Zwei weibliche Halbakte

In 1919, Otto Müller painted his work “Zwei weibliche Halbakte” and sold it ten years later to the Jewish art collector Ismar Littmann. It was not until 1999 that the painting was returned by the Museum Ludwig in Cologne to its rightful owner – Littmann’s daughter Ruth. In between lie 80 turbulent years: the rise of the Nazis, Littmann’s suicide, his family’s flight, the ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition, the auction of Nazi-looted art, and so on. In “Zwei weibliche Halbakte”, Luz traces the meticulously researched biography of this painting, in which the grand sweep of history is reflected, in an astonishing manner. The key feature: Luz tells the story from the painting’s perspective; he shows only what the painting itself ‘sees’ and ‘hears’. This restriction is far more than a formal gimmick – it makes sense in terms of content and contributes greatly to the oppressive effect and depth of this graphic novel: art becomes a pawn of history, a victim, an observer – the perpetrators are always human beings.