Embracing Modernism
Celebrities from the Stadtmuseum Berlin

Lovis Corinth, Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and many others – the Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation boasts outstanding works by modernist painters. Highlights from its premium collection are now guests at the Berlinische Galerie. They bring fresh input and new tones to the first three rooms in our permanent exhibition.

The dawn of modern art broke over Berlin in 1892 when a few progressive artists, among them Max Liebermann and Walter Leistikow, formed the Association of the XI. They were the first group to challenge dominant tastes in art under Kaiser Wilhelm II and to organise their own shows in private galleries. Later they also admitted women and in 1898/99 they spawned the Berlin Secession, a strong counterforce to the conservative, academic exhibition system. Rather like the Secessions in Munich and Vienna, this paved the way for modernism in Berlin.