About the Artist Johannes Wüsten

Johannes Wüsten (1896–1943) was a significant figure of the New Objectivity. Initially shaped by Expressionism, he arrived — after training under Otto Modersohn in Worpswede and years in Hamburg — at a precise, socially critical visual language; from 1929 he devoted himself above all to copper engraving, which he brought to masterly perfection. Wüsten was a committed anti-fascist and belonged to a resistance group in Görlitz; in 1934 he was forced into exile in Prague and Paris, where he worked as a writer and illustrator for anti-fascist magazines. In 1943 he died as a political prisoner in the Brandenburg-Görden penitentiary. His comparatively small but technically outstanding body of work unites artistic quality with profound historical significance.