New Objectivity

It is extremely rare for an entire epoch to be defined by a single term. However, the young Mannheim Kunsthalle director Gustav F. Hartlaub succeeded in doing just that with his legendary exhibition "Neue Sachlichkeit" (New Objectivity) in 1925. Far beyond its art-historical significance, the term has become synonymous with the cultural awakening of the 1920s - and with the rationality and objective precision observable in art, architecture and literature, which can be seen as a reaction to the great political and social upheavals of that decade. One hundred years later, the Kunsthalle Mannheim is dedicating a major exhibition to the phenomenon of "New Objectivity", which both pays tribute to the achievements of the time, but also critically questions and complements them, especially with regard to the work of women artists, since not a single woman was represented in the 1925 exhibition.