Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf visits Malmö Konsthall
30.8 – 2.11 1980
In the autumn of 1980, Malmö Konsthall reached a historic milestone when Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf presented the largest collection of 20th-century German art ever exhibited in Sweden. The exhibition featured 150 works by some of modernism’s most influential artists, including Emil Nolde, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, and Franz Marc.
The exhibition offered a broad overview of 20th-century art movements in Germany, ranging from the expressionist Die Brücke and the Bauhaus movement to the abstract and surrealist experiments of the interwar period. Postwar art was represented, among others, by the avant-garde group ZERO, which sought to redefine artistic expression in the aftermath of World War II’s devastation.
One of the exhibition’s most talked-about incidents occurred when Wilhelm Lehmbruck’s sculpture Bather (1914) accidentally fell to the floor after a curious visitor got too close. “Survived two world wars but crashed in Malmö,” the press remarked with a mix of drama and irony.
Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf’s visit to Malmö marked not only a significant art-historical event but also strengthened the cultural ties between Sweden and West Germany. After two months in Malmö, the exhibition traveled on to Stockholm for a continued showing at Liljevalchs Konsthall. It was an exhibition that offered an exceptional insight into the depth and breadth of German modernism and left a lasting impression on its Swedish audience.
