To mark the 100th anniversary of Lovis Corinth’s death, the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin is dedicating a concentrated exhibition to the important German Impressionist and his wife, the painter Charlotte Berend-Corinth. The exhibition focuses on the eventful history of their works in the Nationalgalerie’s collection, which is characterised by losses, returns and new acquisitions, particularly in connection with the National Socialist “Degenerate Art” campaign. Paintings that were once confiscated and later partially returned or reacquired show the often dramatic paths that works of art took after 1937.
Corinth’s works are considered key works of German Impressionism and are prominently represented in the Nationalgalerie’s collection with more than twenty large-format oil paintings. The exhibition sheds light not only on the setbacks of the past decades, but also on how the Nationalgalerie replenished its lost holdings after 1945 — works by Corinth and Berend-Corinth were acquired in the West and East. The eventful biography of the artist, his more expressive brushwork after a stroke and the art-historical significance of the collection are just as much a focus as questions of provenance, migration of the paintings and the role of political upheavals for the museum’s holdings.
The exhibition is jointly curated by experts from various Berlin museums and archives and sheds light on a central chapter of German art history through Corinth’s works and their complex paths through institutions and times.
