of modern art during the National Socialist iconoclasm. Visitors are guided through the development of modern art in Leipzig over the last century up to the present day on the almost complete area of the third floor. Contemporary art in Leipzig, decisively influenced by Neo Rauch, but also by the younger generation of artists at the HGB, who are seeking new stylistic possibilities of expression in representational painting, is also represented in the exhibition. From expressive painting strategies or sober-looking fine painting to abstract and ironic-naïve attitudes of contemporary art, visitors can experience the diversity of Leipzig art in the exhibition.
