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Self Portrait is a painting produced by the German expressionist painter Ludwig Meidner in 1912.
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The year Meidner painted this self portrait marked a turning point in his style and career. The thick impasto and unusual brush strokes of the self portrait foreshadow what was to be his personal style of painting. He began to produced works depicting explosive and chaotic scenes known as ‘apocalyptic landscapes’ which would go on to define his oeuvre and gave him great renown. It was also in this year, 1912, that Meidner set up the Expressionist group ‘Die Pathetiker’ (the pathetic ones) with fellow artists Jakob Steinhardt and Richard Janthur.
This painting was on show in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin during the ImEx exhibition (May – September 2015). This exhibition saw a quarter of a million visitors in what was the most popular showcase in the history of the gallery.
Did you known?
As a Jewish man Meidner faced persecution in Germany, in being labeled as a degenerate, losing his job and having many of his works pulled from galleries. He fled to England where he then spent three years in an internment camp. He did not return to Germany until 1953 and in 1963 had his first retrospective before his death three years later.