Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig

Leipzig around 1900: the city expanded from 101,272 to 456,000 inhabitants in the space of thirty years. The Kunstakademie is renamed the Königliche Akademie für graphische Künste und Buchgewerbe in the same year. Max Seliger accepts the position of institution rector one year later. The newly appointed professors – among them like Hugo Steiner-Prague, Georg Belwe and Walter Tiemann – strengthen connections to the publishing business. The Künstlerhaus opens under the auspices of the Leipziger Künstlerverein on Nikischplatz, providing space for exhibitions and studios and sending a clear signal that Leipzig is more than ‘just’ a city of music. A large group of artists all live and work in the building. But they barely feature in the Städtische Museum Leipzig (today MdBK), which opens on Augustusplatz in 1858. The Kunstverein, which has its own exhibition space at the building, seeks to redress this imbalance and to help local artists earn an adequate living. After all, Leipzig art is more than just Max Klinger, who is not included in this exhibition.

Divided into four chapters, the "Collection Revisited: Leipzig art 1900 – 1945 -1945” exhibition traces the changes in Leipzig’s art world between 1900 and 1945, illustrating which works the museum collected, presented and mediated, and also by what means. A large part of the selected paintings, prints and sculptures, as well as the exhibited documents on the history of art and institutions, will be presented in public for the first time. A glance at the collection – and especially the stacks – speaks volumes about the mercurial tastes in art, about society and those in charge.

“Collection Revisited: Leipzig Art 1900-1945” was curated by Britt Schlehahn, Leipzig. Many of the paintings, prints, sculptures and documents on the history of art and institutions she selected are being presented to the public for the first time.

A publication on the topic of the exhibition is planned for spring 2020.