Kirchner painting on show again in Basel after more than 100 years

Kirchner painting on show again in Basel after more than 100 years Keystone-SDA

The painting "Dance in a Variety Theatre" by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was thought to be lost for decades. Now it is on public display at the Kunstmuseum Basel for the first time in over 100 years.

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Kirchner painted the large-format painting in 1911, shortly before the German artist’s attention turned from the variety theatres to the streets of Berlin. It shows a dance scene – a so-called “cakewalk” – with a black protagonist and a white dancer. The “cakewalk” originated in the US. The enslaved people made fun of the dances of their white masters. The winning couple was rewarded with cake.

The history of the painting, which was last shown in an exhibition in Berlin in 1923 before disappearing, makes fascinating reading. It was only documented in black and white photographs, some of which Kirchner had taken himself.

The painting ended up in the collection of the Protestant councillor of commerce Max Gläser, who acquired it shortly before his death in 1931. It was offered to the Basel Art Museum as a bequest in 1932, but the museum could not afford the painting at the time. It ended up in the possession of another private collector.

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Hidden during the Nazi era

During the Nazi reign of terror, the painting, which was considered “degenerate”, had to be hidden. It ended up on a farm, where it was discovered by French soldiers in 1945. They were obviously not art lovers, as evidenced by a bullet hole in the head of one of the dancers and a bayonet thrust in the body of the dancer.

The collector finally bequeathed the work to his children in 1980 on the condition that it should be returned to the public domain. It took 44 years for this to happen. On June 7, 2024, the painting was purchased at auction by the Im Obersteg Foundation for around €7 million (CHF6.5 million) and subsequently restored at the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Now “Tanz im Varieté” is on public display again for the first time in over 100 years in the “Paarlauf” exhibition.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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