Liebespaar 1914

Otto Mueller painted "Liebespaar," or "Couple," using tempera on canvas, in Germany, sometime around the 1920s. The image shows a man holding a woman in his lap; the couple is rendered in muted blues and tans, with the composition emphasizing the geometry of their forms. Mueller was associated with Die Brücke, a group of German Expressionist artists eager to overturn academic painting. Expressionists were interested in direct and subjective responses to the modern world. After World War One, this meant creating art that was politically engaged. Yet, the figures here don’t engage with the viewer. Instead, they seem lost in their own world. This intimacy, rendered in the visual language of modernism, might be a commentary on the place of love and connection in a rapidly changing society. Art historians look to periodicals, exhibition reviews, and artists’ letters to understand such works better. The meaning of art is contingent on its social and institutional context.