Lothar Bechstein 1884-1936

Born in Solothurn, Switzerland, Lothar Bechstein established himself as one of the most active painters on the Munich art scene during the interwar period. In 1905, he entered the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under Peter Halm and Angelo Jank until 1907, before joining the prestigious Munich Secession, founded in 1892.

Over the following years, he broadened his training and found new sources of inspiration through study trips to Vienna, Paris, Algeria and the North Sea coast. His early works, characterised by an Impressionist sensibility, gradually gave way after 1914 to large-scale figurative compositions distinguished by a more expressive visual language, rigorous construction and a deliberately muted palette.

Bechstein participated extensively in the major artistic events of his time. In 1913, he took part in a group exhibition at the Kunsthaus Brakl in Munich, exhibited at the Moderne Galerie Thannhauser in 1922 and at the 14th Venice Biennale in 1924, before participating in the Düsseldorf-Münchener Kunstausstellung at the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf in 1932.

From 1929 onwards, Lothar Bechstein turned more decisively towards monumental painting. He produced the mural decorations known as the Arcadian Idylls for the ocean liner Europa, followed by frescoes for the urn hall of Munich’s Eastern Cemetery in 1933 and for the restaurant Zum Alten Botanischen Garten in 1936.

Bechstein died prematurely in 1936 at the age of fifty-two. Several of his works are now held in German public collections, notably at the Staatsgalerie in Munich and in the museums of Duisburg and Giessen, as well as at the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna in Venice, attesting to the enduring recognition of his œuvre.