//TWENTIETH-CENTURY PAINTINGS
Background
This section traces several major avant-garde trends from the Impressionists through to the second half of the 20th century. The works of Pierre Bonnard,Robert Delaunay and Claude Monet offer considerable insight into explorations of light at the turn of the 20th century.
The fruitful exchanges between French artists and their German counterparts (including Willi Baumeister, Julius Bissier and Max Ernst) in the 20th century are well represented within the collection. The collection also offers a reexamination of the abstractionist movements of the 1950s and 60s through the works of artists like Hans Hartung, Jean Hélion, Pierre Soulages and Bram van Velde.
The museum’s prints and drawings by Otto Dix, Max Beckmann and George Grosz enrich our appreciation of these artists as leading figures of the New Objectivity movement, which arose in Germany in the 1920s. In addition, the collection includes a number of surrealist collages (in particular, “exquisite corpse” drawings by André Breton as well as collages by Georges Hugnet, Max Ernst and Joseph Cornell), engravings by Johnny Friedlaender, compositions by Hans Reichel and collages by Jeanne Coppel and Joe Downing.
To ensure the long-term preservation of these works, the presentation of prints and drawings is regularly renewed. Please note that the modern art collection is not on view year round (enquire with the museum before visiting).
This section presents works by major artists such as Monet, Guillaumin, Bonnard and Derain, who developed a new conception of art at the turn of the 20th century.
The museum’s modern art collections provide an overview of the abstract art movement, from the 1920s to the Second World War.
Two main 20th-century trends in abstract art are represented in the collection: geometric abstraction and lyrical inspiration.