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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1860-1938), Germany,  studied architecture in Dresden from 1901 to 1905, where he together with other atists formed the Brücke artist group in 1905. Kirchner was leader of Die Brücke. Die Brücke was the first expression of German Expressionism – superficially reminiscent of Fauvism in Paris, but deliberately more violent and a direct attempt to express human emotions. The intensity of their art and philosophy, with deep roots in Friedrich Nietzsche, is a parallel to the Italian Futurists’ fervent belief in a new world. Kirchner moved to Berlin in 1911, joined the Neue Secession and socialized in the circles around Der Sturm. His paintings became increasingly aggressively angular and gloomy in tone.He suffered a nervous breakdown during the First World War and in 1917 came to Davos as a convalescent. His late landscapes are more peaceful, like the purest in-depth studies of form (1921–1925), which became increasingly abstract. Kirchner's works were among those that were used in the spring and summer of 1933, shortly after the Nazi takeover, in several local exhibitions to attack the modern visual arts' exploration of forms of expression, which were perceived as alien to the German people's soul, according to those in power. In Mannheim, exhibitions were organized under the names Kulturbolschewistische Bilder and Schreckenskammer (Chamber of Horrors) in Chemnitz one called Kunst, die nicht aus unserer Seele kam (Art that did not come from our soul), and in Dresden the very first exhibition under the name Entartete Kunst. In July 1937, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was expelled from the Prussian Academy of Arts by the Nazi authorities. In the same month, the Ministry of Propaganda confiscated all of his works in German museums, because they were considered entartete Kunst. There were 52 paintings, 606 graphic sheets, 27 watercolors, 3 sculptures, 3 textile works, and 57 drawings. 32 of these works were shown in the deliberately derogatory traveling exhibition Entartete Kunst from 1937 to 1941. The artist suffered from depression. Growing despair over political and social developments in Germany probably contributed to his suicide in 1938.

March 17th 2025

 

 
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