Twilight over Berlin

The beginning of the 20th century saw an artistic flourishing in Germany embodied in the works of the great Expressionists, and later in that of the innovative artists of the Weimar Republic. The Nazi regime sought to put an end to this artistic activity – branding it “degenerate art” – and many of the artists had to flee Germany, creating an avant-garde exiled community whose influence also reached pre-State Israel. Marking 50 years of German-Israeli diplomatic relations, the exhibition displays masterpieces from the Nationalgalerie by Kirchner, Nolde, Schmidt-Rottluff, Dix, Kandinsky, Klee, and Beckmann, among others. These powerful works, which cannot leave the viewer unmoved, represent the victory of the aesthetic heritage of modernism over oppression and persecution.