The first major exhibition in more than a quarter of a century of oils and crayons by Max Liebermann, leading figure of German impressionism, has been arranged in the State Gallery here, under the patronage of Liebermann’s friend, West German President Theodor Heuse. At a later date, the exhibition will also be seen in Hamburg.
Professor Liebermann, a professing Jew and a very popular Berlin public figure, died two years after the Nazis branded his work “degenerate art,” banned him from painting or exhibiting and forced him to withdraw from his many honorary offices in the German cultural world, among them the presidency of the Berlin Academy of Art.
The Lower Saxony State Secretary for Cultural Affairs recalled these indignities in his opening remarks, declaring that the show was in the nature of moral amends. To underline this point, the sponsors of the exhibition printed, for the first time, the address delivered to a 1935 memorial meeting of the Berlin “Jewish Cultural League” by Professor Adolph Goldschmidt, art historian. Only at a closed meeting of this Jewish group was it then permitted to commemorate the death of the great painter.
The 121 exhibits for this imposing show were loaned by museums and collectors in many countries, notably Switzerland and Holland. One portrait was contributed by President Heuss himself.
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