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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Unknown Collection

Exhibition July 29 − October 21, 2018
Among the treasures of the State Art Gallery in Stuttgart are 81 drawings, 84 prints, and several illustrated books by the expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), one of the co-founders of the Most group. This remarkable group of works covers all periods of the artist's career and many important topics for him - metropolitan life, dances, as well as landscapes on the island of Fehmarn and the Alps.

In 2018, the 80th anniversary of the death of the artist, this collection, which was last shown in 1980, was the object of a major exhibition "Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Unknown collection ».

In 1937, all of Kirchner's printed works belonging to the State Gallery in Stuttgart, many of which were acquired in the 1920s, were confiscated during the infamous Nazi campaign against "degenerate" art. The basis of the current collection was laid after the Second World War, in 1957. The works came from the collection of a certain "Dr. Gervais of Zurich", but the identity of this collector could not be established. Only recent studies have shown that all the exhibits came either directly from the artist, or from his wife Erna. And the "collection Gervais" was invented by his student Christian Laley, which allowed to circumvent the ban on the sale of works in Germany.