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14/9/2005

Max Liebermann

Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles

From Realism to Impressionism
The first American survey of works by the great Berlin painter

Los Angeles—For the first time in the United States, the remarkable art and life of German painter Max Liebermann (1847–1935), the premier artist in Berlin from the mid-1880s until the Nazis seized power in 1933, will be the subject of a major museum exhibition, Max Liebermann: From Realism to Impressionism, organized by the Skirball Cultural Center. This landmark retrospective—featuring more than 70 paintings and a dozen works on paper from public and private collections in Europe and the United States—will be on view at the Skirball from September 15, 2005 through January 29, 2006. The exhibition will then travel to The Jewish Museum in New York City, its only other venue, where it will be on view from March 10 through July 9, 2006. The exhibition spans the stylistic and thematic phases of Liebermann’s prolific career, from his renowned Realist interpretations of Dutch peasant life to his singular approach to Impressionism, and examines the relationship between the many phases of his art and the changing social and political climate in which he lived and worked. The great majority of the collected works will be new to American viewers. The exhibition catalogue (Skirball Cultural Center, $29.95 paperback), also entitled Max Liebermann: From Realism to Impressionism, will be the first monograph on Liebermann in English.

Liebermann, the descendant of a well-established German Jewish family, was a celebrity in his own day. He was famous not only for his art but for his robust leadership in the cultural life of Berlin. He served as president of the Berlin Secession from 1898 until 1910 and was ultimately honored with the presidency of the Prussian Academy of Art from 1920 through 1932, during the Weimar Republic. Attaining such a position of civic authority was possible for a Jew only during this brief democratic period of German history. Upon Adolf Hitler’s ascension to power, however, in 1933, Liebermann was forced to resign from this distinguished post.

“The Max Liebermann exhibition at the Skirball gives voice to a remarkably talented and courageous artist whose dreams were betrayed by a totalitarian regime,” remarked Uri D. Herscher, Founding President and CEO of the Skirball Cultural Center. “In 1920, Liebermann was the greatest German painter of his day and yet in 1935 he died as a non-citizen, with no notice taken of his death in the German press. We at the Skirball honor his memory with this exhibition of his work meant to remind all of us that only in a democratic and civil society can culture flourish with free expression.”

“Max Liebermann is highly regarded by experts in late 19th- and early 20th-century European art but is not a household name, particularly here in the United States,” said Lori Starr, Senior Vice President of the Skirball Cultural Center and Director of the Skirball Museum. “During the Nazi era, many of Liebermann’s paintings were removed from view in German museums and the memory of his contributions to modern German culture denigrated.

“This unprecedented exhibition rediscovers Liebermann, bringing to light his artistic achievements for American audiences and illuminating how he leveraged his artistic talent and position in the Berlin art world to promote social change and campaign tirelessly against censorship, intolerance and injustice at a time when Nazism presented grave dangers,” continued Starr. “From the engrossing Realism of his early works, whether incisive portraits or depictions of people in humble labor, so deftly painted, to the explosive color and immediacy of his Impressionist works, to the deeply personal late-career paintings of his family and garden at Wannsee—all will be a surprise and an inspiration to our visitors.”

Liebermann began studying art in the atelier of the Berlin painter Karl Steffeck in 1866. He later enrolled at the Weimar Art Academy and continued training in Paris where he was exposed to the latest in French painting. During the 1870s and 1880s, Liebermann worked in a Realist style influenced by Jean-François Millet, the Barbizon School and Dutch Jewish Realist Josef Israels, Liebermann’s contemporary, with whom he painted during long visits to Holland.

Barbara C. Gilbert, Skirball Senior Curator of Fine Arts and curator of the exhibition, as well as chief editor of the exhibition catalogue, explained, “Liebermann was always candid about the artists, both past and present, whom he considered mentors and who helped him develop his unique artistic identity. Appropriations from these artists were at times noticeable, yet as he matured he was able to transform his sources into new, highly personal visions. While studying in France, he was drawn to Millet’s glorification of everyday farm workers who were slaves to the soil, an experience that nourished Liebermann’s growing attention to the disinherited poor and to Realism in general.”

As a painter, Liebermann followed the Realist dictum, “Paint what you see as you see it.” But while remaining keenly attuned to contemporary Realist trends, Liebermann also studied the subjects and techniques of 17th-century Dutch painters such as Frans Hals and Rembrandt van Rijn. His merging of the Realism of his day with the bravura painting style and compositional methods of the Old Masters is especially reflected in his depictions of the land and people of Holland. Liebermann suffered harsh criticism for these portrayals of rural working-class life since they were considered very much at odds with the tradition of grand history painting favored by the conservative art establishment of Berlin. A number of these works, including a drawing for his controversial painting Twelve-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple (1878), will be on view in the exhibition. Several early paintings will be featured, among them Self-Portrait with Kitchen Still Life (1873) and Recess in the Amsterdam Orphanage (1876), Liebermann’s first work to be painted completely out-of-doors and directly on the spot.

Liebermann gradually moved from his early Realism to a more modernist approach to painting. The 1890s in particular were transitional in his oeuvre: he experimented with new themes such as the leisure and recreational activities of middle-class urban society. This shift is reflected in Parrotman (1901)—one of a series of startlingly brilliant depictions of the warden at the Amsterdam Zoo gathering parrots at the end of the day—and paintings that document his annual family vacations at the beach in Holland, including The Artist’s Wife at the Beach, Tennis Players on the Beach, Horseback Riding and Walking on the Dunes, all of which will be included in the exhibition. Liebermann tended to paint these new subjects in series, with his execution growing increasingly spontaneous. He also began creating strong, affecting portraits of family members and distinguished citizens in the fields of commerce, science and politics. Evident in all of these works beginning in the 1890s are the influences of vanguard artists like Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Lovis Corinth and Edvard Munch. Gilbert explained, “When Liebermann made the transition from Realism to Impressionism and challenged himself to achieve a renewed interpretation of subjects from everyday life, Liebermann turned to Manet, an artist who, in his opinion, ‘had the ability of painting what was old in a new way.’”

The exhibition will also highlight works from the last 20 years of Liebermann’s career, a stage previously considered as secondary to his preceding, better-known Realist period. Following World War I, Liebermann turned to an in-depth study of the gardens at his lakeside villa in Wannsee, an idyllic suburb of Berlin. He planned these gardens so that the eye would register a series of outdoor spaces and a sense of continuous color throughout, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of Claude Monet’s paintings of his gardens at Giverny. At the same time, Liebermann and a circle of colleagues began to collect French Impressionist paintings, an initiative that helped introduce modernism to Berlin but also incensed nationalist factions, which accused Liebermann of foreign interests. During these years, Liebermann developed his own brand of Impressionism, lightening his palette and starting to paint in an increasingly loose and abstract manner. In Watering the Rose Garden (1925), Liebermann renders the central figure, a woman using a garden hose, in a way that almost blends her into the lush environment. For Liebermann, this fresh approach to painting served as a springboard for experimentation for the remainder of his career.

“It can be suggested,” elaborated Gilbert, “that although he and the emerging generation of German Expressionist painters often were at odds regarding art theory—with Liebermann insisting on a basis of Realism and the Expressionists leaning towards a greater subjectivity and emotionalism—Liebermann’s bold handling of subject matter, color and paint application would at times come to inspire these younger artists.”

In addition to surveying Liebermann’s work, the exhibition will be the first to explore his struggle for freedom and equality in the arts, a dream he was forced to abandon with the rise of Hitler and the National Socialists. To help study the artist’s life in the context of political, cultural and social affairs, the exhibition will feature a detailed timeline and an insightful video documentary to be produced by the Skirball especially for the show.

Among the museums lending paintings to the exhibition are Kunsthaus Zurich, Neue Pinakothek Munich, Alte National Galerie Berlin, Hamburger Kunsthalle and Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne. Very few paintings by Liebermann are held by American museums—only the Skirball Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Frye Museum in Seattle and Leo Baeck Institute in New York have any in their collections—and all of these will be in the exhibition at the Skirball. A highlight of the exhibition will be Portrait of the Artist’s Wife and his Granddaughter of 1926, a painting in the Skirball’s collection that was previously in the Jewish Museum of Berlin and came to the Skirball through Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, an organization established following World War II to distribute confiscated Judaica, art and books to museums, libraries and synagogues throughout the world. The exhibition will also include several paintings and works on paper in American private collections, many brought here by German Jewish émigrés seeking safe haven in the United States.

Catalogue: Max Liebermann: From Realism to Impressionism, edited by Barbara C. Gilbert, with essays by Gilbert, Chana Schütz, Hermann Simon, Mason Klein, Marion Deshmukh, and Françoise Forster-Hahn and a timeline compiled by Suzanne Schwarz Zuber. Published by the Skirball Cultural Center (220 pages, 150 color images, $29.95 paperback). Publication date: October 2005.

Related Programs: During the run of the exhibition, the Skirball will present a range of exhibition-related programs, including concerts, lectures, films, workshops and family programs. The Decadent Berlin Revue (September 24 and 25) will be a cabaret evening exploring Jewish composers and singers and the Jewish influence on Berlin life, highlighting the works of music makers such as Friedrich Hollander and Mischa Spolansky. The German Classic Films Series (October 20, November 20, December 11, January 8) will present six relatively unknown masterpieces of German films from the 1920s and 1930s, most screened with live piano accompaniment. Presented in conjunction with the November 20 screening of The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a children’s puppet-making workshop (November 20) will introduce the art of papercut art and silhouette puppet-making. Writing workshops and courses in drawing and painting will also be offered in conjunction with the exhibition.

THE EXHIBITION MAX LIEBERMANN: FROM REALISM TO IMPRESSIONISM IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE FOLLOWING LEAD BENEFACTORS:
THE SHAPELL/GUERIN FOUNDATION
SUSANNE AND PAUL KESTER
LEE AND LAWRENCE RAMER
THE SKIRBALL FOUNDATION.

MAJOR SUPPORT IS ALSO PROVIDED BY MARGO AND HENRY BAMBERGER, CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY IN LOS ANGELES, MYNA AND URI D. HERSCHER, WALTER LANTZ FOUNDATION, LUFTHANSA AIRLINES, MARION AND ROCCO SICILIANO, AND THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, WHICH BELIEVES THAT A GREAT NATION DESERVES GREAT ART.

Visiting the Skirball Cultural Center
Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA (exit Skirball Center Drive off the 405). Museum hours: Tuesday through Saturday noon–5:00 p.m.; extended hours on Thursdays until 9:00 p.m.; Sunday 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.; closed Mondays. Admission to exhibitions is always free to children under 12 and Skirball Members. Exhibition admission: $8 General, $6 Seniors and Students. Parking is free. For general information, the public may call (310) 440-4500 or visit www.skirball.org.

The Skirball is also home to Zeidler’s Café, which serves innovative California cuisine in an elegant setting, and Audrey’s Museum Store, which sells books, contemporary art, music, and more.

About the Skirball
Skirball Cultural Center is dedicated to exploring the connections between four thousand years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of American democratic ideals. It welcomes and seeks to inspire people of every ethnic and cultural identity. Guided by our respective memories and experiences, together we aspire to build a society in which all of us can feel at home. Skirball Cultural Center achieves its mission through educational programs that explore literary, visual, and performing arts from around the world; through the display and interpretation of its permanent collections and changing exhibitions; through scholarship in American Jewish history and related publications; and through outreach to the community.

Contact: Mia Cariño (310) 440-4544

Image: Max Liebermann, Cabbage Field, 1923, oil on canvas, 19.8” x 27.3”.
Leo Baeck Institute, New York. © 2005 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Skirball Cultural Center
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90049 (Exit Skirball Center Drive off the 405)

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