The mad square: Modernity in German art 1910–1937

Editorial

Sydney
When: 6 August-6 November 2011
Where: Art Gallery of NSW
Tickets: Ticket prices vary: see website for details.

Melbourne
When: 25 November 2011 - 4 March 2012
Where: NGV International
Tickets: Ticket prices vary: see website for details.

Expressionism, Dada, Constructivism, Bauhaus: the turbulent sea of modernist art in Europe threw up many new forms and movements, but nowhere more so than in Germany in the first few decades of the 20th century.

This colourful cabaret of competing styles and schools of thought is detailed in The mad square: Modernity in German art 1910-1937. A fascinating exhibition exploring the aesthetic innovations made by artists throughout Germany in painting, sculpture, installation, collage, photography, film and the decorative arts between 1910 to 1937, it reveals the complex ways in which artists responded to the forces of modernity, and their passionate engagement with contemporary society, culture and politics. At a time when the Nazis were trying to crush what they saw as 'degenerate art', such engagements could be dangerous in the extreme.

The exhibition features more than 200 works from museums around the world by leading artists of the period, including Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, George Grosz, Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Karl Hubbuch, Käthe Kollwitz, Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Höch, August Sander and László Moholy-Nagy.

An important and insightful exhibition emphasising the legacy of innovation left by the artists of the Weimar Republic on culture over the decades.

Richard Watts, Citysearch

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