The National Gallery in London will stage its first exhibition of modern German paintings, 'German Expressionism: Modern Painting 1900–1918', in spring 2027, before traveling to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin in autumn 2027. This is the first UK and Ireland exhibition since the 1960s to cover both key Expressionist groups, Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, featuring over fifty international loans from institutions such as Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, Brücke Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago, alongside works from private collections.
This exhibition matters because it marks a significant expansion of the National Gallery's collection into 20th-century art, shifting focus beyond its traditional French-dominated post-1800 holdings. By highlighting German Expressionism's radical experimentation with color and form, the show addresses the under-representation of these artists in British and Irish collections and offers a broader, alternative history of Modernism that challenges established narratives.