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Apollo
Art Diary

Splendor and Misery: New Objectivity in Germany

17 May 2024

After the First World War, many artists in Germany rejected the fantastical distortions and vivid colours of Expressionism and began making art that addressed the harsh realities of life in the Weimar Republic. The term ‘New Objectivity’ was coined to describe the movement by the art historian Gustav Friedrich Hartlaud in 1925, and its key exponents, such as Max Beckmann and Otto Dix, are the focus of this show at the Leopold Museum. Some 150 works, including satirical illustrations of politicans and paintings of everyday life, provided a rounded view of a turbulent period.

Find out more from the Leopold Museum’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

Grey day (1921), George Grosz. Photo: Andres Kilger/© Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; © Bildrecht, Wien 2023

Old Lovers (1923), Otto Dix. Photo: André van Linn/© Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; © Bildrecht, Wien 2023

Tennis Player (1929), Lotte Laserstein. Photo: © Lotte Laserstein Archive Krauss; © Bildrecht, Wien 2023