The painting "Dance in a Variety Theatre" by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was thought to be lost for decades. Now it is on public display at the Kunstmuseum Basel for the first time in over 100 years. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Kirchner painted the large-format painting in 1911, shortly before the German artist's attention turned from the variety theatres to the streets of Berlin. It shows a dance scene – a so-called "cakewalk" – with a black protagonist and a white dancer. The "cakewalk" originated in the US. The enslaved people made fun of the dances of their white masters. The winning couple was rewarded with cake. The history of the painting, which was last shown in an exhibition in Berlin in 1923 before disappearing, makes fascinating reading. It was only documented in black and white photographs, some of which Kirchner had taken himself. The painting ended up in the collection of the Protestant councillor of commerce Max Gläser, who acquired it ...
