DÜSSELDORF, Germany (AP) — There’s an intimate portrait of a lesbian couple, a portray of younger bare males having fun with themselves by the water and considered one of a flamboyantly dressed, androgynously wanting individual at a fairground.
Queer artwork has typically been uncared for and marginalized previously however a brand new exhibition in Germany known as “Queer Modernism. 1900 to 1950” is attempting to beat previous prejudices and present the numerous contributions of queer artists to modernism.
The present, which opens to the general public on Friday within the western metropolis of Düsseldorf, shines a highlight on artwork by the LGBTQ+ neighborhood throughout the first half of the twentieth century — a time marked each by extra sexual freedom in cosmopolitan facilities like Paris or Berlin, but additionally by persecution and criminalization of homosexuality, particularly throughout the rise of fascism within the Thirties.
“This is the first major exhibition on this topic in Europe, if not worldwide,” Susanne Gaensheimer, the director of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, advised The Related Press on Thursday.
Themes like gender and sexuality, but additionally discrimination
That includes greater than 130 works by 34 artists — together with many work and drawings, in addition to pictures, sculptures and movies — the present focuses on themes resembling need, gender and sexuality, but additionally discrimination and oppression.
The artists introduced within the present are from throughout Europe but additionally the USA, as many queer artists moved from there to Europe at the start of the final century to benefit from the extra liberal local weather.
“The queer artists you see in this exhibition were part of a very lively network in their day,” said Gaensheimer. “Many of them were successful in their day, sold works, and were part of a very intense movement and also part of the avant-garde.”
Whereas some created secret codes to specific their homosexuality, different proudly and brazenly portrayed it. General, the works reveal all kinds of various inventive kinds.
Among the many works on show is one by German-Swedish artist Lotte Laserstein, who depicts herself at work as an artist collectively together with her lover and most well-liked mannequin Traute Rose. The oil on canvas paining from 1929/30 is named “I and My Model” and exhibits Laserstein with a palette and a paintbrush whereas Rose tenderly gazes over her shoulder.
Within the oil portray “The Source” from 1913 by Ludwig von Hofmann, the German artist created a scene of three younger, lovely and bare males lingering round a spring, consuming from the water and watching each other.
The well-known German writer Thomas Mann purchased the work in 1914 and it accompanied him by his exiles in California and Switzerland the place it hung in his research. Whereas he was married and had a household, Mann is thought for his gay wishes which he expressed in his private diaries and in addition subtly in his fiction.
Views of queer artists had been typically marginalized
Most of the works by queer artists had been scattered across the globe due to the turmoil of the 2 world wars and since the artists typically didn’t have any youngsters to take care of them. Usually, their views had been additionally marginalized within the art-historical canon.
“We have been working very intensively for several years now to continually focus on new perspectives on modernism and to introduce artists who are not yet well known, or to present trends and styles that do not appear in the classic narrative of modernism,” said Gaensheimer, adding that the goal was to “broaden the perspective on what modernism was and who contributed to it.”
The exhibition is split into eight totally different chapters, together with one which’s devoted to queer resistance since 1933, when the Nazis rose to energy in Germany. Quickly after, they started persecuting homosexuals, and later deporting and killing them in focus camps.
Whereas some artists confirmed resistance or emigrated, others labored along with fascist regimes to guard themselves.
A typically hidden, typically open celebration
Regardless of the various difficulties queer artists confronted throughout the first half of the twentieth century, they nonetheless celebrated life and queerness of their works.
Within the portray “Bank Holiday Monday,” the artist Gluck, born in London in 1895 and also called Hannah Gluckstein, depicts a trendy individual with an extravagant yellow-red-blue coloured scarf at a fairground. A second individual is standing proper behind and and an intimate pressure is palpable between the 2 seemingly androgynous figures. Each seem on the similar time affectionate and self-confident.
The exhibition, which was curated in cooperation with a queer advisory board, will run by Feb. 15, 2026.
The museum will host many various readings, excursions and workshops within the coming months, the place guests can additional discover the themes of the present.
