In our historical overview-exhibition Change of Scenery 2.04, we do not only present 100 Berlin Based Men and a leather/fetish special. Curator Wolfgang Theis has also rearranged the main sections of the exhibition and presents various new objects.

For example three hitherto “lost” portraits by painters André Lanskoy (1902 – 1976) and Helmut Kolle (1899 – 1931). After their re-discovery by art collector Peter Büttner, the paintings caused a sensation amongst art connoisseurs when first exhibited in Lille, in the autumn of 2017.

In 1929, the Russian-French painter André Lanskoy portrayed the German writer, art collector and art dealer Wilhelm Uhde in a blue dress (in the middle on the photo above). In the same year, Lanskoy painted artist Sonia Delaunay (1885 – 1979, left), who was awarded with the French Legion of Honor later. Before her marriage with the French artist Robert Delaunay, both co-founders of Orphism, she entered into a brief sham marriage with Uhde. This provided a cover-up for Uhde’s homosexuality, while Delaunay could evade her family of Jewish large landowners in St. Petersburg.

The third painting shows Uhde’s long-term partner Helmut Kolle, whose art was condemned as “degenerate” in the Third Reich. In 1924, he portrayed himself in a small-scale self-portrait (right).

We are pleased to present Peter Büttner’s loans for one year.