Die geistige Emigration

The two artists from Mülheim, Arthur Kaufmann (born 1888) and Otto Pankok (born 1893) were active members of the artists’ association Das Junge Rheinland (Young Rhineland) in the 1920s, with an extended network of artist friends. They created many portraits of their artist friends, who shared their same fate: as “degenerate” artists in Nazi Germany, they were outlawed and forced to withdraw from public life, having to choose between “inner” emigration or exile. The book looks at the theme of artist networks and presents selected works from these artists and the impressive interwoven connections between those who stayed and those forced to leave: Jankel Adler, Ernst Barlach, Theo Champion, Otto Dix, Werner Gilles, George Grosz, Käthe Kollwitz, Else Lasker-Schüler, Gerhard Marcks, Christian Rohlfs, Karl Schwesig, Gert H. Wollheim, Fritzi and Ludwig Rosenwald.