Walter Gramatté and Hamburg

The Berlin painter, draughtsman and graphic artist Walter Gramatté (1897-1929), who was befriended with Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and whose autonomous style in the 1920s ranged between Symbolism, Expressionism and Surrealism, had stayed in Hamburg quite frequently. Here, together with his wife the composer Sonia Fridmann-Gramatté, he sought contact with the art scene, among others with the art historian Rosa Schapire and the collector Paul Rauert. The Hamburger Kunsthalle acquired first prints directly from the artist already in 1920 as well as further works later from his widow, and it organized an exhibition for him even in 1933. In 2019 the Kunsthalle was donated 47 graphic works from the Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation in Winnipeg, Canada, along with a painting by Gramatté, so that more than a hundred of the artist’s works are now in Hamburg. A selection drawn from these rich holdings will be presented in the exhibition.   

On the occasion of the exhibition appears in the Small Series, sponsored by the Friends of the Kunsthalle e. V..