Wanderer between the worlds
The friendship Caspar Neher - Bertolt Brecht

03/04 - 06/25/2023 at Grafisches Kabinett

The friendship between Bertolt Brecht and Caspar Neher connected two outstanding artists of the first half of the 20th century: the great playwright and theater theorist and one of the most important stage designers of his time. Both were born around the same time in Augsburg. They met at the Realgymnasium and quickly became close friends. Neher illustrated some of Brecht's early poetic attempts, and the young poet decorated his garret with Neher's designs and drawings. Their personalities, however, were completely different. Tensions arose, even during the period of their great success.

40 exhibits from the Staatsbibliothek, Stadtbibliothek and Kunstsammlungen und Museen
The Kunstsammlungen und Museen hold a valuable collection of around 170 of Neher's prints and sketches, an important collection that includes, for example, an important sketch for Brecht's Drums in the Night from 1922. The exhibition presents a selection of 40 objects, as well as diaries, notebooks and sketchbooks by Neher from the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek.

Discoveries from the depot
The poster motif of the exhibition, Caspar Neher's sketch for Brecht's Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe (Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouses), is particularly special. It is one of the few oil sketches that evokes the dark years of the Great Depression in grisaille technique, with the figure of Joan as a monumentalised flag-bearer at the centre. This sketch, which has never been shown before, is one of the most important discoveries in the repository of the Kunstsammlungen und Museen, as is Neher's grey-toned self-portrait in oil, which already hints at the Expressionist "Oh Mensch" pathos and stages him next to a pear still life with a book.

Recurring Tour: every Sunday, 4 p.m.