German Expressionism Early 20 th Century

German artists were aware of the developments taking place in France at the end of the 19 th Century and the beginning of the 20 th. They were influenced by the work of the Post Impressionists: Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Matisse. There were two main groups or schools of German Expressionism: Die Brucke, and Die Blaue Reiter.

Die Brucke A group of young architects in Dresden, Germany, formed an alliance and began painting together. They called themselves Die Brucke, which means The Bridge, for they felt that their art would be a bridge to a brighter future, and a way to communicate their utopian ideals to society.

Some of the artists associated with Die Brucke were: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1880 – 1938 Edvard Munch 1863 – 1944 Paula Modersohn Becker 1876 – 1906 Kathe Kollwitz –

Die Brucke The artists of Die Brucke were critical of the intensely materialistic nature of German bourgeois society. Much like the idealistic youth of the 1960s, they felt a “return to nature” would benefit society and uplift human beings. They frequently painted nudes in landscapes, to express their rejection of bourgeois rigidity (the influence of Gauguin is evident here). While the Impressionists had worked hard to record exactly what they saw as natural light hit objects in a landscape, the German Expressionists allowed their own personalities to shape their work; to see “the hand of the artist” in a work was something to be encouraged, rather than avoided, they believed.

The artists of Die Brucke were interested in extreme psychological states. Munch is perhaps the most obvious example of this (“The Scream”) They were also interested in traditional German folklore and in the tradition of wood block printmaking, which was developed centuries earlier by the German artist Durer.

The influence of medieval art is seen in the anti illusionism and heavy use of outlines in Expressionist art. The influence of Oceanic and African masks and totems is also seen in the work of the German Expressionists.

Edvard Munch ( Norwegian)

Edvard Munch The Scream 1893

Munch - The Scream Before the Expressionist period artists showed people in anguish, just as they would appear to a rational, objective viewer. With Munch and the other Expressionists, this changed. They showed the world as viewed through the eyes of people in anguish. When seen that way, the colors and shapes of familiar objects change. Trees, hills, houses, and people are pulled out of shape and take on new, unexpected colors.

Munch -The Scream [Munch] used curved shapes and colors that are expressive rather than realistic. Everything is distorted to make you feel a certain way…there is no mistaking the fact that the person in this painting is terrified. The body bends and twists as a scream builds and erupts from deep within. It is a scream so piercing that the figure clasps its hands tightly over its ears. The entire scene vibrates with the intensity of this scream – it echoes across the landscape like ripples across still water (Mittler. Art in Focus. 538).

Edvard Munch – Vampire -1893

Edvard Munch – Sick Child

The childhood of Edvard Munch was marked by tragedy. His mother died when he was five, and one of his sisters died when he was fourteen … The fear, suffering and death of loved ones that he experienced in his own life became the subject matter for his art (Mittler. Art in Focus. 537).

How much his own suffering contributed to his work can be seen in a picture entitled The Sick Child. He returned to this subject several times in paintings and prints and was no doubt inspired by the death of his older sister. In the painting, Munch captures the pale complexion, colorless lips, and hopeless stare of a child weakened and finally conquered by illness. Beyond caring, she looks past her grieving mother to a certain, tragic future. (Mittler. Art in Focus. 537)

Pictures like this shocked viewers when the paintings were first seen. Munch’s figures seemed crude and grotesque when compared to the colorful and light hearted visions of the Impressionists, who were enjoying great popularity at the time. Munch’s works, however, were in keeping with the period in which he lived, a period when writers and artists were turning their attention inward. Like Munch, they were interested in exploring feelings and emotions rather than describing outward appearances. (Mittler. Art in Focus. 537)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Kirchner painted a series of street scenes in Berlin, the capital of Germany, and the most populous city in Europe before the First World War. It was a city brimming with culture; there were 6 opera companies in the city and over 30 theatres. Dance halls and eating establishments offered non stop entertainment for the bourgeoisie, who loved to dress up and join the parades of fashionable people on the streets.

There was a seedy down side to this cultural glitter, of course. Prostitution was rife, and traditional values and customs were being lost in the mad rush to acquire material goods and seek pleasure. The people in Kirchner’s street scenes look anonymous. They are all feathers and finery and have lost their individual humanity. They seem to wear haughty masks.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Street Scene, Berlin 1913

Kirchner News 1914

Kirchner » Women in Blue » 1913

The slashing diagonals and angular, attenuated shapes of these figures are characteristic of Kirchner’s style.

Kirchner Potsdammer Platz 1914

Kathe Kollwitz

One of the themes to which Kollwitz returned throughout her career was death. Her husband was a physician in one of the poorest sections of Berlin who offered his services for any price his clientele could afford to pay in cash or goods. Although Kollwitz hated war, one of her sons was drafted and killed during the first World War After the First World War, she constructed a sculpture group showing a number of mothers in a circle around their children with their arms linked to enclose them and subsequently made a woodcut on the same theme, "Seed corn must not be destroyed." Although in many of her prints her characters struggle mightily against death, in her last series of prints, death comes almost as a long-awaited friend, bringing relief from a life whose pain has grown unbearable.

Kathe Kollwitz

Poverty 1893

Kollwitz Death

Kollwitz

Kollwitz Woman with her dead child

Kollwitz Seed for the planting shall not be ground up

Kollwitz Woman Greeting Death 1934

This work shows a woman – frail, weak, and defeated – extending her hand to Death. Having exhausted her determination and her strength in a desperate struggle for survival, she now acknowledges defeat and quietly surrenders herself and her children to the inevitable. Too weak even to show fear, she reaches out with one hand while gently pushing her children forward with the other. One child, terrified, turns away, but the other stares directly at Death. Perhaps he is too young to recognize the stranger who takes his mother’s hand and will soon reach out for his. (Mittler. Art in Focus. 537)

Paula Modersohn Becker

Paula Modersohn Becker

At the age of 22, Modersohn Becker encountered the artistic community of Worpswede. In this "village", artists had retreated to protest against the domination of the art academy and life in the big city. At Worpswede, Paula took painting lessons from the asrtist Mackensen. The main subjects were the life of the farmers and the northern German landscape. She also fell in love during this period, and in 1901 she married a fellow Worpswede painter, Otto Modersohn. (Wikipedia)

Between 1900 and 1907, Paula made several extended trips to Paris. During one of her residencies in Paris, she took courses at theEcole des Beaux Arts. She visited contemporary exhibitions often, and was particularly intrigued with the work of Paul Cezanne. Other post impressionists were especially influential, including Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. (Wikipedia

On her last trip to Paris in 1906, she produced a body of paintings from that gave her considerable satisfaction. During this period of painting, she produced her initial nude self portraits (something no woman artist had done before) and portraits of friends such as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Some critics consider this period of her art production to be the strongest and most compelling.

In 1907, Modersohn-Becker returned to her husband in Worpswede. Their relationship, which had been particularly strained in 1906, had taken a turn towards improvement. Paula's long-lived wish to conceive and bear a child was fulfilled. Her daughter Mathilde (Tillie) was born on November 2, Paula and Otto were joyous.

Modersohn Becker was a highly expressive painter, whose work is characterized by rounded forms and decorative nature motifs.

Paula Modersohn Becker Mother and Child

Mother and Child was painted during her pregnancy, when she anticipated motherhood with excitement. 19 days after giving birth she died of an embolism at age 31.

Paula Modersohn Becker – Self Portrait

Paula Modersohn Becker The Old Peasant Woman 1905

Die Blaue Reiter A second group of German artists formed a group known as Die Blaue Reiter, or The Blue Rider. The name came from a painting by one of the artists in the group: Wassily Kandinsky. These artists were centered in the southern German city of Munich.

The Blue Rider School Some of the Artists associated with the Blue Rider School were: Wassily Kandinsky 1866 – 1944 Paul Klee 1879 – 1940 Franz Marc1880 – 1916

Wassily Kandinsky Abstract Expressionism

Kandinsky is thought to be the first artist to cross the line into pure abstraction. The Post Impressionists had begun the movement away from realism. The Fauves took liberties with colour and abandoned the effort to portray space in three dimensions. The German Expressionists were more interested in exploring psychological inner worlds than in faithfully depicting the natural world. Now Kandinsky completely abandoned the necessity of using subject matter that referenced the natural world.

Kandinsky – Transverse Line

Kandinsky – Composition VI

Kandinsky Booom

Franz Marc

Franz Marc - Horses

Franz Marc painted animals to express his spiritual longing for a return to a more primitive, instinctive, natural mode of living. The science of psychology was new at the time and the work of Freud and Jung (Germans) had led to a new awareness of man as an animal. Marc believed that human consciousness alienated mankind from the rest of the animal world, leaving humans strangers in the universe.

Franz Marc used colour in a symbolic way. He developed his own colour theory and symbolism, which equated the three primary colours with qualities and emotions. In its simplest terms, Marc associated blue with masculinity, and red and yellow with femininity since they are more earthy colours, but he also associated yellow with joy and happiness. Blue was viewed by Marc throughout his career to be the most deeply spiritual of the three colours.

Franz Marc – The Wolves. 1913

Wolves Marc’s Wolves expresses his dismay about the horrors of the Balkan War which would shortly lead to the outbreak of World War I. The wolves are symbolic of the human violence that was unfolding. The purple clouds look like explosions.

Franz Marc Tiger Franz Marc Tiger Note the medieval influence in this painting. The jewel tones are broken up with heavy black outlines, as in the stained glass windows of gothic cathedrals.

Franz Marc Blue Horses Horses were always considered by Marc to be that was most » beautiful in the » natural world. Franz Marc – Blue Horses Horses were always considered, by Marc, to be representative of all that was most beautiful in the natural world.

In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War ( ) Marc volunteered for military service, and in 1916 was killed in action, at the age of 36.

Franz Marc – The Fate of the Animals

Max Beckmann Self Portrait

Max Beckmann – Family Picture

Max Beckmann - Departure

Max Pechstein (wood cut) Self Portrait

Pechstein - Head

Pechstein – Ballet Dancers

Egon Schiele

The Artist’s Wife

Egon Schiele – The Family

This painting is unfinished. Schiele's wife died in the world-wide Spanish flu epidemic in 1918; she was six months pregnant with their first child. Schiele died three days later of the same cause. He was twenty-eight.

Egon Schiele Girls