Exhibition room with three seats, a turquoise wall, biographical texts and a purple timeline grid.
Portrait-format crop of the purple exhibition timeline, with a large painting reproduction and numbered image panels.

Biographies of Modern Art

What can provenance reveal about the lives behind an artwork?

Context

Since 2018, the Brücke-Museum has been researching the provenance of its collection, including works that may have been looted under National Socialism. The research brought renewed attention to eight Jewish collectors who supported the Brücke artists and helped shape modern art, but whose names and contributions have largely been forgotten.

Approach

Rather than treating provenance as the history of objects, the exhibition reconnects artworks with the lives from which they became separated. Biographies, works from the collectors’ former collections, and provenance research are woven into shared visual narratives, with individual timelines and large-scale historical images bringing people, places, and relationships into view. By shifting attention from ownership to lived experience, the exhibition makes provenance a history of lives rather than collections.

Exhibition wall with a purple timeline grid, numbered painting reproductions and short texts.
Person standing in front of the bilingual introduction wall “Biografien der Moderne / Biographies of Modern Art”.
Framed portrait painting in front of a large historical interior photograph with bookshelves and a chandelier.
Framed painting in front of a blue historical gallery photograph beside a purple text wall.
Exhibition room with a green wall and framed painting, with purple panels and a Max Osborn section behind it.
Nude painting in front of a large green-tinted interior photograph, beside a portrait painting on white.
Exhibition section about Max Osborn, with wall texts, a painting, a glass case and shelves of books.
Project Title
Biographies of Modern Art
Client
Brücke-Museum
Year
2024
Services
Campaign Design
Role
Concept Development, Art Direction, Design
Curator
Lisa Marei Schmidt
Co-Curator
Ruth Ur
Graphic Design
Sarah Fricke, Lea Sievertsen, Pawel Wolowitsch (Distaff Studio)
Location
Brücke-Museum, Berlin
Image Credits
Nick Ash