Will Grohmann, 1887-1968

“What captivated me was that I couldn’t understand.” For more than 50 years, from the Great War until his death in 1968, Will Grohmann followed the development of German and world art as critic, art historian, collector and exhibition organiser. Thanks to his studies in Paris in 1909 and 1910, this German scholar became a bridge between the two countries. An important contributor to the Cahiers d’art, he published there the first monographs on Paul Klee (1929) and Wassily Kandinsky (1930). It was at the Bauhaus, in 1921, that he met these two artists, with whom he became great friends. In 1931, he published the first monograph on Willi Baumeister, with Éditions de la NRF. His interest in modern dance is less well-known. Under the pen-name of Olaf Rydberg, however, he published in 1935 the first book on the German dancer and choreographer Gret Palucca, to whom he was very close.

Angela Lampe, in collaboration with Véronique Borgeaud, Christelle Courregelongue,

Laurence Gueye-Parmentier, Catherine Tiraby et Brigitte Vincens