The exhibition Back to Paradise assembles major expressionist masterpieces from the Häuptli collection at the Aargauer Kunsthaus and the collection of the Osthaus Museum Hagen in Germany.

It focuses on artists of the Brücke group, such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and, from Switzerland, Cuno Amiet. The history of German Expressionism began in 1905 when the Brücke artist group was founded in Dresden. Its members soon made a name for themselves with unconventional paintings. Their works are characterised by dynamic brushstrokes and colour fields. Weary of industrialisation, big city life and constant social change, many of the Brücke artists searched for alternative lifestyles, finding them in a life in harmony with nature and in exploring exotic cultures. In other parts of Germany, artists similarly strove for an art consisting in a subjective portrayal of individual experience. For this purpose, they broke away from traditional pictorial formulas and used direct and expressive visual imagery. Works by the founders of the Basel-based group Rot-Blau – Paul Camenisch, Albert Müller, and Hermann Scherer – provide a supplement to the German artists included in the exhibition. Influenced by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who lived in Davos from 1917 on, these Basel artists created magnificent expressionist works in the 1920s.

The exhibition is a joint project of the Institut für Kulturaustausch in Tübingen, the Osthaus Museum Hagen, the Museum Georg Schäfer in Schweinfurt, and the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau.

Artists:
Cuno Amiet (1868–1961); Max Beckmann (1884–1950); Paul Camenisch (1893–1970); Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956); Conrad Felixmüller (1897–1977); Erich Heckel (1883–1970); Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938); August Macke (1887–1914); Franz Marc (1880–1916); Albert Müller (1897–1926); Otto Mueller (1874–1930); Gabriele Münter (1877–1962); Emil Nolde (1867–1956); Max Pechstein (1881–1955); Hermann Scherer (1893–1927); Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976); Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941)