The painter Leo von König (1871-1944) was an outstanding representative of the Berlin Secession and a long-standing member of its board. He lived in Tutzing from 1943 and met Lothar-Günther Buchheim there. The friendship with the entire von König family lasted for many years and deepened into a very personal contact.
The Buchheim Museum is dedicating a major monographic exhibition to Leo von König. This is based on 48 previously unknown paintings that came to the museum from the Buchheim couple's estate in 2014. It has not yet been possible to find out how the partially stretched canvases came into Buchheim's possession. Following an agreement with the heirs of Leo and Anna von König, half of this collection is still in the Buchheim Museum as a donation or long-term loan. These paintings have been restored and scientifically inventoried for the exhibition and are now being presented to the public for the first time. Their presentation is interwoven with an extensive retrospective of other works by the artist from the Buchheim Collection as well as numerous loans from private collections and museums. In addition to von König's highly esteemed portraits, his lesser-known landscapes, animal paintings and mythological motifs will also play a role. Leo von König is honored as an important artist of his time in terms of art history, but is also viewed on the basis of current political and social historical findings, as he experienced the political and social changes from the German Empire to the Weimar Republic to Nazi rule. His work reflects this development.
December 2, 2023 to April 7, 2024
www.buchheimmuseum.de
Leo von König, Cilly Außem, around 1932, Buchheim Museum der Phantasie, Bernried am Starnberger See / Long-term loan from private collection, Reproduction: Nikolaus Steglich, Starnberg
