Lecture: Collecting 19th-Century German Art in Milwaukee
Join Armin Kunz, owner and director of C. G. Boerner Gallery, for an insightful talk about the history of collecting 19th-century German art in the United States. Inspired by the exhibition Seeking Revelation: German Romantic Prints and Drawings, Kunz will trace how Romantic and Biedermeier collections developed in particular cities, with a special focus on the Milwaukee Art Museum. Drawn from the Museum’s collection, Seeking Revelation examines how artists of the German Romantic movement (1770–1850) faced an unpredictable time by making work that helped them gain a deeper understanding of universal questions.
This drop-in experience is included with Museum admission and is free for Members. Admission tickets are available at the door or online. The Milwaukee Art Museum is grateful to its exhibition sponsors.
About the speaker
Armin Kunz is an art historian and dealer specializing in Old Master prints and drawings, with expertise in the art of the Dürer period and German Romanticism. He studied in Mainz, Bonn, and London, and received his M.A. from the Freie Universität Berlin. While still a student, he began writing as an art critic for Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Europe and the United States, and he continues to contribute to exhibition catalogues as well as to The Burlington Magazine and Print Quarterly. Armin joined C.G. Boerner in 1997, working in Düsseldorf, London, and New York. Since 2017, he has served as owner and director of the firm’s New York gallery. Founded in Leipzig in 1826, C.G. Boerner today operates in Düsseldorf and New York, continuing nearly two centuries of connoisseurship.
Image: Ferdinand Ruscheweyh (German, 1785–1846), after Peter von Cornelius (German, 1783–1867), published by Verlag Georg Reimer, Berlin (1816–1918), Vision at the Gallows (Erscheinung am Rabenstein), from Illustrations for Goethe’s Faust (Bilder zu Goethes Faust), 1814, published 1845. Engraving, printed chine collé. Image: 16 1/2 × 20 3/8 in; plate: 15 7/16 × 20 7/8 in; sheet: 24 11/16 × 30 7/8 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, Purchase, René von Schleinitz Memorial Fund and with funds from the Ralph and Cora Oberndorfer Family Trust.