Inside the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, paintings, film and sculpture from the early twentieth century are brought together to explore queer life and modern art.

The works are being used to trace how artists explored themes of desire, identity and discrimination during a period of dramatic social change in Europe and the United States.

The 1905 color film 'Serpentine Dance' by Loie Fuller transforms fabric into waves of light and shape, capturing the idea of movement without limits.

Richmond Barthé’s sculptures celebrate the physical form, while Ludwig von Hofmann’s 1913 painting 'The Source' shows three nude men at a spring.

It's a coded reflection of intimacy at a time when same sex relationships were criminalized.

The exhibition also includes Henry Scott Tuke’s 1927 work 'The Critics', showing two young men in conversation on the beach, alongside Lotte Laserstein’s 1929 portrait 'I and My Model', where the artist paints at her easel as her partner Traute Rose gazes over her shoulder.

Curators say the hope is to reframe how modernism is understood by placing queer artists at its center, giving their work the scale of recognition it often lacked in its own time.

This is the first major exhibition on Queer Modernism in Europe.

The exhibition features more than 130 works by 34 artists.

Themes include desire and gender but also oppression and persecution, especially during the rise of fascism in the 1930s.

Works on display include Duncan Grant’s 'Male Nude' from 1930 and Paul Cadmus’s 1951 scene 'The Bath'.

Gerda Wegener’s 'Two Coquettes with Hats' from around 1920 plays with ideas of style and performance, while Glyn Philpot’s 'Penelope' from 1923 shows a more classical form.

Gaensheimer continues: "The queer artists you see in this exhibition were part of a very lively network in their day. Many of them were successful in their day, sold works, and were part of a very intense movement and also part of the avant garde."

The exhibition also reflects darker times.

From 1933 onwards, queer artists were targeted under Nazi rule.

A section on 'Queer Resistance' includes Jeanne Mammen’s 'Angel of Death', painted between 1939 and 1942, which shows a cloaked figure with Saint Anthony.

Alongside it is 'The Hunter', from the same period, portrays an androgynous figure in tailored clothing with a direct gaze.

It aims to represent how artists continued producing during an era of persecution.

"They naturally dealt with their homosexual desires. However, they also addressed the issues of discrimination and persecution. Some found ways to express themselves without speaking directly and figuratively about homosexuality. Others, on the other hand, depicted it very concretely," says Gaensheimer.

The exhibition highlights how some artists used coded symbols and allegory, while others portrayed queer lives openly in their paintings and drawings.

Together, the works reveal the range of strategies queer artists used to communicate during times of prejudice and censorship.

"And we have been working very intensively for several years now to continually focus on new perspectives on modernism and to introduce artists who are not yet well known, or to present trends and styles that do not appear in the classic narrative of modernism. And our goal is to broaden the perspective on what modernism was and who contributed to it," says Gaensheimer.

Another work on display is Gluck’s 'Bank Holiday Monday' from around 1937, that shows a person in a bright yellow, red and blue scarf at a fairground.

A second figure stands just behind them, with both appearing androgynous.

The composition shows Gluck’s interest in portraying gender fluidity and challenging conventional ideas of identity in public settings.

Alongside the artworks, the museum will host readings, tours and workshops to explore themes of desire, sexuality, identity, discrimination and resistance, which run throughout the exhibition.

The exhibition 'Queer Modernism 1900 to 1950' runs until 15 February 2026.

AP video shot by Daniel Niemann.