Max Liebermann From Leisure to Modern Sport   22.11.2016 – 26.02.2017

Just do it!

Today the world of sports permeates almost every aspect of life. It is an element of our modern lifestyle. In Germany, the incredible success story of sports began over a hundred years ago. Max Liebermann was the first German artist to focus extensively on this subject in numerous works of art.

Sports and Impressionism
A major exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bremen for the first time examines Max Liebermann’s depictions of leisure, physical activity and sports. Selected works by Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec demonstrate how Liebermann was inspired by the works of these famous French masters yet developed his own distinctive style. Paintings of tennis matches by the British Impressionist John Lavery were also a source of inspiration.

Tennis, Horseback Riding, Polo
The exhibition illustrates the history of horseback riding, tennis and polo around 1900, giving viewers an impression of the Wilhelminian upper classes for whom these new English sports were all the rage. Athletic activities also carried out an important function in society. Tennis, for example, was considered to be a “flirting sport” and the fenced-in courts were satirized as “betrothal pens”.

The Popularity of Sporting Events in the 1920s
Following the First World War, Liebermann’s athletic motifs faded into the background. Younger artists discovered the new sport of boxing. Their images and sculptures reflect the contrast between Liebermann’s elegant amateurs and the celebrity cult that developed in the Berlin Sportpalast.