Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
February 23 – June 29, 2014 West Building, Ground Floor, West Outer Tier Galleries
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Aschaffenburg 1880–1938 Davos, Three Bathers by Stones, 1913, color lithograph, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection, 1986
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Johannes August Nahl, German, 1710–1785, The Tomb of Madame Langhans, 1750s, etching, proof before caption, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, German, 1759–1835, The Cow in the Swamp, 1800/1803, etching, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Maximilian Kurzweil, Austrian, 1867–1916, Der Polster (The Cushion), 1903, color woodcut on japan paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German, 1880–1938, Russian Dancers, 1909, color lithograph, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection, 1986
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German, 1880–1938, Fränzi Reclining, 1910, crayon on yellow paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German, 1880–1938, Three Bathers by Stones, 1913, color lithograph, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection, 1986
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German, 1884–1976, Woman with Loose Hair, 1913, woodcut on japan paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Erich Heckel, German, 1883–1970, Lake in the Park, 1914, drypoint, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2006
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German, 1880–1938, Five Women on the Street, 1914, woodcut on blotting paper, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection, 1985
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German, 1880–1938, Self-Portrait, 1928, watercolor over crayon, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German, 1880–1938, Head of Dr. Bauer, 1933, color woodcut on japan paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Egon Schiele, Austrian, 1890–1918, Mountain Stream, 1917, crayon, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Walter Gramatté, German, 1897–1929, Qual (Torment), 1920/1921, color lithograph on japan paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection
Gerhard Richter, German, b. 1932, Sheet Corner, 1967, color offset lithograph, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012
This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.
Overview: In May 2012, the National Gallery of Art received a magnificent bequest of 781 works of art from Ruth Cole Kainen (1922–2009). Born in Arkansas and raised in Oregon, Ruth Cole moved permanently to Washington in the late 1950s, where she became an active patron of the arts. Her bequest—primarily prints, drawings, watercolors, and rare illustrated books—was the culmination of many other donations that she and her husband Jacob Kainen (1909–2001) had given the Gallery over the previous thirty-five years. Her gifts have included works from five centuries representing most major periods and styles of European and American art. This exhibition presents more than one hundred of her finest German drawings, prints, and watercolors.
Ruth Kainen focused on German art from 1910 to 1930. These were the peak years of expressionism, a movement that rejected the academic pursuit of timeless, idealized beauty in favor of creating dynamic art that reflected life and experience in the modern world. Ruth Kainen acquired works by the most important expressionists, with a particular interest in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and others in his circle. She placed these major acquisitions within a broader context by collecting lesser known artists from the German-speaking world, including artists outside the expressionist sphere. And she selected works from preceding and later periods that resonated with the central expressionist themes of human life and passion, and an individual’s relationship to society and to nature.
Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Sponsor: The exhibition is supported in part by a generous grant from the Thaw Charitable Trust.
