From pioneer to traditionalist
“Two Dancers” (1919/11) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was presented along with other works of the artist group “Brücke” (Bridge) from the “New Secession.”
The exhibition “Liebermann’s Opponents” examines the dispute between Berlin artists before World War I – By Klaus Grimberg
Max Liebermann is said to have once remarked that people like Karl Schmitt-Rottluff should be officially beaten every morning. The somewhat unflattering appraisal leaves no doubt as to what Liebermann (1847-1935) thought of the Expressionist trends in painting that began to emerge in the decade before World War I. The former art rebel who had revolted against the rigid perceptions of the Berlin Academy of the Arts in Wilhelmine times had become a reactionary traditionalist defending his own privileges.
Liebermann’s biography perfectly reflects the sometimes embittered arguments about the “new art” at the turn of the 20th century. When a painting by Walter Leistikow was turned down by the jury of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1898 a long smoldering conflict escalated. A community of independent artists formed, with Liebermann at their head, which organized its first exhibition in 1899 as the Berliner Secession. In the following years the Secessionists successfully established themselves within the Berlin art scene, boosting the recognition of German Impressionism in particular.
A good 10 years after the breakaway of the rebels, the artistic conflict repeated itself – with Liebermann suddenly finding himself on the side of the conservatives. Once again the controversy was sparked by rejected works of art. This time, the board of the Secessionists under the leadership of Liebermann excluded 27 Expressionistic works of art from their annual exhibition. The resulting split is the subject of a remarkable new exhibition by Stiftung Brandenburger Tor entitled “Liebermann’s Opponents. New Secession and Expressionism in Berlin.”
“Clever old Liebermann is sharing the fate of many a clever man before him: he doesn’t know his limitations; his life’s work (…) is fraying and disintegrating; his attempts to safe it make him nervous and rhetorical,” wrote Emil Nolde, who became Liebermann’s most decisive opponent, in a famous lampoon. Nolde was the guiding light of the “New Secession,” which organized seven highly-regarded exhibitions in Berlin before the start of World War I, providing the first broad platform for Expressionistic painters. Offended by the assaults against him, Liebermann resigned as president of the Berlin Secession in 1911 and retired to his summerhouse on Lake Wannsee.
Monika Grütters calls the current exhibition an “act of reconciliation.” Grütters is the chairwoman of Stiftung Brandenburger Tor as well as the Committee on Cultural and Media Affairs of the German Bundestag. The collection of approximately 80 works by the New Secessionists is on display in the Max Liebermann House right next to the Brandenburg Gate. Built in 1990, it stands on the same spot as the Palais Liebermann, which was destroyed in World War II. The artist had inherited the house from his parents and lived in it until his death in 1935.
Anke Daemgen, the exhibition’s curator, has meticulously arranged a representative overview of the artistic spectrum of the New Secession. Besides representatives of the ‘Brücke’ and ‘Blauer Reiter’ such as Max Pechstein, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmitt-Rottluff, Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter, the exhibition mainly shows Berlin Expressionists such as Georg Tappert, Heinrich Richter-Berlin and César Klein. In addition there are a few forgotten artists like Wilhelm Morgner and Hermann Stenner who both died in World War I.
Particularly instructive are the comments by contemporary critics, which offer an insight into how controversial Expressionistic painting was in the public perception of the time. The room in which the Brücke paintings hung on a wall painted bright red was generally referred to by the press as the “Chamber of Horrors.” Other critics were just as harsh: one called a woman in a painting an “acrobatically inclined drowned body;” another saw “the ugliest woman I’ve ever seen; and heaven knows my travels through the Orient haven’t spoiled me in this respect.” Yet despite such disrespectful comments, the New Secession’s fourth exhibition in November 1911, which included Czech and French artists, was especially well-received as offering an international overview of the developments in contemporary art.
With the beginning of World War I the New Secession quietly fell apart. The era of the original Secession also came to an end; in the spring of 1914 yet another breakaway group formed, the “Free Secession,” which lasted until 1924. At the same time, Liebermann returned to the stage of cultural politics as president of the Berlin Academy of the Arts in 1920. Despite his advanced age, the highly esteemed artist succeeded in reforming the imperial institution with the introduction of democratic structures. In 1932 he resigned from that post for health reasons.
Yet Liebermann never lost the cheeky Berlin wit he had once used to badmouth Schmitt-Rottluff. When the Nazis came to power on Jan. 30, 1933, marching past his house on Pariser Platz square, he commented on the scene with one of his most famous remarks: “I cannot eat as much as I would like to vomit.”