Art News

"Max Liebermann: Trailblazer of Modernism" exhibition at Hamburger Kunsthalle

HAMBURG.- Max Liebermann (1847-1935) is credited with introducing Modernism to German painting. For the first time, a new exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle presents a comprehensive retrospective revealing how this process took place and the impressive oeuvre Liebermann was executing at the time. Disillusioned by German academia, the young Berliner turned to France and Holland where he immersed himself in the progressive trends of the day. Liebermann studied outdoor painting in Barbizon, the cradle of naturalism; in Paris he came into contact with French Impressionism and in Holland he met supporters of The Hague School. In taking what he absorbed there and allowing it to flow into his work, Liebermann entered new territory both stylistically and in terms of subject. Liebermann’s rendition of simple rural labor without literary and historical references drew harsh criticism at first, eventually