Guggenheim

In 1909 Heinrich (1859-1935) and his son Justin (1892-1976) Thannhauser, the heirs of a Bavarian-Jewish bourgeois family, inaugurated the Modern Galerie in Munich. The new gallery had its finger on the pulse of the latest European trends: Impressionism, post-impressionism and a lot of avant-garde, from the buds of cubism that blossomed in Cézanne’s paintings to the young Picasso. In 1913 the Thannausers decided to send twenty works by German artists to New York for the Armory Show. This decision triggered the beginning of their international market. American customers flocked, attracted by the impeccable quality of the work they offered and their selection of European avant-garde masters. The exhibition is curated by Megan Fontanella, curator of modern art at the Guggenheim. Fifty masterpieces trace the story of this exceptional collection, which eluded Nazi seizure and was later donated to the Guggenheim in 1963.