„Erfreut sich die Ausstellung weiterer Unbeliebtheit?“
Moderne Kunst in schwierigen Zeiten

With his 1925 exhibition “Neue Sachlichkeit. German Painting since Expressionism”, Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub gave a name to an entire art movement. After the National Socialists seized power, the director of the Mannheim Kunsthalle was immediately dismissed and was henceforth barred from entering his institute. His son Felix Hartlaub, who would later become famous for his literary notes published from his estate, was on a study trip to Italy at the time. From there, he exchanged information with his father about the political upheaval in Germany, the events in the museum and the conditions in fascist Italy, where more and more refugees were arriving from the north.

The explosive family letters were published in SINN UND FORM in 2017. Editor-in-chief Matthias Weichelt talks about them with the author Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, member of the Akademie and well-versed connoisseur of Felix Hartlaub's works.

The literary journal SINN UND FORM has been published by the Akademie der Künste since 1950. The fact that during GDR times texts could be published here that were not allowed to be printed elsewhere (including by Volker Braun, Christa Wolf, Ulrich Plenzdorf, Peter Hacks, Christoph Hein) established the legendary reputation of the “Beiträge zur Literatur”.