Defining German Art ëSpirit of Ageí Moves From Romantic to Modernist Paintings by Gary Tischler Itís interesting that people feel the need to ask what German art is." Peter-Klaus Schuster said this after completing the tour of "Spirit of an Age: 19th-Century Paintings from the Nationalgalerie, Berlin," the expansive exhibition now in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. The paintings are traveling from Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), Berlin, where Schuster is the director. "People do not have trouble telling you what French art, or American art, or Italian art may be. But we still have to identify, categorize German art." Whether or not German art can be easily categorized, it is difficult to deny the historical uniqueness and enduring power of many of the works on display. Together we moved from the sublime and romantic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich to the Biedermeier Realism paintings and the Nazarenes. From there, on to the German artists in Italy and the advent of pure painting, through a roomful of French impressionists, ultimately ending our journey with the artist many consider the central figure of German painting in the 19th century: Ad olph Menzel. In one sense the exhibition is a history showóthe paintings conveying the zeitgeist of the era of German unification. "Yes, there is that," Schuster said. "Germany, we must remember, was becoming Germany during this periodóitís when the first German unification occurred." It is difficult not to draw analogies between the current exhibit and its theme of German unification with the Teutonic stateís current efforts to reunify its east and west. The paintings, in fact, traveled to Washington because the museum that houses them in Berlin is itself being refurbished and renovated, as is all of Berlinóthe capital of a reunified Germanyóbeing renewed after 45 years of division. Among the most interesting features of the exhibition is the presence of French impressionist works by some of the greatsóMonet, Renoir and Cezanne. Schuster said an interesting story lies behind this. According to the director, one of his predecessors, Hugo von Tschudi, risked the considerable anger of Kaiser Wilhelm to bring French impressionist paintings to the museum, including the works on display in this exhibition. "This was a daring thing, a brave thing to do," Schuster said. "It was a way of pushing Germany and German art to some degree into modernism." According to Schuster, the Kaiser took the arrival of the French paintings as a personal affront. Beyond the natural enmity between the German and French peoples of the time, Wilhelm was known for his purely pedestrian tastes and preferred realism at its least imaginative. Tschudi paid for his artistic crimes after the predictable outrage of the kaiser and the generally sycophantic German art establishment and was forced to resign. The room full of impressionist paintings is jarring, greeting visitors like a burst of energy, by comparison to what precedes them. They serve, however, as an adequate transition from old to new, and are appropriately followed by German forays into the modern, which more than hold their ownópowerful and colorful offerings by Max Liebermann, Max Beckman, and Clovis Corinth. In particular, Corinthís aggressive "Samson Blinded" is like a punch in the mouth to traditionalism. Even though there was no German nation per se during the era showcased in the exhibition, German interests and themes aboundóthose wonderful huge landscapes, the return to the themes of the Renaissance among the Nazarenes, the epic-style storytelling and narrative subjects common to many German regions, the castle and fairy tale themes. And then, with a blinding flash, you arrive at Menzel, who in the context of the whole, is both an anomaly and a characteristically German muse. Long before the French thought of it, Menzel was painting what can only be described as impressionistic, although he was apparently not impressed by his own works and hid them out of sight for a long time, including the dream-like, ravishing "The Balcony Room" of 1845. "Menzel is so important," Schuster said. "I think he comes as a surprise to Americans who donít know about him. And you cannot simply categorize him. He is very complex." If he was a forerunner of modernism, he was also a consummate German. His epic, huge painting of the culturally minded young Emperor Frederick giving a concert is but one indication. Menzel painted the age like no other German painter of his times. And his subject, quite simply, was the Germany he lived in, and maybe in him. More than any painter or work in this exhibition, Menzel evokes "The Spirit of an Age." "Spirit of an Age" continues through Sept. 3 at the National Gallery of Art." Gary Tischler is an arts reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.