It is a commonplace, frightening and fascinating at the same time: everything that has been captured in pictures no longer exists or no longer exists in the form depicted. In art, the theme of transience is often symbolized as a memento mori or melancholic meditation on the disappearance of things. Images of dreams, encounters with people and explorations of nature also show only fleeting moments. Sometimes the fleeting becomes the explicit subject of a depiction that nevertheless seeks to capture it: Clouds are constantly changing, snow soon melts, trees only bloom for a short time.
Lovis Corinth, Selbstbildnis mit Skelett / Self-portrait with Skeleton, 1896, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau München / Lenbachhaus Munich. Photo / Photo: Lenbachhaus
In times of climate change, the awareness that our entire environment is changing rapidly has become omnipresent. This is why we look at works of landscape art in particular with different eyes today. They show a nature that has always been influenced by humans. A landscape is no longer just a beautiful sight, but a threatened ecosystem.
The exhibition is built around such moments of recognition. It shows well-known as well as rarely or never before exhibited works from the 19th and 20th centuries from the collections of the Lenbachhaus, the Historical Society of Upper Bavaria, the Christoph Heilmann Foundation, the Munich Secession, the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation and the Förderverein Lenbachhaus e. V. Art works with the ephemeral and with the knowledge of transience. In this, it coincides with the idea of the museum, which holds on to works of art, collects them and wants to preserve and communicate them.
Jacques Hérold, Le Baiser (The Kiss), 1962, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau Munich, purchased by the Förderverein Lenbachhaus e.V. 2024. photo: Lenbachhaus
With works by: Albrecht Adam, Antoine-Louis Barye, Joseph Beaume, Rosa Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, Heinrich Bürkel, Wilhelm Busch, Maria Caspar-Filser, Lovis Corinth, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Johan Christian Dahl, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, Narcisse Virgilio Diaz de la Peña, Ignaz Dillis, Jules Luis Dupré, Maria Eichhorn, Thomas Fearnley, Thomas Theodor Heine, Jacques Hérold, Wilhelm Jakob Hertling, Paul Hoecker, Wassily Kandinsky, Wilhelm Leibl, Franz Marc, Pierre-Jules Mêne, Adolph Menzel, Christiane Möbus, Christian Ernst Bernhard Morgenstern, Gabriele Münter, Jean Bloé Niestlé, Blinky Palermo, Leo Putz, Gerhard Richter, Richard Riemerschmid, Carl Rottmann, Théodore Rousseau, Eduard Schleich d. Ä., Johann Sperl, Carl Spitzweg, Toni Stadler, Wilhelm Trübner, Timm Ulrichs, Johann Georg von Dillis, Wilhelm von Kobell, Franz von Lenbach, Gabriel von Max, Max Joseph Wagenbauer, Fritz Winter
March 4 until the end of the year 2025
www.lenbachhaus.de
Johann Georg von Dillis, Modern Tree Stump and Hunting Dog, undated, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau Munich, on permanent loan from the Christoph Heilmann Foundation. Photo: Lenbachhaus
