Praised and Ridiculed

From the glamour of the Golden Twenties to the depths of the dark side of a world undergoing rapid change - the penetrating content of works by more than 60 artists recreates the age of the Weimar Republic, big - city life and the entertainment scene as well as the consequences of the First World War and socially controversial topics such as prostitution, political struggle and social tensions. As the first German democracy, the Weimar Republic (1918 - 1933) is regarded as a time of crisis and transition - from the German Empire to the totalitarian regime of National Socialism. Numerous artists not only portrayed these years in their realistic representations, which are ironical and grotesque as well as critical - analytical; they also aimed to comment on the stat us quo and bring about social change. Works from Otto Dix and George Grosz via Conrad Felixmuller and Christian Schad to Dodo, Jeanne Mammen, Elfriede Lohse - Wachtler, famous artists and others waiting to be rediscovered, paint a multi - layered and political picture of the Weimar Republic.

In the juxtaposition of so-called “Salon painters” and “Reformers of painting” this volume offers a discriminating look at the controversial styles in French painting between 1820 and 1880 and the developments within the traditional genres.Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism – these are still the most important stylistic labels which acted as slogans for French painting during the 19th century. At that time Delacroix, Courbet, Manet and many others left the “straight and narrow” of painting, the academic-neo-classical manner. Highly controversial at the time, today these painters are celebrated worldwide as precursors of Modernism. The situation is very different when it comes to the Salon painters like Meissonier, Cabanel, Gérôme and Bouguereau, who were highly regarded at the time. Today they have been consigned to the fringes, especially in the German-speaking region – unjustifiably, because they play an outstanding role with regard to our understanding of developments in art at the time.