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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Tanz im Varieté: A new Highlight of the Im Obersteg Collection

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s (1880–1938) Tanz im Varieté was considered lost for a century. In June 2024 it became part of the Im Obersteg Collection and will be on display to the public after extensive restoration work.

A scene with a finger on the pulse of its time: in Tanz im Varieté, Kirchner shows the cakewalk, a dance that became popular in Europe at the beginnig of the twentieth century. It originated during the time of slavery in the USA as a parody of the dances of white culture. Competitions were organized in this caricaturing dance style, with the winners receiving a cake as a prize—hence the name Cakewalk. In the northern states, minstrel shows adopted the dance. There, white people performed in blackface. The cakewalk thus became a parody of the African Americans who had developed it. It was not until the turn of the century that Black dancers were allowed to perform this dance on theatre stages. Performances soon took place throughout Europe and thus found the cakewalk found its way onto Kirchner’s canvas in Tanz im Varieté. In the foreground, a Black man dances with a woman in the spotlight. Other dancers stand behind them in a semicircle. The colored outlines are typical of Kirchner. The entire picture is dominated by shades of red and pink.

However, it was precisely the painting’s distinctive coloring that was unknown for a long time. The work disappeared in a private collection in Baden-Württemberg after its last sale in 1944 and was only known through a black-and-white photograph. The painting was exhibited twice before it was sold: in 1912, one year after it was created, as part of the first and last group exhibition of the artists’ group die Brücke in Berlin, and in 1923 in a solo exhibition dedicated to Kirchner at the Paul Cassirer art salon. It then came into the possession of the Baden-Württemberg family via the Max Glaeser Collection.

Because the work was considered “degenerate art” and therefore endangered, the concerned family hid it on a farm. They stored it in a locked box in a barn. In 1945, the village where the box was located was taken by French troops. They opened the crate and destroyed the decorative frame of the painting. Then they shot and stabbed the canvas once. The bullet went through the head of the dancer in the foreground and a bayonet pierced the torso of her Black dance partner. After the war, the family had the damage restored. Today, these war wounds are mainly visible on the back of the canvas.

The Im Obersteg Collection is delighted to take in this historic work and make it accessible to the public and to researchers.

The painting Tanz im Varieté will be on display from June 3 in the current exhibition, Pairings, on the ground floor of the Kunstmuseum Basel. 

Pairings

Exhibition in the Kunstmuseum Basel, Main building

Curator: Géraldine Meyer

The phenomenon of epoch-spanning artistic parallels and how they stimulate the imagination is the focus of Pairings. This exhibition shows some twenty juxtapositions of paintings, sculptures, and photographic works from the Museum's own collection with selected objects from the private Im Obersteg Collection.

The mixture of works from different eras and genres may lead at times to surprising encounters, and at times to harmonious elective affinities. For instance, when a large-format painting by contemporary Basel artist Mireille Gros encounters a small oil sketch by Paul Cezanne. Both are united by their artistic exploration of the perception of nature.

The exhibition will remain in constant motion. During the twelve-month run, new artworks will regularly be added, while others are removed. The ever-changing configuration of the collection will thus develop its own choreography.

Selected pairs of works are accompanied by brief observations written by people in and outside the art world. Music, too, is an integral part of Pairings. In a collaboration with the Foundation for Young Musicians Basel, up-and-coming musicians have recorded selected compositions to accompany certain pairs of works. Visitors can listen to the music through headphones on benches in front of the artworks.

A separate exhibition room is dedicated to Marc Chagall: a group of early drawings and a painting by the artist were recently added to the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel. The juxtaposition with the well-known Chagall holdings of the Im Obersteg Collection offers new insights into the painter's early work.

The occasion for the Pairings exhibition is the porcelain anniversary of the Im Obersteg Foundation and the Kunstmuseum Basel: the renowned private collection has been on deposit at the Kunstmuseum Basel for exactly 20 years.

Kunstmuseum Basel - Pairings - Kunstmuseum Basel

Roombooklet - Pairings from June 03, 2025

Roombooklet - Pairings from December 12, 2024

Roombooklet - Pairings from August 17, 2024