Ungemalte Bilder

Unpainted Pictures is what Emil Nolde called these fascinating watercolors created from 1938 to 1945 in the seclusion of his house at Seebüll after his works in the museums had been confiscated by the Nazis and he himself had been forbidden to paint: small, free, imaginative sheets, accumulating in the course of the years. Nolde used to give them to friends for safe-keeping from Gestapo raids. "Unpainted" they were, since officially they were not allowed to exist, but also because Nolde had planned to expand on them later. Emil Nolde never offered these watercolors for sale and gave only a few of them away to friends. Today, this collection - for many the "summary and epitome of his work" - is owned by the Nolde Foundation at Seebüll. The altogether 104 sheets are shown here on a large scale together with "marginal remarks" - diary-like, mostly dated notes, thoughts, questions and dreams, which date back to the time when the Unpainted Pictures were created: They include figurative pictures from the world of theatre, dance, mythology and the idiosyncratic imagery of the artist, as well as seascapes, marsh and mountain landscapes.