From 27 October to 28 February 2021, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum presents the exhibition on German Expressionism in Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza’s Collection, which, for the first time in decades, brings together the German expressionism works from the Thyssen Collection and the set of expressionist paintings that remained in the hands of Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza and his children.
Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002) initiated a change of direction in the Thyssen family’s collecting when he acquired a watercolour by Emil Nolde in May 1961. Whilst his father, Henrich Thyssen, had assembled a remarkable collection of Old Masters during the inter-war period, the Baron was extremely active as a collector of the principal 20th century art movements in which German Expressionism occupied a key position, between the 1970s and 1990s.
In 1993, the Spanish State acquired most of the Thyssen collection and a significant selection of German Expressionist art, which passed into the hands of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum.
This exhibition modifies the usual chronological display of Expressionism in the museum’s galleries in order to offer a revamped vision structured around three concepts: the paintings’ creative process, their success with the public and critics, and the relationship between Baron Thyssen and his art dealers and the exhibition projects that he organised to promote his collection internationally.
Image Credit:
Erich Heckel. House in Dangast (The White House), 1908. Oil on Canvas. 71 x 81 cm © VEGAP, Madrid
