El Greco and Modernism

Book excerpt: The sensational oeuvre of El Greco (1541-1614) was first introduced to a broader German audience in 1910 through Julius Meier-Graefe's journal, "The Spanish Journey". Numerous artists subsequently caught "Greco fever" when they first saw larger groups of his works in exhibitions in Munich in 1911 and Düsseldorf in 1912. Max Beckmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Oppenheimer, Ludwig Meidner, and especially members of the Blaue Reiter-August Macke, Franz Marc, Albert Bloch, and others-recognized in El Greco a father figure for the Modernist movement, mentioning him in the same breath as Paul Cézanne. This volume presents a general selection of over forty paintings by El Greco from the most famous museums around the world. At the same time, the young artists' exploration of the paintings and visual spheres of the exceptional Spanish painter are discussed, opening up a fascinating view of the battle for Modernism. 0Exhibition: Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany (28.4.-12.8.2012).