KARLSRUHE.- A face twisted by pain, a hand lifted toward heaven, a faint smile, a restless gaze. Across centuries, artists have returned again and again to the same question: how can inner feeling be made visible?

Kunstmuseum Karlsruhe is exploring that question in “Expressive! Graphic art from Dürer to Schlichter,” an exhibition that opened on May 23 and continues through October 4, 2026. Bringing together around 250 works from the museum’s graphic collection, the exhibition offers a broad journey through more than five centuries of human emotion, from the precision of Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt to the psychological intensity of Käthe Kollwitz, Rudolf Schlichter, and Marlene Dumas.

For the first time, the museum is presenting the treasures of its graphic collection in such a comprehensive way. The show unfolds through thematic rooms that look at expression not simply as style, but as a visual language shared across time, culture, and artistic tradition.

One section focuses on the face and the long history of the “tronie,” a type of head or facial study developed by Dutch artists beginning in the 16th century. These works were not always portraits of named individuals. Instead, they allowed artists to study character, mood, gesture, and expression. In Karlsruhe, works by Dürer, Rembrandt, and their contemporaries are placed in conversation with more recent works by artists such as Marlene Dumas, Ulrike Michaelis, and Arnulf Rainer, who use the face and the self as sites of instability, performance, and emotional inquiry.

Another part of the exhibition turns to love, devotion, and family ties. From Christian images of the Holy Family to modern depictions of domestic life, the works show how artists have pictured tenderness, care, belonging, and social bonds. Albrecht Dürer’s devotional print “Virgin on a Grassy Bench, Nursing the Child” from 1503 is presented as part of a long visual tradition that shaped ideas of family and intimacy for centuries. Later works, including Hanna Nagel’s 1931 pen drawing “Playing Child,” reveal how these ideas changed in the modern era.

The exhibition also confronts darker emotional states. In scenes of the Passion of Christ, martyrdom, violence, and worldly suffering, artists such as Lucas van Leyden, Jacques Callot, and Rudolf Schoofs examine the body as a surface of pain, fear, and vulnerability. These works were designed to provoke a response — compassion, shock, wonder, or discomfort — and to draw viewers into the drama of the image.

A participatory section gives visitors the chance to engage with paper directly. Origami instructions invite them to fold their own paper figures, which become part of the exhibition. Over the course of the show, these contributions are forming a growing collective archive, linking the museum’s historic works on paper with the act of making, collecting, and remembering.

At the heart of the exhibition is the legacy of the Siegel Collection, assembled by Ferdinand Siegel, a jurist active in Mannheim and Karlsruhe. By the time of his death in 1877, Siegel had gathered more than 1,800 sheets of European prints. The collection entered the possession of the City of Karlsruhe in 1896 and became the foundation of today’s Kunstmuseum Karlsruhe. Its holdings are especially strong in German and Dutch masters from the 15th to the 19th century, while also including important Italian and French works.

Among the artists represented are Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas van Leyden, Anthonis van Dyck, Adriaen van Ostade, Rembrandt, Guido Reni, the Carracci, Tiepolo, Jacques Callot, and Claude Lorrain.

“Expressive! Graphic art from Dürer to Schlichter” is on view at Kunstmuseum Karlsruhe through October 4, 2026. The museum is located at Lorenzstraße 27, 76135 Karlsruhe. Opening hours are Wednesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.