The Day Is Gone: 100 Years of the New Objectivity

The 1920s and 1930s were loud, dazzling, and full of contradictions. Between the metropolis and nightlife, work and leisure, progress and uncertainty, a visual language of astonishing precision emerged—one that has lost none of its impact to this day.

The artists of New Objectivity turned their attention to the visible world. Instead of expressive gestures, they chose clear contours, sharply observed details, and the realities of their time—often rendered with an almost unflinching precision. Their figures became types of a society in transition. The self-assured “New Woman” behind the wheel, the exhausted working woman in her kitchen, the traumatised war veteran amid the bustle of the street, or the elegant dandy at the variety theatre all tell of hopes, ruptures, and changing social roles.

Drawing on the Jan E. Fischer Private Collection and complemented by loans from Austrian collections, the exhibition leads from the artist’s studio to the streets of the pulsating metropolis, into the theatre, and finally into the night.

Painting, works on paper, photography, and sculpture by Dodo, Lotte Laserstein, Jeanne Mammen, George Grosz, Otto Dix, and Christian Schad present New Objectivity not as a uniform style, but as a multifaceted movement encompassing a wide range of artistic positions and perspectives.

A hundred years later, these images feel strikingly contemporary. They speak of social change, identity, gender roles, and experiences of crisis—and of questions that have lost none of their urgency today.

A publication will accompany the exhibition.