*** Please also visit the special exhibition Ludwig Meidner ***

Ludwig Meidner achieved his artistic breakthrough in November 1912 with the exhibition of the Die Pathetiker artist group in Herwarth Walden's Berlin gallery Der Sturm. Meidner was consequently closely associated with literary expressionism: he created illustrations for all the renowned expressionist magazines, published his own texts and painted portraits of countless poets. Many of his paintings show disaster scenarios, the so-called apocalyptic landscapes, which he interpreted in retrospect as premonitions of the First World War. As the war progressed Meidner turned away from expressionism, the utopian expectations of which he felt to be obsolete in the face of the global carnage. Instead, he turned to Judaism and lived his daily life by the religious rules.

Under the pressure of increasing anti-Semitic repression Meidner left Berlin in 1935 to become an art teacher at a Jewish school in Cologne. The Entartete Kunst exhibition, which was launched in 1937, also contained a number of works by Meidner. In August 1939 he emigrated with his family to England where he lived for 14 years in wretched conditions. Meidner regarded his period of detention as an "enemy alien" (1940/1941) almost as a liberation: he was relieved of immediate material concerns and came into contact with other artists and intellectuals. Upon Meidner's return to Germany in 1953 his work, which had almost been forgotten during the years of condemnation, gradually found recognition.

Selected works:

Selbstbildnis, 1912, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt
Das Eckhaus, 1913, Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid
Apokalyptische Landschaft (Beim Bahnhof Halensee), 1913, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Apokalyptische Stadt, 1913, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster
Der Jüngste Tag, 1916, Berlinische Galerie
Porträt Lotte Lenya, 1925, Stadtmuseum Berlin
Junge Frau in grünem Kleid (Ingrid Dennerlein), 1965, Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt

Further reading:

Breuer, Gerda und Wagemann, Ines (Hg.), Ludwig Meidner. Zeichner, Maler, Literat 1884-1966, 2 Bde, Ausstellungskatalog Darmstadt, Stuttgart 1991

Grochowiak, Thomas, Ludwig Meidner, Recklinghausen 1966

Heuberger, Georg (Hg.), Ludwig und Else Meidner Ausstellungskatalog Frankfurt und London, Frankfurt a. M. 2002

Presler, Gerd/Riedel, Erik, Ludwig Meidner. Werkverzeichnis der Skizzenbücher / Catalogue Raisonné of His Sketchbooks, München 2013