St. Louis businessman Morton May fell in love with German Expressionist art in the 1950s. What began as a personal collection became a lifetime of steady accumulation — and, after May’s death, the artworks found a new home at the St. Louis Art Museum.
But when May first purchased those paintings, he couldn’t have known what lay beneath the surface of the canvas. Modern technology and scanning tools have since revealed hidden stories of how these paintings were made — and what was covered up.
Those discoveries are being showcased in a new exhibit, “Concealed Layers: Uncovering Expressionist Paintings,” which opens Friday.
Courtney Books, an associate paintings conservator at the St. Louis Art Museum, told St. Louis on the Air that the techniques revealed sketches, signatures and even earlier versions of works that were later painted over by the artists.
In one case, a particular artist “was known to have a signature, and we weren't seeing that visibly on the painting,” Books said. “With ultraviolet light, that signature pops up — that is one of the highlights in the show.”
German Expressionism first rose in the 20th century, introducing audiences to a style that offered a pointed departure from realism. Emerging in the 1910s, the artists of the movement “were inspired to really explore abstraction and artificial, bold, glaring color in new and exciting ways,” said Assistant Curator of Modern Art Melissa Venator.
She added, “It took Germany, and then the world, by storm.”
But a different kind sort of storm crashed into the movement. The rise of Germany’s Nazi government triggered a devastating backlash against anything deemed “modernism.” After Adolf Hitler denounced the movement as degenerate, German Expressionist artists were censored, and many were forced to flee Germany.
“The movement didn't survive. It was fundamentally changed by the persecution that the artists experienced in Germany. Works were destroyed,” Venator said.
“The paintings that we have at the museum really are rare survivors of what was a multiyear campaign to wipe expressionism off the face of the earth. Which makes those paintings all the more precious.”
Related event
What: Concealed Layers: Uncovering Expressionist Paintings
When: March 15-Aug. 4
Where: St. Louis Art Museum (1 Fine Arts Drive, St. Louis, MO 63110)
To learn more about the German Expressionist movement, and the discoveries curators have made about the artworks, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast or by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Roshae Hemmings is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
