New Objectivity: Modern German Art in the Weimar Republic, 1919–1933

Germany’s Weimar Republic, established between the end of World War I and the Nazi rise to power, was a thriving laboratory of art and culture. As the country experienced unprecedented and often tumultuous social, economic, and political upheaval, many artists rejected Expressionism in favor of a new realism to capture this emerging society. Dubbed Neue Sachlichkeit—New Objectivity—its adherents turned a cold eye on the new Germany: its desperate prostitutes, crippled war veterans, and alienated urban landscapes, but also its emancipated New Woman, modern architecture, and mass-produced commodities. 

New Objectivity: Modern German Art in the Weimar Republic, 1919–1933 is the first comprehensive exhibition in the United States to explore the dominant artistic trends of this period. Organized around five thematic sections and featuring 180 works by more than 50 artists, the exhibition mixes painting, photography, and works on paper to bring them into a visual dialogue. Key figures of modernism, such as Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz, August Sander, and Christian Schad are featured alongside lesser-known artists such as Aenne Biermann, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Hans Finsler, Carl Grossberg, Lotte Jacobi, Alexander Kanoldt, and Georg Schrimpf.

This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in association with Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

The exhibition is supported in part by the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation, Philippa Calnan, and Suzanne Deal Booth. Additional support provided by Margo Leavin and Wendy Stark.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support is provided by Kitzia and Richard Goodman, with generous annual funding from Janet Chann and Michael Irwin in memory of George Chann, Louise and Brad Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Emily and Teddy Greenspan, Jenna and Jason Grosfeld, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation.