In 1955, the artist and author Will Barnet, as a matter of fact, presented Adolf Fleischmann as an »American painter« in his text »Aspects of American Abstract Paint­ing« and in 1966, Fleischmann is listed in Paul Cummings’ »Dictionary of Contemporary American Artists« among the leading artists of the United States.

These kind of statements from the New York painting scene of the 1950s reflect an evaluation of his importance, which had previously been largely ignored in the entire literature on Fleischmann: The painter, born in 1892 in the Southern German town of Esslingen, moved to America only in 1952 aged 60, but he was nonetheless soon acclaimed in the mecca of art on America’s east coast as an ­»American abstract artist«, and became a great origin­ator in the context of abstract art, as inspired by Mondrian.

The Daimler Art Collection Berlin now presents the first retrospective of the artist’s work in Berlin with around sixty works from three decades, including the principal work painted in New York between 1952 and 65, complemented by representative paintings created during the 1940s while still in Europe. The publication accompanying the exhibition presents the first thorough examination of Fleischmann’s work in the context of American abstract painting of the period.