The Dresden artist Lea Grundig created about 4,200 works during her lifetime, including 1,200 works during her Palestinian exile. As an endangered Jew in the Nazi regime, she reached exile in 1940 after two prison internments in Dresden. Even after her return in 1949, her Dresden studio continued to produce high-quality and exciting pictures that showed the “new” Germany in the Soviet occupation zone and later the German Democratic Republic in industry and agriculture.

An exhibition on her work on the fate of the Jews during the Shoah comes from the collection of Maria Heiner. Lea Grundig created this cycle during her exile from 1942 to 1944 and was one of the first to deal artistically with the Shoah. In 1947, the poet Kurt Liebmann wrote texts accompanying the individual paintings in Dresden.

Lea Grundig’s extensive oeuvre consists of drawings, linocuts, drypoint etchings, lithographs, watercolours and illustrations. It deals with different periods of time and people who surrounded them in different life situations. She used children’s motifs particularly frequently and created numerous children’s book illustrations, which shows her great love for children. Her depiction of women and men in dramatic and emotional scenarios uniquely reflects the historical events of their creative period. Lea Grundig’s paintings, which are a tribute to people, will also touch future generations. Her work is preserved worldwide in various archives, museums and state and private collections.

More about the artist Lea Grundig.

The exhibition is a joint project of Dr. Maria Heiner, HATiKVA e.V. and Wir-AG.

Image: After Lublin, 1943–44, cycle In the Valley of Death