iBröhan-MuseumCharlottenburg
Cesar Klein. Image Space Stage
Berlin's first monographic show on Cesar Klein, 150 years after his birth: Neue Secession co-founder, painter, and a leading stage and interior designer of the 1920s.
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The poster for this show is a bathroom window. It reproduces The Birth of Venus, a full-size working cartoon Cesar Klein made in 1917 for a window in the Lewin villa in Breslau. Klein painted, but he also designed mosaics, stained glass, furniture, porcelain, cinema interiors and film sets.
Around 200 loans make this the first monographic Klein show Berlin has ever had, 150 years after his birth. He joined the Neue Secession in 1910, turned down the Bauhaus in 1919 and became one of the 1920s' most sought-after stage designers. The Nazis banned him from painting, leaving stage design as his only work. One of his stage sets has been rebuilt for the show, so you get the set itself, not only the drawings for it.
Admission is €9 (€6 reduced), or €4 for everyone on the first Wednesday of the month. Free tours run Saturdays at 3pm, and curator Anna Grosskopf leads three on Sundays at 4pm (1 Nov, 10 Jan, 21 Feb).
Look for
The Lewin villa bathroom window
Look for Klein's 1917 gouache design on parchment paper for a bathroom window in a Breslau villa; its full-size Birth of Venus cartoon is the show's poster.
Nudes in a Landscape, in glass
A 1914 panel where Klein's nude figures in a landscape are set entirely in glass mosaic on wood, made with the mosaic workshop Puhl & Wagner.
The 'Champagne Hell' room
Klein's 1914 gouache design for a room called Sekthölle, Champagne Hell, at the artists' party Maske und Palette.
Klein on the set of Genuine
A 1920 photograph of Klein putting the last touches to actress Fern Andra's costume on the set of the film Genuine.
The rebuilt stage set
One of Klein's historical stage designs, reconstructed in three dimensions with TheaterGemeinde Berlin's backing, so you see it as space rather than as a drawing.
Good for
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
With kids
Free Family Sundays run every third Sunday of the month at 11am for children aged 5 to 12 and their families (90 minutes, register at vermittlung@broehan-museum.de). The mosaic workshops are 16 and over.
Also at Bröhan-Museum
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Image credits
7
- Cesar Klein. Image Space StageCourtesy of Bröhan-Museum
- Ida Gerhardi – “… and everyone was dancing!”Courtesy of Käthe Kollwitz Museum Berlin
- Carola Lampe: Tell Me What To See© Carola Lampe
- The Anonymous Project by Lee Shulman: No Place Like Home© Lee Shulman / The Anonymous Project. Courtesy of Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière
- Bröhan-MuseumBröhan-Museum / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museum BerggruenDaniel71953 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Käthe Kollwitz Museum BerlinAcediscovery / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0