1½ col 6-Hubbuch…

Karl Hubbuch, “The Film Star Spends Two Minutes In Her Parents’ Garden,” circa 1932, The Pierpont Morgan Library, bequest of Fred Ebb.

1½ col 05-Heckel…

Erich Heckel, “Seated Man (Self-Portrait),” 1912, The Pierpont Morgan Library, bequest of Fred Ebb. ©Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

MUST RUN 4-13

FROM BERLIN TO BROADWAY AT MORGAN LIBRARY w/2/cuts

avv/lsb set 4/6 #695273

NEW YORK CITY — An extraordinary collection of 43 early Twentieth Century German and Austrian drawings by some of the leaders of the German Expressionist movement and Vienna Secession will be on view at The Morgan Library & Museum April 20–September 2.

The exhibition, “From Berlin to Broadway: The Ebb Bequest of Modern German and Austrian Drawings,” is drawn from a collection formed by Broadway lyricist Fred Ebb (1928–2004), and includes drawings by Max Beckmann (1884–1950), Egon Schiele (1890–1918), Otto Dix (1891–1969), George Grosz (1893–1959), Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) and Ernest Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938). In total, 22 artists from the period are represented in the Ebb collection, which is shown in its entirety.

Most of the drawings and watercolors date from 1910 to 1925, when Expressionism dominated the avant-garde in Germany and Austria. The exhibition will therefore be an occasion to reassess the vital role this movement played in the development of modern art at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The earliest work in the exhibition is a depiction of an old peasant woman by Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907). Executed circa 1899, it continues to reflect the realist tendencies of the second half of the Nineteenth Century.

At the end of the chronological span of the exhibition, the most recent work is a drawing created by Max Beckmann in 1947, soon after his arrival in the United States, where he would spend the last three years of his life. This unsettling vision of a New York nightclub epitomizes the mood of many works in the exhibition, in which the figures appear to be hovering between happiness and tragedy.

Urban entertainment, a frequent theme of German Expressionism, held special significance for Ebb and is also represented in his collection by a watercolor of street musicians by Grosz as well as by a humorous drawing by Karl Hubbuch, “The Film Star Spends Two Minutes in her Parents’ Garden.”

A strength of the Ebb collection is its large number of portraits, including a powerful self-portrait of Erich Heckel (1883–1970) in his studio (1912) and another by Schiele (1910) in which the disembodied head of the artist, with typically tormented features, seems to be floating in a dramatic, spare composition.

The largest number of works by a single artist in the Ebb bequest is the eight drawings by Schiele, four of which are portraits. They display the tense poses characteristic of the artist. Other important figure compositions in the exhibition include the social and political satires of Grosz and Dix, whose “Pimp and Girls,” 1923 is a vivid example of the combination of violence and eroticism frequently found in his depictions of the seamier side of urban life.

Expressionist artists often addressed similar subjects; their styles, however, could be widely divergent, ranging from the quickly sketched, angular forms of Kirchner’s strolling figures to the delicate and decorative line of Gustav Klimt’s (1862–1918) nudes. Many drawing techniques — pencil, charcoal, ink — are represented in the exhibition, which includes a concentration of watercolors, a medium that, in the words of the author of a recent catalog, “often conveys, in the grand period of German Expressionism, the purest rendering of the spiritual essence of the epoch.”

“This superb collection formed by Fred Ebb and generously bequeathed to the Morgan underscores our commitment to acquiring and exhibiting Twentieth Century art,” said Charles E. Pierce, Jr, director of The Morgan Library & Museum. “We are grateful to Joan Fisher for helping us obtain this collection. Most of the drawings in the collection have not been publicly exhibited for nearly 30 years and some have never been reproduced. As a group they offer new insights into a movement that had tremendous influence on modern art.”

Ebb began assembling his collection in the late 1960s, following the success of Cabaret, the Broadway musical he co-wrote with composer John Kander in 1966.

“From Berlin to Broadway: The Ebb Bequest of Modern German and Austrian Drawings” is organized by Isabelle Dervaux, curator of Modern and contemporary drawings, The Morgan Library & Museum.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Morgan will publish a fully illustrated catalog that documents the entire bequest.

The Morgan Library & Museum is at 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street. For more information, 212-685-0008 or www.themorgan.org.