Gert Wollheim

German painter Gert Wollheim studied at the art schools in Weimar and Berlin. He was an expressionist, who worked after World War I mostly in Dusseldorf and became a member of the artistic movement known as “The Young Rheinland.” In 1933, he belonged to the “degenerate” artists and was also of Jewish descent, which caused him to flee to Paris.

In Paris, Wollheim became one of the founders of the Free German Artists’ Association. In 1938, he was included in the touring exhibition “Degenerate Art” with three of his works. In 1939 he was arrested, but he was able to escape in 1942 and hide in the Pyrenees. During his emigration to France, he was the life partner of Latvian dancer Tatyana Barbakoff (1899-1944), who was murdered by the Nazis in 1944 in Auschwitz. In 1947 Wollheim immigrated to the US and was awarded US citizenship. He never returned to his homeland.

Wollheim’s oil painting Nurmi has disappeared, it is possible that it was looted by the Nazis. Only a photograph of the work survived.