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A master of the expressionist portrait, Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966) painted numerous portraits during the 1910s and '20s of his many acquaintances in German-Jewish intellectual circles, evidencing his broad literary and artistic networks. This book brings them all vividly together to offer a full picture of Meidner's life and influences. Ludwig Meidner: Encounters examines Meidner's portraits during this period and reveals the many writers, musicians, and fellow artists who were his friends during the years before and during the Weimar Republic. Among the two hundred color plates included are portraits of such significant figures as Leo Baeck, Bella Chagall, Max Herrmann-Neiße, and Max Reinhardt. The selected works reveal the impressive breadth of the scope of Meidner's work and are essential for understanding his oeuvre as a whole.

Few artists are as strongly linked to the historical events and political catastrophes in Germany as Otto Dix (1891–1969). Dix fought and drew on the front during World War I in the grip of a Dionysian lust for life. After 1918, he gave this war the most honest face ever bestowed on it by an artist. During the Weimar Republic, Dix proved to be an enfant terrible, a dandy, and an urban sophisticate, but he was also a respected professor. Driven out of his position by the Nazis just several months after they came to power, then ostracized and threatened, he retreated to Lake Constance, employing broad brushstrokes to forge a new path after 1945. This book accompanies Otto Dix through his eventful life and his multifaceted oeuvre—from the early self-portraits to the masterpieces of the twenties and the calm, mature work of his later career. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2275-9)