Recent acquisitions of the Germanic Museum constitute the second exhibition of the season at that institution. Water-colors, drawings, etchings, woodcuts, lithographs, porcelains and small sculpture all acquired during the past year form an impressive show; illustrating the various phases of modern German art.

A svelte Bronze Youth by the Belgian sculptor Georges Minne contrasts with the emotionally powerful terra cotta Head of a Woman by Wilhelm Lehmbruck and makes the essentially German qualities of the latter all the more apparent. Dainty modern Nymphenburg porcelains made from the eighteenth century molds by Franz Bustelli are placed near the delicate bronze antelope by the contemporary sculptress, Renee Sintenis and show her to be part of an old German tradition of technical excellence. Violently abstract paintings and prints along with sharply realistic ones suggest something of the chaos of postwar Germany.

Disillusionment

The bitter disillusionment of the period is brilliantly expressed in the drawing of A Woman by Otto Dix. There is nothing soft or feminine in the face. Her coarse skin and irregular features express suffering, her eyes have seen the horrors of war. The work is a passionate attack on the brutality and stupidity of modern civilization. Just as forceful in its attack but far more humorous is the drawing by George Grosz called "Berlin Cafe" The bourgeoisie of the German capital is satirized with vitriolic fire. Portrayals of the sufferings of the lower classes appear in the prints and drawings of Nuckel, Burkart, and Kaethe Kollwitz. The handling is so subtle, the technique so skillful, that these pictures are far more than mere proletarian propaganda.

Very different in character are the works of Kandinsky and Klee. The former seeks a refuge from modern life through a play of abstract form and colour. Squares, triangles and circles carefully arranged make balanced colour compositions that gladden the eye but never attack the intellect or the emotions. Klee's refuge is in dreams. Like the surrealists, he portrays vague images conjured up from the subconscious and paints them with a tongue-in-the-cheek seriousness that has been completely misunderstood by his lugubrious colleagues in Paris. Nolde, like the sculptor Lehmbruck, is German in his intensity and paints with an inner fire that is typical of the expressionistic movement in Germany.

Hofer's Work

Karl Hofer, winner of the second prize of the recent Carnegie International exhibition, and August Macke, one of the many talented young artists killed in the war, are far more objective in their approach. They have something of the cold Latin logic in their art and are more interested in the formal than in the emotional possibilities of paint and canvas. Lionel Feininger, with his feeling for design and his ability to catch mood, shows himself one of the most gifted in the array.

The wide variety of the exhibition makes it one of the most interesting and controversial that has been seen in Cambridge in recent years. It will be open to the public until November 30.