Even though it was created in 1936, from today’s perspective "Die Sinnende" [The contemplative woman] appears as if the huge dislocations of the following decade were already being depicted in the portrait of this young woman

There is no mistaking the heads of Horst Antes. Their stark profile and, above all, their schematic stylisation have become the artist’s trademark. They appear in Antes’ paintings as Kopffüssler [Head-and-foot figures] or in public spaces as large-scale steel sculptures.

I dream of a social art, wrote Victor Vasarely as early as 1953 in his “Notes Brutes” [Rough notes]. The crowds, the masses, a multitude of beings, this is the new dimension. See the unlimited space, the truth of structures. Art is the plastic aspect of the community.

A picture by Rupprecht Geiger provokes an immediate response: the force of the colour is well-nigh overpowering. This shade of red, which the artist intersperses time and again with hints of pink or orange, triggers associations of peril and passion.

A young woman with her dog looks out, keenly and slightly provocatively, from the sketched frame of a locket. Clearly based on a photograph, the portrait appears artificial and as from another age, mainly as a result of the distortion of colours.