Weimar Art, from Berlin to London via Athens

Albert Birkle, "The Acrobat Schulz V" 1921

Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919-33. That is the name of an exhibition at London’s Tate Modern, taking place right now and until 14 July 2019. In addition to Tate works already on display, this exhibitions offers the opportunity to see a number of other works belonging to a private collector from Athens.

"Encounter the uncanny and mysterious through the art of the Weimar Republic

Tate Modern will explore German art from between the wars in a year-long, free exhibition, drawing upon the rich holdings of The George Economou Collection.

These loans offer a rare opportunity to view a range of artworks not ordinarily on public display, and to see a small selection of key Tate works returned to the context in which they were originally created and exhibited nearly one hundred years ago.

Otto Dix, "Ursus im Steckkissen," 1927

This presentation explores the diverse practices of a number of different artists, including Otto Dix, George Grosz, Albert Birkle and Jeanne Mammen. Although the term ‘magic realism’ is today commonly associated with the literature of Latin America, it was inherited from the artist and critic Franz Roh who invented it in 1925 to describe a shift from the art of the expressionist era, towards cold veracity and unsettling imagery. In the context of growing political extremism, the new realism reflected a fluid social experience as well as inner worlds of emotion and magic.

The exhibition is realised with thanks to loans from The George Economou Collection, with additional support from the Huo Family Foundation (UK) Limited."

Conrad Felixmüller, "Der Bettler von Prachatitz," 1924, 

Georg Grosz, "Cheap Whiskey," 1933

"Magic Realism, a free display that has the depth of an exhibition, complete with scholarly catalogue, uncovers what scared the Nazis about modern German art. The Degenerate Art exhibition is remembered today simply as an attack on modernism. However, that is a bloodless misunderstanding. The reason the Nazis called modern art degenerate is that avant garde works in Germany after the first world war really did revel in the perverse, the decadent, the depraved. This art was not abstract but fiercely carnal and it is still shocking today."  (Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, July 2018)

Weimar art: still controversial after all these years...