Walter Jacob was a painter whose oeuvre and life reflected the discontinuities of the twentieth
century in condensed form. Contemplative natural scenes and the self-portraits were constants
to which he hewed throughout his career in stylistic terms however his oeuvre could hardly
be more contradictory. Working first in the Impressionist then in the Expressionist style he
eventually forged a form of expression tending toward abstraction although he rejected
modernist painting throughout his life. The Nazis considered his early work "degenerate " which
led him-a committed National Socialist and active member of the SA-to adapt not just his
ideological convictions but also his aesthetics to the new era: starting in the mid-1930s he
produced naturalistic depictions sometimes suggestive of the New Objectivity of "popular"
motifs like landscapes animals soldiers and more. Tellingly though the backs of some of
his canvases are taken up by works that suggest the pleasure he took in experimenting with
color and form. The same tension is palpable in the abstract landscapes of his late oeuvre.
This catalog gathers works to retrace Jacob's checkered career complemented by (art)
historical essays that embed his output in its context.
