The exhibition catalogue examines medieval art and European modernism together: Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann, Käthe Kollwitz and other modern artists borrowed stylistic or thematic elements from the Gothic model, translating these motifs into a contemporary formal language. The artworks that resulted possess great emotional and creative power and continue to resonate today. Modernism is often described as a fundamental break with tradition. Yet precisely as art was being redefined around 1900, a deliberate backward glance at the late Middle Ages played a central role among artists. The encounter with medieval aesthetics opened up new ways for modern art to engage with fundamental questions of human existence, with life and death and love and sexuality, and also withspirituality. This magnificent volume shows how the idea of the Gothic influenced all artistic areas and brought forth new forms of expression.Artists: Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Baldung Grien, Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Arnold Böcklin, Edward Burne-Jones, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, Albrecht Dürer, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Vincent van Gogh, Matthias Grünewald, Jacoba van Heemskerck, Hans Holbein d. J., Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Theodor Kittelsen, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, Max Klinger, Oskar Kokoschka, Käthe Kollwitz, George Minne, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Helene Schjerfbeck, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Hugo Simberg, Martin Schongauer, Marianne Stokes
Mittelalterbegeisterung ist topaktuell – in der Kunst der Moderne wie heute
Ralph Gleis
Ralph Gleis war langjähriger Direktor der Alten Nationalgalerie in Berlin und Kurator zahlreicher Ausstellungen zur Kunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Seit 2025 ist er Generaldirektor der Albertina, Wien.
Gothic Northern Europe creative experiments 1900 figurative language expressive expressiveness modernity sexuality spirituality identity Malerei Malerei 20. Jahrhundert 21. Jahrhundert Influence on art