'From Berlin to Broadway' to Feature Ebb's Art Collection

Drawings collected by the legendary late Broadway lyricist Fred Ebb will be on display at the Morgan Library from April 20th through September 2nd.  The exhibition is entitled "From Berlin to Broadway: The Ebb Bequest of Modern German and Austrian Drawings."

"In 2005 the Morgan received a superb group of forty-three early-twentieth-century German and Austrian drawings through the bequest of Broadway lyricist Fred Ebb (1928–2004). Ebb began assembling his collection in the late 1960s following the success of Cabaret, the Broadway musical he co-wrote with composer John Kander in 1966. Ebb's interest in German popular music of the twenties and thirties, reflected in Cabaret, which takes place in Berlin between the two wars, led him to collect art of the same period. Most of the drawings have not been publicly exhibited for nearly thirty years," states the Morgan Library's website

"The bequest—which is shown in its entirety in From Berlin to Broadway—includes major works by Max Beckmann, Egon Schiele, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Oskar Kokoschka, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Most of the drawings and watercolors in the Ebb collection date from 1910 to 1925 when Expressionism dominated the avant-garde in Germany and Austria.

If Expressionist artists often addressed similar subjects, their styles, could, nonetheless, be widely divergent, ranging from the quickly sketched, angular forms of Kirchner's strolling figures to the delicate and decorative line of Klimt's nudes. Many drawing techniques—pencil, charcoal, ink as well as a concentration of watercolors—are represented in the exhibition .

The Ebb bequest constitutes a significant contribution to the Morgan's collection of twentieth-century works on paper and further strengthens the museum's commitment to building a representative collection of twentieth-century drawings."

The songwriting partnership of John Kander and Fred Ebb (who died on September 11th, 2004) marked one of the most successful and enduring collaborations in Broadway history. Together, they penned Flora, the Red Menace, Cabaret (their first major hit), The Happy Time, Zorba, 70, Girls, 70, Chicago, The Act, Woman of the Year, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Steel Pier, as well as The Visit (which was presented at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago but has yet to see Broadway). They also wrote the scores for films and TV specials such as New York, New York, Funny Lady and "Liza with a Z."  Two new Kander and Ebb musicals are currently receiving major productions - Curtains on Broadway and All About Us at the Westport Country Playhouse in CT.

Visit www.themorgan.org for more information.

Drawing, "The Film Star Spends Two Minutes in Her Parents' Garden," by Karl Hubbuch