- Born:
- May 6, 1880, Aschaffenberg, Bavaria, Ger.
- Died:
- June 15, 1938, near Davos, Switz. (aged 58)
- Notable Works:
- “Street, Berlin”
- Movement / Style:
- Expressionism
- Die Brücke
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
-
Who was Ernst Ludwig Kirchner?
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) was a German painter and printmaker and a leader of Die Brücke ("The Bridge"), a group of Expressionist artists.
Kirchner's mature style was highly personal, known for its psychological tension and eroticism. The graphic art of late German Gothic artists, particularly Albrecht Dürer, the Jugendstil movement, and Edvard Munch influenced Kirchner, leading him to simplify forms and brighten colors. African and Polynesian art further aided this development.
For Kirchner, art was a potent translation of inner conflict into visual terms, citing Vincent van Gogh and Munch as artistic touchstones. Much of his work showed his preoccupation with malevolence and eroticism. After the Nazis declared his work "degenerate" in 1937, he committed suicide.
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What kind of art is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner known for?
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a German painter and printmaker, is known as one of the leaders of the Expressionist group Die Brücke ("The Bridge"). For Kirchner, art was a powerful translation of inner conflict into visual terms, citing Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch as artistic touchstones.
Kirchner's mature style was highly personal and notable for its psychological tension and eroticism. Much of his work exhibits his preoccupation with malevolence and eroticism. After experiencing mental and physical breakdown in 1915, Kirchner moved to Switzerland. His later landscapes are often allegorical, showing human beings unencumbered by civilization and at peace with nature.
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What was Die Brücke and how was Kirchner involved?
Die Brücke ("The Bridge") was a German Expressionist group of painters and printmakers that existed from 1905 to 1913. Founded in Dresden by architectural students Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the group aimed to defy traditional painting styles and create authentic art.
Kirchner was one of the leaders and founders of Die Brücke. He wrote their first manifesto in 1905. His mature style was highly personal and notable for its psychological tension and eroticism.
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What are some characteristics of Kirchner's artwork?
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a leader in the Expressionist group Die Brücke, translated inner conflict into visual terms. His mature style is highly personal, marked by psychological tension and eroticism.
Kirchner's art features:
* Simplified forms and brightened colors influenced by Jugendstil and Edvard Munch.
* Jagged outlines and wary expressions create a threatening mood.
* A preoccupation with malevolence and eroticism is evident in many works.
* Figures with savage, dark outlines and masklike faces.
* Bold, flat areas of color and heavy outlines, developed through his work with woodcuts.
* Late landscapes often allegorical, showing human beings unencumbered by civilization and at peace with nature.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did World War I affect Kirchner and his art?
World War I had a profound impact on Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. After suffering a mental and physical breakdown in 1915, Kirchner relocated to Switzerland. His art shifted, and his later landscapes often depicted people at peace with nature, untouched by civilization, which can be seen as an allegorical reflection on the trauma of war. The rise of the Nazis and their condemnation of his work as "degenerate" led to renewed depression and ultimately contributed to his suicide in 1938.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (born May 6, 1880, Aschaffenberg, Bavaria, Ger.—died June 15, 1938, near Davos, Switz.) was a German painter and printmaker who was one of the leaders of a group of Expressionist artists known as Die Brücke (“The Bridge”). His mature style was highly personal and notable for its psychological tension and eroticism.
In 1898 Kirchner was impressed by the graphic art of the German late Gothic artists, especially Albrecht Dürer, whose influence on Kirchner was lifelong. But exposure to the Jugendstil movement and the dynamic art of the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch led Kirchner to simplify his forms and brighten his colours—a development aided by his discovery in 1904 of African and Polynesian art.
Between 1901 and 1905, Kirchner studied architecture intermittently in Dresden, Germany. However, he continued to be obsessed with painting, and in 1905 he founded Die Brücke with Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Other artists, including Emil Nolde, subsequently joined the group. For Kirchner, art was an immediate, powerful translation of inner conflict into visual terms. He cited the emotive work of Vincent van Gogh and Munch as artistic touchstones.
Kirchner’s use of colour for visual impact may be seen in Girl under Japanese Umbrella (1906) and Artist and His Model (1907), works that show a superficial affinity with the paintings of Henri Matisse and the Fauves in France. But the jagged outlines of Kirchner’s forms and the wary expressions of the faces create a threatening mood that is absent in Fauvist works.
Much of Kirchner’s work exhibits his preoccupation with malevolence and eroticism. In Street, Berlin (1907), the curvilinear rhythms of fashionable women on promenade accentuate the primitive sensuousness hidden beneath the panoply of fashion and propriety—a sensuousness rendered ominous by the savage, dark outlines of their figures and their masklike faces. His second version of Street, Berlin (1913) reinforces his sardonic view of Berlin’s jaded society. Kirchner’s studies of the nude, such as Bathers at Moritzburg (1908), are often explicitly erotic, and in his lithograph Head of a Man with a Nude (1908), his fantasy of sexual aggression reaches nightmarish intensity.
In 1911 the members of Die Brücke moved to Berlin, where Kirchner produced masterful woodcuts for Der Sturm, Germany’s leading avant-garde periodical before World War I. His illustrations for Adelbert von Chamisso’s novel Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (1915; “Peter Schlemihl’s Wonderful Story”) and for the poem Umbra Vitae (1924) by the Expressionist poet Georg Heym are considered to be among the finest engravings of the 20th century.
After a mental and physical breakdown in 1915, Kirchner moved to Switzerland. His late landscapes are often allegorical, showing human beings unencumbered by civilization and at peace with nature. Kirchner endured long periods of depression, and after the Nazis declared his work “degenerate” in 1937, he committed suicide.
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