Before the Fall: German and Austrian Art of the 1930s

The exhibition is devoted to the development of the arts in Germany and Austria during the 1930s, a period marked by economic crisis, political disintegration, and social chaos.

The exhibition is the third show in a trilogy of exhibitions which focus on German history (the other shows were “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany 1937,” 2014, and “Berlin Metropolis: 1918-1933” on view in 2015)

This exhibition features 150 paintings and works on paper by leading artists such as Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Max Ernst, Oskar Kokoschka, and Alfred Kubin, and others. The focus of the show mainly deals with the reaction of the artists towards their historical circumstances, the development of style with regard to the appropriation of various artistic idioms, the personal fate of artists, and major political events that shaped the era.