Ernst Barlach. Facets of Love at the Edwin Scharff Museum Neu-Ulm
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Ernst Barlach and the Many Faces of Love
The Edwin Scharff Museum in Neu-Ulm presents an intense special exhibition dedicated to Ernst Barlach on one of the deepest human experiences: love. From May 23 to October 18, 2026, a art-historically multifaceted art experience unfolds between sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and literature.
Emotion as an Artistic Fundamental Force
Ernst Barlach understood love far beyond the representation of a conventional couple. His works revolve around temptation, longing, maternal love, unconditional love for others, paid love, and mourning for a loved one. The exhibition presents the sculptor, draftsman, and author as a sensitive observer of human emotions.
Between Wood, Bronze, and Paper
The exhibition brings together plastic works and graphic pieces. The reduced formal language of Barlach's wooden sculptures and bronzes combines physical presence with inner tension. A lithograph like the couple from 1917/18 condenses closeness and mutual attention in a quiet, almost timeless visual language. The sculpture The Matchmaker II from 1920 also leads to those ambivalent areas where desire, social roles, and human vulnerability intertwine.
An Exhibition Between Intimacy and Contemporary History
Barlach's art is positioned between realism and expressionism. His figures often appear archaic and at the same time immediately present. Heavy bodies, closed postures, and concentrated gestures create a special exhibition atmosphere where aesthetic experience and historical reflection combine. Barlach's engagement with love appears as a confrontation with empathy, loneliness, responsibility, and inner truthfulness.
Dialogue with Edwin Scharff
Selected contrasts with works by Edwin Scharff make the similarities and differences of two contemporaries visible. The curation thereby opens an exciting dialogue about human representation, materiality, and expression. Poetic texts accompany the exhibits and deepen the examination of the works without anticipating one's own perception.
Cultural Education and Accompanying Program
The accompanying program expands the exhibition with art-historical and literary tours. Guided tours focus on Barlach's plastic and graphic work, while literary tours connect his texts with works of expressionist contemporaries. A workshop on lettering also uses Barlach's letters to Marga Böhmer as a starting point for one's own creative engagement with language, emotion, and design.
Conclusion: Love as Human and Artistic Experience
Ernst Barlach. Facets of Love promises an exhibition that combines intimate feelings with art-historical depth. Visitors experience sculpture, drawing, and literature as a sensually concentrated dialogue about closeness, longing, and humanity. Those who do not just want to observe Barlach's art but experience it as an aesthetic experience directly should discover this special exhibition at the Edwin Scharff Museum live.
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