The landscapes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes, and still lifes by the Expressionist painter and graphic artist Fritz Schaefler (1888-1954) captivate with their vibrant colors and expressive forms. Born in Bavaria, he moved to Cologne in 1927. Enthusiastic about Schaefler's fascinating pictorial worlds, the Rheinland Jewish industrialist Joseph Heymann (1887-1954) collected and promoted the artist, who created portraits of the Heymann family and designed color schemes for their residences.

With the Nazi seizure of power, their world was turned upside down: Classified as "degenerate" and shown in 1937 at the exhibition Degenerate Art, Schaefler's works were removed from German museums and destroyed. Heymann, who now had to fear for his life, fled with his family to Great Britain in 1937. He managed to save his art collection – including Schaefler's works – by taking it into exile. Schaefler's estate, which had remained in Cologne, was only reunited with the Heymann collection in the 2010s. Both are now held by VAN HAM Art Estates Cologne.

Lines of Fate explores the fractured biographies of the two men, which, though unique in themselves, are exemplary of so many. The exhibition showcases Schaefler's impressive oeuvre in its full diversity, but focuses on Heymann's collecting interests, which can now be recontextualized within the broader scope of the estate. It recounts their shared interests and common ground, such as their love for the city of Cologne, Carnival, and their connection to the Bergisches Land region, and traces, through letters and documents, the fate of the Heymann art collection until its return to Germany.

The exhibition is held in cooperation with VAN HAM Art Estates Cologne.