Success, Painters, and a Glittering Social Life
Kahnweiler would describe Flechtheim in the 1960s as an “excessively active man.” 25 He ran his gallery for a short period of time, until he was forced to auction it at the outbreak of World War I and served in the German military in a light Westphalia cavalry unit during the conflict. In 1919 the gallery reopened, and Flechtheim’s success and reputation ascended quickly. Branches of the Flechtheim Gallery opened in Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Vienna. By 1925, Flechtheim had secured a primus inter pares, if not the leading position as a Weimar art dealer alongside other individuals such as Wolfgang Gurlitt (the notorious Nazi era art dealer who passed on the astounding 1,200+ paintings to his son, the now-equally notorious Cornelius Gurlitt).26
In his professional capacity as an art dealer, Flechtheim organized some 150 exhibits that encompassed all manner of artistic styles and aesthetic perspectives, both European cosmopolitan in nature as well as more global in nature, including Asian and African. 27 His primary interest was French and Spanish Cubists, but the Swiss Paul Klee, the German Max Beckmann, and the Norwegian Edvard Munch were also exhibited in his galleries. The art world was a sexist enterprise where talented women artists rarely received the attention, patronage, and recognition of their male counterparts, but Flechtheim did sponsor a number of women artists such as Marie Laurencin and Paula Modersohn-Becker.28
Flechtheim had a close and exceptionally productive relationship with George Grosz, who was famous for his strident political and social critique of Weimar Germany through drawings, paintings, and caricatures. Grosz held his first exhibit at the Berlin branch of the Flechtheim Galleries in 1923 and, two years later, the Flechtheim Galleries become his sole and exclusive representative, an arrangement that lasted until 1932.29 On January 12, 1933, just eighteen days before Hitler became chancellor, Grosz settled in the United States. This decision, it has been said, saved the artist’s life for he was among the first individuals that the Nazis named as an “an enemy of the state.” Flechtheim was among the few individuals who saw Grosz and his wife to the train station to bid them farewell. After Flechtheim’s death, Grosz referred to his friend and former dealer in affectionate, admiring terms and noted that the merchant had been a “true mirror of civilization.” 30 By contrast, other German artists whom Flechtheim had mentored early on, such as the sculptor Arno Breker, became instrumental in propagating the Nazi regime’s aesthetic vision and cultural program.31
Flechtheim was greatly interested in Iberian culture in general and enamored specifically with Spanish modernism. His galleries were a platform for the promotion of Spanish artists, including a prominent exhibit mounted in the Berlin branch of the Flechtheim Galleries during 1932–1933. Even at the time, this event took on profound political meaning both in Germany and in Spain as an act of cultural defiance against the ominous, darkened political backdrop in both of these countries. Historian Javier Pérez Segura has noted that Spanish artists themselves acknowledged that Flechtheim’s support had been instrumental in elevating the cultural capital of Spanish Cubists. The Iberian Society of Artists stated in 1933 that Flechtheim was “one of those merchants—knowledgeable and active—that we miss in these lands, given that their existence has meant [financial] comfort and even [a] fortune for not a few artists, and for Spain [it] has meant the honor of having the artwork of now-famous Spanish painters in foreign museums.”32
However, as important as Iberian culture was for Flechtheim, his great love—as someone familiar with Flechtheim’s biography told me—was undoubtedly France, and especially Paris. Flechtheim’s devotion to France transcended art. As a gay man, he likely appreciated the City of Lights as a refuge from the more cautionary exigencies that business and family life in Germany demanded of him. Paris might have been the place where Flechtheim most felt at home and at ease, unencumbered by constraints or caveats. Yet in Germany, where he had married in 1910 and his wife resided, Flechtheim also moved in the most rarefied of Berlin social circles and hosted glamorous parties and events with artists, filmmakers, and sports figures. George Grosz described George Grosz described Flechtheim’s nine- bedroom Berlin apartment as an “intimate continuation of the [Flechtheim] gallery space.”33
By many accounts, Flechtheim was a refined sybarite who possessed great humor, charm, and joie de vivre. He also had a reputation for coarseness and vulgarity. The mix likely reflected the competitive nature of the art business world and its equally complex characters and personalities. Photographs, posed and casual, show a man well-dressed when the occasion required it and equally happy at leisured, relaxed countryside retreats. Jean Renoir, the famous film director, related a humorous anecdote that captures the lighthearted, witty moments in Flechtheim’s life. Upon arriving at Flechthteim’s flat to meet him for the first time during a visit to Berlin, Renoir first recalls seeing an impeccably dressed Paul Klee on his way out from a meeting with Flechtheim. A “curiously effeminate young man in a chauffeur’s uniform whose duties appeared to include opening the door” greeted Renoir at the door. He asked Renoir to repeat his name a few times before announcing him, as Renoir overheard: “There’s someone at the door who calls himself Renoir. Next time it’ll be Rembrandt!”34
El rinconcito levantino 