By the late 1930s a progressive art collecting policy had been established at Leicester by Art Assistant Arthur C. Sewter, with contemporary British and continental (including German) art being purchased. In 1936, Sewter’s exhibition of Contemporary…

The artists’ urge to overturn and oppose rigid 19th century thinking enabled them to create new and exciting art. Here we tell the story of the beginnings of the Expressionist movement in Germany and how the turmoil of the World Wars led directly to…

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery We are proud to host the largest collection of German Expressionist artwork in the UK, and with support from Arts Council England have re-displayed the collection. Our new gallery uses cutting edge museum design…

Leicester’s internationally acclaimed collection of German Expressionist art, and the eighty-year history of its development, are being celebrated in a new book. ‘German Expressionism: The Leicester Museums and Galleries’ Collection’ presents a full…

The sculptor, printmaker and playwright Ernst Barlach (1870-1938) was born in Wedel and studied in Dresden, Hamburg and briefly in Paris, where he discovered Millet and Meunier before he moved to Berlin in 1899.  A trip to Russia in 1906 inspired…

Max Beckmann (1884-1950) was born in Leipzig and studied at the Weimar Academy before he moved to Berlin in 1905, where he joined the “Berlin Sezession” in 1907 and met Liebermann, Corinth and Slevogt. During the Berlin period, he founded the…

Hubert Berke was born 22 January 1908 in Buer, Westfalla, Germany and died 24 November 1979 in Cologne. Berke was one of the few German artists active after World War II who was successful both as an abstract and as a representational artist. He…

Martin Bloch (1883-1954) was born in Neisse, Silesia.  He studied aesthetics with the Swiss art historian Heinrich Woelfflin in Munich and in 1907 he took drawing lessons in Berlin with Lovis Corinth as teacher. In 1911 Bloch exhibited at the art…

Max Burchartz was born on July 28th 1887, Elberfeld, Germany and died on January 31st 1961, Essen, Germany. In 1907 he began studying at an art academy in Düsseldorf but World War I prevented him from finishing. After World War I he withdrew to…

Heinrich Campendonk was born 3rd November 1889 in Krefeld, Germany and died 9th May 1957 in Amsterdam. As a young artist, he took part in the first exhibition of Der Blaue Reiter in December 1911 in Munich. Contact with the artists in Der Blaue…