It is a commonplace, both alarming and fascinating: everything captured in images no longer exists or not in the form depicted. In art, the theme of transience is often symbolically represented, serving as a memento mori or a melancholic meditation on the disappearance of things. Images of dreams, encounters with people, and explorations of nature depict only fleeting moments. Sometimes, the ephemeral is explicitly the subject of a representation that still seeks to capture it: clouds constantly change, snow soon melts, and trees bloom for only a short time.

In times of climate change, the awareness that our entire environment is rapidly changing has become pervasive. Therefore, we view works of landscape art today with new eyes. They show a nature that has always been influenced by humans. A landscape is no longer just a beautiful sight but a threatened ecosystem.

The exhibition is built around such moments of recognition. It showcases both well-known and rare or previously unseen works from the 19th and 20th centuries from the collections of Lenbachhaus, the Historical Society of Upper Bavaria, the Christoph Heilmann Foundation, the Munich Secession, the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, the KiCo Foundation, and the Friends of Lenbachhaus Association. Art engages with the transient and the knowledge of transience. In this, it intersects with the idea of museums that aim to collect, preserve, and communicate artworks.