Before the Fall

The final exhibition in Dr. Olaf Peters’s trilogy for Neue Galerie New York, Before the Fall: German and Austrian Art of the 1930s explored artistic life amid economic crisis, political upheaval, and the gathering threat of war. Featuring nearly 150 paintings and works on paper by artists including Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Max Ernst, Oskar Kokoschka, Felix Nussbaum, and Rudolf Wacker, the exhibition revealed a culture suspended between everyday life and impending catastrophe. Working with my creative director Richard Pandiscio, I designed the exhibition and catalogue with a restrained, atmospheric approach that allowed a sense of unease to emerge gradually through the works themselves, reflecting a world in which the future was not yet known, but its shadows were already present.