Mid-European Art Exhibition

Andrea Lehmann, senior researcher and associate director of restitution at Christie’s, Brussels, will talk about her ongoing researches into the tactfully named Mid-European Art Exhibition held at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in 1944 – 80 years ago this year. In fact, this was an extraordinary project with a remarkable history, an exhibition of world-class avant-garde German art condemned by the Nazis as ‘degenerate’ held in a provincial gallery in wartime Britain and organised largely by the Free German League of Culture, set up by refugees from Nazi persecution.

As the impassioned Foreword to the modest catalogue put it: “The instability of the period is reflected in the paintings… The rise of Hitlerism destroyed the schools and the spirit, exiled and oppressed the men and their works. Modern art was persecuted. Here we can only show and judge what was attempted before this catastrophe overtook the creative spirit of a continent… We wish to thank all those who have loaned their pictures… and rescued them from certain destruction.”

Andrea will explain how she set about reconstructing this remarkable and still too little-known exhibition, and will be joined by Simon Lake, former Curator of Fine Art at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, who will set the exhibition in its local context, focussing on the links between the German-Jewish Hess family and Leicester, and the role of British curator Trevor Thomas.

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