Maximilian Kirmse

Maximilian Kirmse’s images tell of precisely this more laid-back Berlin rhythm of life, without needing to resort to grand dramas or invent absurd motifs. Far removed from tourist fantasies of the glamorous old West, sleepwalking party people in Mitte or cool hipsters in the gentrified urban landscape of Prenzlauer Berg, his drawings and paintings capture the easygoing way of life in his neighborhood.

Unlike the above clichés, this ordinariness is all the more disturbing because it leaves any sensationalism in the dust and, conversely, holds up a mirror to it. His scenes always seem to be observed from a neutral distance, meaning they can neither be seen as studies of “Milljöh” (i.e. milieu, in reference to Zille’s works) nor as a chronicle of a big city.

However, the curatorial idea of Berlin Mon Amour also presents Maximilian Kirmse as one in the tradition of those artists succumbing to Berlin’s cool charm throughout the 20th century who, like him, had and still have their “own thing” going on with the city, to use a somewhat colloquial expression. They include among others Max Beckmann, Georg Grosz, Jeanne Mammen, Werner Heldt, Christa Dichgans, K. H. Hödicke, Olaf Metzel und Anne Imhof. In this respect, the exhibition title is also an homage.

The tightly focused selection of individual pieces—drawn from a wealth of Berlin-related works from classical modernism to the present day from the holdings of the Graphische Sammlung München—confirms that Berlin has always been more than what we thought we knew at any given moment of time. Viewed in their own right, each of the works presented is a very personal tribute to Berlin. Taken as a whole, they highlight individual snapshots in the city’s history that reflect the multifaceted way of life that can be associated with the metropolis on the Spree.