Berlin Metropolis

Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture 1890-1918, The Jewish Museum, New York, November 14, 1999-April 23, 2000.

Children of Berlin: Cultural Developments 1989-1999, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York, November 7, 1999-January 2, 2000.

At the close of the millennium, two major art centers in New York hosted exhibitions designed to exalt the mythic connotations of Berlin as one of the primary cultural sites of the twentieth century. The myth of Berlin has been compounded by the physical upheavals in the city: its devastation in the immediate post-war periods (1918-1933; 1946-1961), the division with the Berlin Wall, and the reunification of the city in 1989. Unlike Paris, which has a romantic glow, Berlin is a city that has been viewed in extremis, with exaggerated angles and garish shadings: Berlin, of course, was the city of Expressionism.

Berlin Metropolis takes Berlin back to the period when Modernism was in formation, and Berlin was one of the centers of that transformation. Through over 250 art works, not just paintings, drawings, and sculptures, but posters, prints, and memorabilia, the exhibition shows the various styles (Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Futurism, et al.) which would meld in Berlin to create "the New Culture." An important sidelight to the exhibition is the political dimension of cultural life: the exhibition makes the point that Jews were excluded from many aspects of public life in Germany, such as the military, the government, and the imperial court. Nevertheless, prominent Jews turned to alternative public life, to the art galleries, the journals, and the theatre. The myth of Berlin centers on the Weimar Republic that followed the end of the first World War; the subject of Berlin Metropolis is the Wilhelmine period, the years just before the first World War, when Berlin strived for cosmopolitanism, leading to the Berlin Secession, the movement that proposed alternatives to traditional galleries and patronage by the state. Emily D. Bilski, the curator of the exhibition, has stated that the impetus of the show was to present a period that is not as well-known to American audiences, but was nevertheless one of the true birthplaces of German modernism.

Bilski's point is that Berlin, by 1900 the third largest city in Europe, was a capital of a rapidly growing military and industrial power, which meant there was a great deal of commerce going on in the city. The continual influx of goods and trade influenced the cultural realm, where artists such as the Russian Alexander Archipenko, the Italian Umberto Boccioni, and the Norwegian Edvard Munch could have their work shown. This constant trade in the arts, in most cases propelled by Jewish entrepreneurs, artists, and editors, brought about the vital Wilhelmine period, which lasted from 1888 through 1918. Among the prominent figures from this period were the painter Max Liebermann and his cousins Paul and Bruno Cassirer. As the first president of the Berliner Secession, Liebermann was responsible for developing the network of alternative art sites where the modern art of the period would flourish. Interestingly, most of this art would not be overtly political, but the formal experimentation of this work would result in many cries of "subversion" by conservative forces. This could be seen as the beginning of the eventual denunciation of Modernism by fascistic political leaders.

Though the sociopolitical background is the reason that the exhibition was presented by the Jewish Museum, Berlin Metropolis itself proved to be a gentle treasure trove of Modernism at the turn of the last century. Because the exhibition was confined to one floor of the museum, there was no room for large-scale pieces, but with a concentration on prints, drawings, and small paintings, there was almost an embarrassment of riches, with the effect of going through a particularly well-organized attic, with enormous riches to provide constant delight. Although there are pieces by such well-known figures of Modernism as Archipenko, Boccioni, Munch...