Walter Nessler: Post-war Optimist

Walter Nessler, Pigeons on Window Sill, 1952, oil on board, Pallant House Gallery © The Artist’s Estate

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

A significant display of the work of German-born artist Walter Nessler (1912 – 2001), who emigrated to Britain in the 1930s. Though not Jewish, he was violently opposed to fascist ideology and was denounced as ‘degenerate’ by the Nazi regime. This exhibition examines the breadth and versatility of Nessler’s artistic practice from his dynamic and foreboding wartime cityscapes to his exuberant post war paintings. These later works were inspired by his passion for jazz, the inspiration of Matisse and his acquaintance with artists including Picasso, Giacometti and Cocteau who he met in Paris during the late 1940s and 50s.