Heinrich Campendonk's (1889-1957) works from his time as the youngest artist in the ‘Blauer Reiter’ group, founded by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, are known and highly valued worldwide. However, in addition to this impressive period of painterly creativity, the artist created an oeuvre characterised by a surprising variety of artistic genres. He designed stage sets, decorated furniture and designed textiles and posters. The exhibition at the Gustav-Lübcke-Museum places these works of applied art in the context of his expressionist painterly oeuvre for the first time and thus opens up a view of the profound connection between art and life.

Campendonk received decisive impulses for his own artistic work through his artist friendships with important representatives of the avant-garde, such as Paul Klee, Helmuth and August Macke, Heinrich Nauen and his teacher Johan Thorn Prikker. Like him, many of them were associated with the Deutscher Werkbund, which was founded in 1907. With precisely selected works by these friends, mentors and companions, the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue document and pay tribute to a hitherto little-noticed modernism surrounding Heinrich Campendonk.