Panel discussion "The Case of Hugo Simon at the Graubünden Art Museum"

The exhibition focuses on the story of Max Slevogt's still life and that of its former owner Hugo Simon (1880–1950), a Jewish banker and former Prussian finance minister of the Independent Social Democrats in Berlin, a well-known art lover and collector as well as the model for Alfred Döblin's novel "November 1918". After the Nazis seized power on January 30, 1933, Simon was endangered in several ways – once for racist reasons, and on the other for political reasons. He emigrated to France via Switzerland, in June 1940 he and his wife Gertrud managed to flee to unoccupied Marseille and finally in 1941 they fled via Spain and Portugal to Brazil.

The Graubünden artist Rita Janett (1893–1965) and Hugo Simon had been close friends since their time together in Paris. In the 1920s, Janett was active in the Ticino artists' group "Der grosse Bär". She supported the Simon couple on their escape. The exhibition reflects the friendship of the two for the first time, which survived flight, persecution and exile, as well as financial insecurity and spatial separation.

Registration via the homepage www.buendner-kunstmuseum.gr.ch/ is required.