19.01.2018 –
12.03.2018
ARMIN STERN – ZIONIST, BORDER CROSSER, COSMOPOLITAN
Armin Stern (1883-1944) at the Kunsthaus Dahlem.
The Kunsthaus Dahlem will exhibit, for the first time ever in Berlin, works by the Jewish painter Armin Stern, largely forgotten after years of living in exile. Born in 1883 in Galánta, Austria-Hungary, near today’s Bratislava, Slovakia, Stern studied painting beginning in 1900 in several cities that he resided in, including Frankfurt, Munich and Paris, which greatly influenced his work. He made a name for himself with social criticism- and Old Testament-related themes as well as landscapes and portraits, straddling the border between French impressionism and German expressionism.
During extensive travels through Europe and the Middle East, Stern painted the land and its people. He became a much sought-after portraitist, painting portraits of religious Jews as well as cultural, academic and political celebrities including Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein and David Ben Gurion. Stern twice fled from the Nazi regime which banned and confiscated his works, first in 1933 to his native Bratislava, then in 1938 to New York, where he was well-known from earlier exhibitions. He died in exile in 1944.
The exhibition will feature approximately 30 oil and watercolor paintings and sketches from different creative phases of the artist’s career.
Opening: Thursday, January 18, 2018; 7 p.m.
With generous support from the AXEL SPRINGER FOUNDATION
The exhibition is sponsored by His Excellency Dr. Peter Lizák, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic, in cooperation with the Slovak Institute in Berlin.