29 June –
9 November
2025
Zoos around 1900 offered a virtually unparalleled reflection of the ambivalences of modernism. For artists including August Macke, Franz Marc and Renée Sintenis, they served as sources of new artistic impetus that shunned traditional academic approaches and embraced a supposedly unspoilt natural world. Far more than mere tourist attractions, zoological gardens were central locations of urban life, blurring the borders between nature and culture, wilderness and civilisation, and as such they exerted a particularly magnetic attraction on modernist artists. Animal bodies in motion, exotic settings and the emotions aroused by the presence of animals became reflections of human longing and of the questioning of human existence.
Around 1900, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution had disrupted the clear-cut lines between human and animal species, with far-reaching consequences for art. New findings concerning animals’ emotional capacity and intelligence alerted artists to animals as sentient counterparts with perspectives that merited serious consideration.
At the same time, a colonial worldview defined the portrayal of »otherness«; alongside the status of a place for observing animals, zoos became arenas of imperial power where »exotic« animals – and often human beings, too – were showcased and appropriated.
The exhibition invites visitors to explore the zoo as modernism’s sounding-board for aesthetic, social and political issues, as a stage for »difference«, as a place of artistic transformation. It scrutinises the history of zoos and throws up new perspectives on animal imagery in modernism.
The Franz Marc Museum’s extensive exhibition is the first to focus on the role of zoological gardens as a source of inspiration for modernist art. It presents over 170 works by around 50 artists, bringing important loans from numerous German and international museums and public and private collections together in Kochel. Lending institutions include the Belvedere in Vienna, Austria; Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany; Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland; Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, Germany; the Lenbachhaus in Munich, Germany; the Upper Austrian Provincial Museum in Linz, Austria; Sammlung Ziegler at Kunstmuseum Mülheim, Germany; the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany; and the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland.
Artists represented in the exhibition include:
Ottomar Anschütz, Wera von Bartels, Heinrich Campendonk, Otto Dill, Erich Fraaß, August Gaul, Max Geyger, Ernst Haeckel, Josef Hegenbarth, Paul Klee, Paul Klimsch, Max Klinger, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, Max Liebermann, August Macke, Franz Marc, Gabriel von Max, Adolph Menzel, Paul Meyerheim, Emil Nolde, Etha Richter, Renée Sintenis, Friedrich Seidenstücker, Max Slevogt u. v. m.
Curators:
Dr. Katharina Lee Chichester (Ruhr University Bochum) and Jessica Keilholz-Busch (Franz Marc Museum)
Works
August Macke, Small Zoological Garden in Brown and Yellow, 1912, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
Adolph Menzel, Three Bears in a Cage, from Children’s Album, 1863–1883, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, © bpk / Kupferstichkabinett, SMB / Jörg P. Anders
Oskar Kokoschka, Tigon, 1926, Belvedere, Wien, © Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Wien
Max Liebermann, The Parrot Man, 1900 (1901), Private Collection
Franz Marc, Monkey Frieze, 1911, Hamburger Kunsthalle, © bpk | Hamburger Kunsthalle | Elke Walford
Max Slevogt, The Orangutan »Seemann« with His Keeper, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Audio Guide
Modernism and the Zoo
Did you know that sculptor August Gaul once won an annual pass to the Berlin Zoo in a lottery? Or that Franz Marc travelled through the Aegean Sea with elephants on board? That Oskar Kokoschka had special permission to paint in the zoo, and Paul Klee was so fascinated by life underwater that he installed an aquarium in his studio?
Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of zoos! Available for adults and children aged 8 and upwards.
Stories
Deeper Perspectives
Discover stories that go beyond the exhibition and offer new ways of seeing.
Guided Tours
Public & Private
Discover the fascinating world of art – with a range of guided tours.