German Expressionist Max Pechstein's Retrospective Opens at the Ahlen Art Museum

Written by Gilda Rosenstein Monday, 11 July 2011 23:59

AHLEN, GERMANY - Max Pechstein (1881-1955) is one of the pioneers of German Expressionism. The retrospective presents more than 130 paintings, drawings, prints, and works of applied arts by the “Expressionist by passion”. In addition to important masterpieces by notable German and European museums and collections the show also displays less known aspects of Max Pechstein’s art, for example the earliest painting dating from 1894, some of the rare works of applied arts, privately owned graphic that has never or seldom been on show, and outstanding pieces of his late work. The exhibition, on view from July 10th until November 1st, is completed by original documents and a documentary on the artist.

In addition to important works dating from 1906-1912, the time Max Pechstein belonged to the Dresden artist group „Die Brücke“, the exhibition concentrates on a period lasting until the 1930s, when the artist combined Expressionism’s powerful use of colour with a more academic approach to imagery. A special focus is on the works of applied art which Pechstein had been commissioned for throughout his life. This aspect of the show ties up to the Ahlen Art Museum’s exhibition Farblicht (2001) dedicated to the collection of Gottfried Heinersdorff, the director of a famous Berlin manufactory of glass and mosaics who commissioned Pechstein among a number of artists.

The Ahlen Art Museum features the retrospective’s only show in North Rhine-Westphalia after it had been on show in Kiel and Regensburg earlier this year. The exhibition has been set up in close cooperation with the artist’s heirs. Max Pechstein is presented as a central figure of Modernism whose oeuvre reaches far beyond the famous works of his time with the “Brücke”. On exhibition from 10 July through 1 November.


Max Pechstein was born in Zwickau. Early contact with the art of Vincent Van Gogh stimulated his development toward expressionism. After studying art in Dresden, Pechstein met Erich Heckel and joined the art group Die Brücke in 1906. He was the only member to have formal art training. Later in Berlin, he helped to found the Neue Sezession and gained recognition for his decorative and colorful paintings that were lent from the ideas of Van Gogh, Matisse, and the Fauves. His paintings eventually became more primitive, incorporating thick black lines and angular figures.

Beginning in 1933, Pechstein was vilified by the Nazis because of his art. 326 of his paintings were removed from German museums. 16 of his works were displayed in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition of 1937. During this time, Pechstein went into seclusion in rural Pomerania.He was a prolific printmaker, producing 421 lithographs, 315 woodcuts and linocuts, and 165 intaglio prints, mostly etchings.

Pechstein was a professor at the Berlin Academy for ten years before his dismissal by the Nazis in 1933. He was reinstated in 1945, and subsequently won numerous titles and awards for his work.

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