Herbert Böttger

When Herbert Böttger studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy between 1918 and 1925, Expressionism, which had dominated German art until then, was replaced by New Objectivity (Otto Dix and George Grosz). This shift also influenced the young Böttger, who, alongside Franz Radziwill, became the leading representative of magical realism during his artistic career – a movement within New Objectivity that is understood as a bridge to surrealism (Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dali and René Magritte). In 1928, Böttger was a member of the Rhenish Secession. In 1930, he belonged to the Rheingruppe. In 1931, the painter received the Albrecht Dürer Prize from the city of Nuremberg. Six years later, his paintings were confiscated and destroyed as degenerate art. Nevertheless, Böttger continued to paint and found a formal language that combined brilliant painting technique with astonishing ease of composition. Today, works by Böttger can be found in private collections as well as in various museums, such as the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, the Ostdeutsche Galerie in Regensburg, and in Kalkar, Recklinghausen and Wiesbaden.